deskthority

I made my first keyboard recently, using a teensy 2.0 and some cherry MX switches in a small prototyping box I purchased on Amazon, but I had a hell of a time getting the switch ports cut out to the correct size and shape - frankly I half-assed it. I ended up using epoxy to make sure the switches wouldn't come out when I pulled the caps off.

I want to go for a larger project now, but I want to do it properly, without using a precut plate - I want a non-uniform layout (I want to make a custom input for space and flight games) so I want to cut the plate myself.

I am hoping someone can give me advice on cutting these by hand. I don't have a lot in the way of tools but I do have a Dremel if someone thinks that could work, I'm just not sure what attachments would work best, and I realize that I may be barking up the wrong g tree with the Dremel.

Thanks in advance for any help, and I apologize if this has been discussed - I did some searching but didn't find anything that seemed to match.

what material?

well, i think you dint find anything on that topic, cos if you are going to make only a couple of plates its not worth the fuzz. There a lot of internet places that would cut plates in plastics or metal, and the metal ones they would even make bends for you and press fit threading hardware and so on.

But if you are like me and like tools anyways, then you have some routes to go.

the cheap one, you would need a fret saw and some good files, with the fret saw you undercut the square hole in your plate, with a file you get close to the line of the final cut, it´s important to get a file as close as possible to the final dimension in order to get good results, with smaller files its more dificult to make straight lines.
for round holes (like for arcade buttons ) you have good hss hole saw on aliexpress, for 3 or 4 euros i think, with that i cutted 2mm steel with no proble and they are still cutting, so not bad for the price.

and the not so cheap rout, is you look for a way to make your own press (this i really would like to make for myself), with one of these and changing tooling you could cut, bend, punch your holes and embed threading hardware and standoffs.

i hope it helps

With Swill's plate builder (http://builder.swillkb.com/) you can get your plate drawn from the raw data of the Keyboard Layout Editor (http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/), just in case you didn't know this and aren't too proficient in CAD.
From Swill's plate builder you can even send your plate file drectly to Lasergist to get it cut. I don't have personal experience with that, though.

Get it cut for you if you don't already have the tools. you could also checkout if there are any maker spaces around you.

but if you are really pressed to do it yourself with minimum budget:

carefully layout the switch plate, mark, center punch, use something like a step drill to drill out the bulk of waste, and then file to your marks.
If you use a flat file (presuming still cherry mx) that is bit undersized for the final width you can make life a bit easier by making one of the edges of the file "safe" but grinding off the teeth. eg :