I made a mechanical keyboard with 3D-printed switches (2020)

Indeed. Moreover the smoothness, consistency and tolerance of the switches is a fundamental part of the hobby nowadays.

But pretty cool stuff in the line “because we can”.

> but aren't keyboard switches essentially the last product one would want to 3d print en masse?

Yes. Or at least use resin. To me it's the difference between craft and engineering; nobody would consider hand-crafting (or printing) switches when they can source high quality parts for cents.

3d printed cases aren't that special. There are a lot of hobbyist making those.

That "Void" switch design is so elegant. Being able fine-tune the activation force and even change from linear to tactile with just a different magnet arrangement is so cool.

To be fair usually the goal of a do-it-yourself is to learn or achieve something you personally hadn’t before.

I think they achieved a lot and I’m glad they maintained a positive outlook while also being honest with their audience.

I think he's overselling it. I've used some truly heinous keyboards in my life and I'm sure this is better than at least some of them. I had a roll-up keyboard where every time you hit the key you had to hit it dead center or the top of the key would tilt away and cause your finger to smack the adjacent key. I had another keyboard that was just projected on a tabletop with a laser and would correctly read keypresses maybe 95% of the time. Just good enough to be infuriating without being useful. I've used chicklet keyboards on 80s computers. Membrane keyboards where there is only a bubble in the plastic sheet to press down on. There is no way this is the worst keyboard ever.

Maybe his goal was to make a bad keyboard...

Might be a motivation to make a fully analog keyboard as well :)

(for example in a game moving slowly->full speed, controlling wheels, etc)

Depends on the specific plastic you choose, some are more sensitive to UV than others and you can choose the one with the appropriate properties for your usecase. That said, I don’t imagine the switches them selves have much UV exposure as they’re under the keycaps.