kb45p - 45% Alps keyboard

This one is from 2016. Think I found it whilst browsing deskthority and the guy was selling PCBs for $30 or something cheap, so of course I bought it. I liked the idea of trying out alps switches, vs. the usual cherry mx ones I had been using. Alps were common on older Apple keyboards, and I’d found an ebay listing for a couple of Apple Extended Keyboards (AEK). One of which I was going to try and use as is and the other I dismantled to get the alps switches out.

A PCB - how it always starts

This ended up being a fairly cheap keyboard, as I had switches and caps from the AEK, the PCB from the forum and I just needed the plates. I did get some plastic ones from somewhere, maybe the seller, or someone else on the forums (I don’t remember) but I wanted a metal plate. I found a company in Greece called Lasergist, who would make them and ship to the US for $50! I even got an Apple logo etched on it.

I really liked the build, it was solid, looked good - thanks to the Apple keycaps - and tiny! Using it, however, was always going to be a problem. It was a lot better than some small keyboards I had. At least the keys were staggered and all the letters are there, but getting used to or remembering the function keys and layers is difficult when I rarely use it. Like all the rest, I sold it in the end.