Building My First Custom Mechanical Keyboard

I spent three weekends and about $300 building a mechanical keyboard. My wife thought I was having a midlife crisis. My daughter just wanted to know if she could pick the colors. What I got was a keyboard that sounds like a popcorn machine and a new appreciation for how much I did not know about... foam. The Kit {alt="Keychron Q3 Barebone Kit"} I started with the Keychron Q3 {rel="external" target="_blank"} barebone kit. Aluminum body, QMK firmware support, hot-swap PCB. It seemed like a safe entry point into custom keyboards. Not too expensive, not too cheap, plenty of documentation online for when I inevitably messed something up. The aluminum body is heavy. Like, surprisingly heavy. I didn't expect to be doing bicep curls with my keyboard but here we are. Choosing Switches (The $15 Mistake That Saved Me $100) {alt="Ajazz AS Yellow 101 Tactile"} I almost bought Cherry MX Browns because that is what everyone recommends to beginners. Then I found a $15 switch tester with 12 different s