The idea was born to create a very special tofu without the characteristics of a regular tray mount.
The first step was to think about a setup and PCB which could deliver that. I had the luck to get a contact in the MKD community to get a Plain60 Flex PCB and a half plate remaining from a previous private GB.
The Plain60 Flex PCB has flex cuts, is GH60 compatible but also has cutouts to support a O-Ring rubber band mount as in the unikorn or bakaneko.
The issue is, that a regular tofu case has standoffs and they are in the wrong place. So I searched for a cheap tofu case where it is not too extreme to cut ALL the standoffs.
The search for such a case was not successful so I bought a nearly new e-white case for about 80€ incl. added weight in the battery tray.
The main struggle was to remove the very left and right standoffs and to find a good replacement. As I have no 3D printer by hand, I just searched for something which has 3mm (original standoffs) + 1,2mm (height of the PCB) height. After some searching I found that the end of chopsticks have the perfect height 😉 Also they are very easy to handle with a Dremel and a knife.
Some build process images:
final spec:
- Tofu60 e-white, no standoffs, added weight, filled with polyfill
- Plain60 Flex PCB MKD Edition running VIAL
- O-Ring mounted
- custom standoffs out of chopsticks (have the perfect height)
- FR4 half plate
- Cherry PCB mounted clip-in Stabs with C3 wires, lubed with 205 and BDZ
- GMK Future Funk
- JWK black switches, lubed with krytox gpl205g0 – stems only
The build turned out pretty awesome! I love the clarity of the sound profile which comes from all the parts. It has clacky elements and is a bit higher pitched than my current Polaris build. Also a HUGE win is the flex of the setup. It is like you type on a bouncy cloud 😉
The flex also creates some struggles if you are a heavy typer like I am. Therefore I added more standoffs to get an even typing experience and to prevent to PCB from coming up on the other side from where I type – especially on the edges.
All in all it was a fun build and totally worth it!
Coming from the idea to build a “budget” rubber band board with parts that are available, this project escalated quickly. Alone the GMK FF was not that cheap aftermarket.
I can definitely recommend that build as a great addon for every one who is sick of the stock tofu experience but loves the aesthetics.
endgame worthy? no board is endgame worthy!