Why the Womier SK75 is the right base for a custom keyboard

A custom keyboard used to mean a group buy, a six-month wait, and a weekend with a soldering iron. Most people who want one now want the result, not the project: a heavy aluminium board that sounds and feels like it cost more than it did, with their own switches and keycaps in it. The Womier SK75 is the board we point those people at, because it arrives with the expensive parts already done and leaves the fun parts open.

What you get before you change anything

• A full CNC aluminium case, 1.86kg. That is heavier than a Keychron Q1 Max (about 1.7kg) and more than twice the weight of a plastic board. Weight is what stops a keyboard walking across the desk and what gives it the low, solid sound.
• Gasket mount with five layers of dampening. Poron plate foam, an IXPE switch pad, a PET acoustic sheet, case foam and an insulation film. This is the recipe the custom scene settled on, fitted at the factory instead of by you on the kitchen table.
• Hot-swap sockets that take 3-pin and 5-pin switches. Any MX-style switch drops in without soldering. The PCB is 1.2mm FR4 with flex cuts, which gives a softer bottom-out than a stiff board.
• Womier POM linear switches, factory lubed. Mint Blizzard or Taro, full POM housing and stem, 42g at the actuation point, 50g at the bottom. Good enough that many owners never swap them.
• Cherry-profile double-shot PBT keycaps. PBT does not go shiny with use and double-shot legends never wear off. Not shine-through, so the RGB reads as underglow between the keys rather than through them.
• Tri-mode and a 4,000mAh battery. USB-C, 2.4GHz dongle and Bluetooth. Womier claims six to seven days of wireless use per charge.
• VIA remapping. Load Womier's JSON into VIA and every key, layer and macro is yours. There is a separate file for the wireless mode.

Why that matters as a base

The parts that are expensive to get right on a custom build are the case, the mounting system and the dampening. A machined aluminium case alone is often R2,000 or more as a bare kit overseas, before a PCB, plate, switches or keycaps. On the SK75 those parts are done and the whole thing is R1,500 in Durban. What is left to personalise is exactly what people enjoy personalising: the switches, the keycaps, the stabilisers and the plate.

Womier sells drop-in FR4 plates for the SK75 in flex-cut and non-flex-cut versions for about $10. That is unusual at this price. It means you can change the feel of the whole board with one part, without a case that was designed around one plate only.

What people change first

• Switches. Tactiles if you type more than you game, heavier linears if you bottom out hard. Seventy switches from Womier's own range cost around R700 overseas; any MX switch works.
• Keycaps. The SK75 is a standard 81-key 75% layout, so mainstream Cherry, OEM and MDA sets fit. Check that a set includes the 1.75u right shift and the 1u modifiers that 75% boards use.
• Stabilisers. Reviews of the SK75 family note that a stabiliser or two can sound rougher than the rest of the board. A few minutes with a brush and some dielectric grease fixes it, which is the first mod most owners do on any board.
• Plate. The Womier FR4 plates above. Flex-cut for a bouncier feel, solid for a firmer one.

The two things to know before you buy

The power switch sits under the Caps Lock keycap. Owners mention it, because it means lifting a keycap to turn the board off, though most people just leave it on and let it sleep. And Womier's software is plainer than Keychron's launcher. VIA does the remapping job well, but there is no published QMK source if you wanted to write your own firmware.

What the alternatives cost in South Africa

Prices were checked in September 2026 and move with the rand. The point of the table is not the exact numbers but the gap: the SK75 is the only fully built aluminium 75% board with wireless and hot-swap that you can buy in South Africa for under R2,000.

A sensible first build

• Week one. Use it stock. The Mint Blizzards are lubed and the foam is in. Learn what you would change before you change it.
• Week two. Add a coiled aviator cable for wired 8kHz sessions and a cleaner desk, and remap in VIA.
• Later. A keycap set that suits the case colour, then switches if you want a different feel, then the plate if you want a different sound.

In the store

Womier SK75 75% Wireless Aluminium Mechanical Keyboard

R1 500Notify me

CNC aluminium, gasket mount, hot-swap, tri-mode, VIA. Black, white or beige.

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In the store

Womier Pro Braided Coiled Aviator USB-C Cable

R199Notify me

The cable most SK75 owners add first.

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