The form element of this keyboard just doesn’t look right. What’s missing? Oh, the numpad has been completely removed! We use our numpad practically exclusively (especially when coding) so it’s a little hard to figure out why [Ludw] did this. His only mention of motive is that he wanted the mouse closer to the main part of the keyboard and that he didn’t use the numpad. No matter what the reason, we still think he did an outstanding job of giving new life to the older keyboard.
It started out as a plain old beige Cherry G80-3000 keyboard. After cracking open the case [Ludw] thoroughly traced out the connections between the essential matrix and the PCB which offers the USB connection. This is because the controller is mounted over on the part of the PCB he his about to remove. before making the cuts he desoldered all seventeen switches (these can be reused to fabricate a new keyboard, or add switches to various projects). He then lopped off the depopulated substrate and used point-to-point soldering to reconnect the controller. A bit of case alteration removed the extra space while also reusing the nicely molded edges. A clean and tidy paint job finishes the hack.
[via Reddit]