UT47.2 Hand Cannon

This is a keyboard housing I created for the UT47.2, a programmable, hot-swappable 40% board from KeyHive. I was inspired by Qlavier's amazing work on the Keeblade, as well as gun concept designs from video games Destiny and Borderlands. It features a fully-functional trigger.

If you want to make this, I've uploaded the STLs to Thingiverse. This was a one-off project; if things were too tight, I just filed down the print rather than adjusting the CAD. Don't expect any support if you try making it yourself.

The Physical Design

The housing ended up being pretty big - even my CR-10 printer which has a fairly large 300x300 print bed wouldn't be able to handle a single-piece print. I designed from the beginning with this in mind and broke it up into four pieces: handle, front, top, and bottom. The front and handle pieces mount directly over the existing switch plate and bottom plate, and the top and bottom pieces sandwich them together, making it a pretty rigid unit.

Trigger Switch

The trigger also uses a mechanical keyboard switch - a Kaihl Box Jade to be exact - for some loud audible clicks and heavy tactile feedback. I designed the handle to include a "switch plate" where the trigger is located. This hollow opening goes up to where the "hammer" is supposed to be, except instead of a hammer, there's an audio port (female connector). A male-to-male audio cable completes the connection to the top frame which runs down the PCB.

The Box Jade switch has a traditional Cherry MX stem, so I designed a keycap that looks like a trigger to go right over it. To keep the movement from being too wobbly, I made a rail for the keycap to travel along. You can see the rail guide on the handle in the area adjacent to the "switch plate" for the trigger.

Look and Feel

While the 3D modeling was inspired by the Destiny game, the visuals were heavily inspired by Borderlands with its vibrant, saturated colors, high contrast, and heavy outlines. I purchased an airbrush gun specifically for this project. The handle and switch plate were coated with a carbon fiber decal that I got from Amazon. The guns in Borderlands also have very striking brand elements which I love. This was airbrushed on using a simple stencil with Astrid's name (my oldest daughter) made from paper and an exact-o knife. I ended up making a wrist rest with the same branding element - 3d printed and airbrushed on. It includes four little magnets which attach to the bottom of the keyboard. The open space between the keyboard and rest was done on purpose to let the light shine through, as there are 6 underflow LEDs on the PCB.

Here's a video of the trigger in action along with some photos of the gun and stencil.