3D printing is quickly evolving into this silver bullet that cures most of my issues with tech in the physical realm. While I’ll admit there are things like cable managers that you are often better off buying injection-molded for pennies, 3D printing is king when you need a niche solution. It has saved me time and effort sifting through Amazon for a phone holder I could use for webcam duty, and for creating rests that fit my wrists instead of generic curvy shapes.

Printing injects control into your life that feels almost illicit, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the mechanical keyboard hobby. It is besieged by limited runs and excruciatingly specific user preferences. For years, I was at the mercy of Group Buys that took two years to ship or aftermarket prices for simple parts that would make a scalper blush. Now, the factory is my tabletop, and I can create whatever specific, bizarre typing interface resides in my head, in just a few hours. Over the last five years, this freedom saved me time and thousands of dollars in collective savings. Here are a few noteworthy examples of how.

Printing the un-buyable

Bespoke production without the associated costs

So long as one can get a PCB designed and manufactured, there are theoretical limitations to building a keyboard that can last. You can print literally all the parts, like the case, switch plate, and gaskets. A common misconception is that printed cases are flimsy, plastic toys. Well, I've used a soldering iron to heat-press brass threaded inserts into the plastic, and I can screw parts of the build together with industrial-grade reliability. This method prevents the case from warping over time and allows you to disassemble the board for maintenance without stripping the threads cut into plastic. I designed such a case for the small TG4X keyboard, and it feels as solid as anything I've bought off a shelf, complete with a glass bottom to view the PCB while adding some heft.

But what if you don't have the skills to design a PCB? Folks like Joe Scotto on YouTube are a testament that you don't even need a circuit board to make something incredible. Sure, the complexity of hand-wiring a board — manually soldering a matrix of wires to every single switch pin — is significantly greater than soldering switches to a pre-made PCB. But the trade-off is absolute freedom. You can build a keyboard from the ground up, with any layout imaginable, for the cost of filament, electrical wire, and patient soldering.

Squishy and contoured as you like it

Comfortable typing isn't a luxury

You could say the reliability and comfort of a mechanical keyboard spoiled me, but dive deeper, and you'll find gasket-mounted keyboards itching that itch for people who want even more comfort. Like their vibration-damping counterparts, mechanical keyboard gaskets soften the thud when you press a key all the way to the bottom. However, I couldn't resort to the classic burger mount method on a plateless build since it relies on the plate and PCB keeping the o-ring (gasket) in place around the key switches. I also worry that it puts undue stress on the keyboard case, which isn't ideal given that it's made of injection-molded or 3D-printed plastic.

The 3D printed solution designed by EagleVee on GitHub is a versatile bumper I can print in TPU filament (thermoplastic polyurethane) of the squishiness I desire. It slips onto the edge of the PCB and offers the same soft typing experience when paired with a purpose-built case or one modified for it. However, you don't need the switch plate for it, and the gaskets are easily replaceable once worn out. In principle, it shares a lot with the Tadpole mount and uses similar materials too, with the key difference being ease of access due to the tech used. Importantly, a burger mount and TPU gaskets for the PCB are similarly priced.

Perhaps the biggest financial win has been in the realm of ergonomic keyboards. 3D-printed cases have single-handedly enabled and cheapened access to sculpted ergonomic keyboards like the Dactyl Manuform and BastardKB Charybdis. These boards feature complex, concave key wells that contour to match your fingers. With typical 6-axis CNC machining, these same boards would have been prohibitively expensive to prototype and produce. These boards boast of ergonomic benefits (albeit unscrutinized and vetted), so you shouldn't experience wrist fatigue using them for prolonged durations once you overcome the hurdle of re-learning how to type on them.

Keycap prototyping and modding have never been easier

Filling in the gaps, literally

Most 3D printers who venture into mechanical keyboards are well aware that FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) used by most desktop printers isn't recommended for printing entire keycap sets. You will likely feel the layer lines no matter the part orientation, and the texture will bother users when touched all day. Nonetheless, I prefer printing a couple of keycaps I'm missing instead of buying extension sets. For instance, my beloved MT3 profile /dev/tty 1800 kit from Drop didn't include odd-size spacebars, specifically the split bars I needed for split keyboards.

Thankfully, the set designer, Matteo Spinelli, had already released the CAD files for the spacebar to work around this restriction. Drop doesn't even sell modifier kits with odd spacebars for this MT3 set, but I managed to print a few bars in sizes I needed, and they work perfectly. I used FDM for cost savings against my own advice, but resin prints offer significantly better surface finish quality.

And from the keycaps comes sound. Sure, PBT plastic lends deeper sound to most keyboards, but beginners like me had a hard time finding silicone o-rings to silence loud linear switches soldered into cheap keyboards. Today, 3D printing has practically uprooted that problem. Instead of buying O-rings from overpriced medical suppliers or profiteering keeb part sellers, I can just print dampeners in TPU and use them instead. Printing allows us to reshape them, too, and proper rectangular dampeners for box-stem switches like Kailh Box Navies are now a reality. I'm essentially manufacturing my own custom acoustic treatment for pennies on the dollar, in full control of the dampener thickness, squishiness, color, quality, and quantity.

Print your type of typing experience

3D printing puts power in your hands formerly limited to expensive industrial equipment. Sure, you can't print with solid aluminum or brass for cheap, but this tech dissolves the boundaries that would limit you in a niche like mechanical keyboards. I'm now making most of my own keyboard mods/parts instead of waiting for a brand to deem it worth incorporating, and that satisfaction alone is worth more than the thousands of dollars I've saved.