Taking a bit of a sidestep from the usual modding subjects, it's good to remember that there's no reason to stick solely to modding your main rig. Your peripherals are a major factor in your PC experience, so why should they be exempt from a bit of rummaging under the hood, eh?

Now, for the record, I've never actually modded a keyboard before. I've meant to many times, but I either switch boards or something breaks before I commit. Turns out this one's an interesting model to pop my Cherry (heh) with. Tesoro got in touch with the view to doing a mod featuring its new Gram XS RGB low-profile mechanical keyboard. The thing is, it's a bit funny, so it presented some interesting challenges.

For a start, this board uses low-profile mechanical switches (Ultra-Slim Mechanical Switch is their actual name) with chiclet-style keycaps, so right away, things like switching out the keycaps aren't quite so simple. Being a low-profile board, it made sense that the mod would try to preserve that too; no point bulking up the thing and losing its USP. Since it's 2018, this board is of course packing a lot of RGB too, so any chosen mods would be best sticking with that mantra.

Planning!

By now you're probably quite accustomed to this segment where we jump into Fusion 360 to have a poke around. We were fortunately supplied with some production CAD files, meaning there was quite a lot to look at. I was considering machining a new housing from scratch for this board, so being able to double check measurements and clearances was pretty handy. That said, sometimes there's just no substitute for ripping the thing open and seeing the guts for yourself.

Peeking inside, it's clear that most of the structure of the keyboard actually comes from the top plate, the base simply being an injection-moulded plastic housing. This was quite interesting, as it meant that the PCB and other bits were all a bit limp and flimsy without it. What I also saw though, was that the LEDs pass through the PCB and so are visible from the underside.