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Cutout size test
After my first attempt with acrylic plate failed, I decided to prepare a little trial with different cutout sizes.
Keyswitches were designed to snap into place on a 1.5 mm plate like a PCB. They can’t snap into a 3 mm thick acrylic plate, but you cannot go thinner because the acrylic would be too flexible and prone to break. Without snapping in, however, the tension of the wires and solder joints may push the switches out of their place. One solution would be hot glue, but if you want to keep the board hot-swappable, glue is not an option.
Another method worth trying are smaller cutouts.
Originally I went with 14x14 mm squares - simply borrowed from an open source plate design, probably Corne.
But now that I check the switch dimensions with a caliper, it turns out they differ and are smaller than 14 mm.
I don’t have many switch types, all I have at the moment are a handful of Kailh Box Jades and Gateron blacks.
My measurements:
Gateron Black - snaps front and back
Width: 13.88-13.94 mm Height: 13.82-13.85 - fully compressed, but a nice fit is around 13.9 mm.
Kailh Box Jade - snaps front and back
Width: 13.88 - no edge/shoulder on the sides in this direction. Height: 13.8 - fully compressed, but no chance to snap in below 14.0-14.06. This one snaps in way more hardly. The sharp edges of a metal plate would damage the switch housing.According to these measurements, the width could be slightly narrower (13.88-13.9), but the height cannot be decreased, since Box Jade needs the 14 mm - even slightly wider cutout to snap in the sharp edged metal. I mean, if after the acrylic you go with steel.
I’m going to make an acrylic test plate with different cutouts starting from 13.9
Height steps: 13.9, 13.92, 13.94, 13.96, 13.98, 14 Width steps: 13.9, 13.92, 13.94, 13.96, 13.98, 14
Like a 6x6 switchtester.
I’ve made the test plate SVG in Inkscape.
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