Installing Model 100 Keycaps

My Model 100 & Colmak keycaps turned up today, what a beautiful looking keyboard!

But, how exactly do I install the Colmak keycaps? There doesn’t appear to be enough spacing between any of the existing keycaps to get the supplied keycap puller around them. I feel like I’m missing something basic. Do i have to take the enclosure off?

Also, a suggestion for Chrysalis would be to add a colmak-dh preset, to match the model 100 colmak keycap set.

Thanks!
Simon

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While my alternate keycaps arrived today, I’m still waiting on my Model 100. So I don’t know how different the spacing is…but with the Model 01, for some keys, you could get in there with the puller. Usually the ones on an edge are a bit easier. I recall it took some patience and finessing. (But I was also being super careful. I think some other people just went in there with a small screwdriver and popped them off :scream_cat:) Once you get one or two off, the neighboring keys become easier. Then it starts to domino, each subsequent key becoming easier. You will want to go with a “take all of and then replace all” strategy rather than a “take one off, replace it, take the next one off…” strategy.

But there shouldn’t be any reason to take anything apart.

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thanks, i got this done, i found starting with the ones next to the esc & butterfly keys the easiest place to start.

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got the caps, but not yet the board…
thanks for the discussion!

Concur with @superfell - it’s easiest to start with keys adjacent to “esc” and the butterfly keys. Also, don’t be shy about using only one “leg” of the cap puller tool to gently remove that first keycap.

Even though it’s messing with my muscle memory, I’m loving this keyboard!!!

I totally agree. The supplied puller does not slide past the keys (it will scratch it), so it is a bit frustrating. My kinesis puller (which I no longer have) was very easy and convenient to use, even at the start. I guess I’ll rig something to get started, but the key puller tool is a let down compared to the overall very high quality of the 100 (and 01s) I’ve had.

I guess one thought is to take a duplicate key e.g. butterfly and just scrape past the currently installed one to get started…

EDIT: I ended up grinding down the flange on each side of the tool - down to almost nothing - and it slid past the key and was workable.

What I had thought was it the keycap puller was actually the keyswitch puller. I ended up throwing an old keycap puller from another keyboard into my travel case. Really made it easier: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com//shop/images/products/large_1411_20150901_112556.jpg

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There is no keycap puller supplied with the M100 (at least not mine) indeed, only the keyswitch puller…

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I believe this is correct: the keyboardio model 100 campaign never promised keycap pullers, only switch pullers.

I use one that I got from a switch maintenance station, so I did not understand this thread when I saw it for the first time… :slight_smile:

I found that is the easiest to pull the keycaps with bare fingers. You still have to start at easy to reach keys, but there is no risk of scratches on the keycaps then.

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Yes, fingers is the way. Use the trays that come with keys to put them away immediately.

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beautiful product;
the puller works easily if I lay it almost parallel to the keyboard – open end of the puller pointing to the top, w/ one prong on each side, of the keycap – and swing the puller’s prong-bars down from the top of the keycap to the middle, raising the puller more upright/perpendicular as i go (almost like scooping ice cream)…