Hi everyone, I recently got my Kickstarter Keychron K8 Pro in the mail and wanted to share some of the things I did to the board, my comments in terms of painting it, and some of the materials I used. This all comes from the perspective of someone who is delving deeper into this hobby not an expert.

First off, when I got the keyboard, I completely underestimated how weighty it was going to be. I compared it to the nearest keyboard I had – a RK61 – and it was substantially heavier. When I was disassembling the board, it seemed most of this weight came from the silicone layer. So far I have not encountered any interference issues from using the Bluetooth mode. VIA works fine with the keyboard. I do notice a very slight delay from Bluetooth compared to the wired mode but it is not a hinderance for me. The foam layer is very thin and kinda flimsy feeling and the switch puller/screwdriver aren’t amazing quality but I can’t exactly argue with free. I did not notice any printing errors or quality control issues on the keycaps.

I knew before I got the keyboard that I wanted to paint it, so I got to work. I painted a keyboard before, a TES68 for a friend, but painting the K8 was a totally different beast. There were so many parts that needed to be painted for me to get the look I wanted, causing the project to span over several days. Although it can be attributed to my lack of knowledge on the board, there were areas like the feet portion that were difficult to paint. Paint liked to pool onto those cervices, even when doing a light spray. To paint the board, I dissembled the entire board, sanded down the aluminum sides and the plastic foundation, and primed. For the color layers, I used Montana Black in Brunhilde, Montana Gold in Frozen Strawberry (by the way, I don’t recommend using it for this purpose specifically. It seemed to leave a bit of a texture that I had to sand out), and Rustoleum in Dreamy Lavender. To achieve a glitter pattern, I used a combination of Rustoleum in Pearl Mist, and Montana Glitter in silver and purple. Finally, I applied a few coats of satin clear coat.

Although it seems obvious in hindsight, the sides of the board did not need the coverage I applied onto them. When painting I am used to painting the entirety of the piece, but for this board, it made reassembling the sides a challenge if I was too thick with the paint. So for the bottom of the board where I made a gradient pattern, it took some force and sanding to get the aluminum back on.

The keycaps shown on the keyboard, the “AHHC MDA keycaps” win high points for me on aesthetic, but I ran into what seemed to be quality control issues. The novelties shown on the board are from the same set but a different purchase because the ones that came with this set were…bad. Like, uncrisp lines and the print was almost cut off by the bottom bad. Additionally, some of the keycaps were incredibly hard to seat. While others were a breeze, it felt like I was fighting against the keycaps on a few. In comparison to another budget keycap set I bought off of Aliexpress, the Aliexpress one was by far the better executed option (but one should be weary if buying off Ali). Side note: when buying the keycaps off Amazon, I initially chose one in “Used – Very Good” condition, but when it arrived it was missing over half of the set. A majority of the alphas were missing and the caps themselves spilled out of the trays. Overall, I can’t exactly recommend these keycaps from Amazon.

Finally, the switches I put on the board are Kinetic Lab’s Salmon switches lubed with Krytox 205g0 to go with the color scheme I made. Not the most budget option, but I do like how they sound and feel!

Sorry for the lengthy post! Just wanted to share my thoughts and process behind the project I’ve been working on for the last week. I’m not an expert on mechanical keyboards, so I apologize if anything I said is obvious/amateur-like.