Pull the keycaps straight up with the keycap puller. If your board has a knob, pull the knob cap straight off too.

Grip each switch by the clips at the top and bottom with the switch puller, squeeze, and pull straight up.

Turn the board over and remove the gold screws around the edge of the bottom case with the hex tool.

Turn the board back over and lift the top frame, with the plate and PCB inside it, a little way off the bottom case.

Don't pull it right away yet: on wireless boards a battery cable joins the two halves.

Unplug the red and white battery cable from the PCB by pulling on the plug, not the wires. The battery stays in the bottom case.

Lay the top half face down. The ribbon cable at the back connects the PCB to the small daughterboard with the USB-C port. Ease the plug straight out of its socket.

The thin black antenna wire clips onto the wireless module on the back of the PCB. Lift the round connector straight up with the pry tool. Don't pull on the wire.

With all three cables unplugged, lift the plate and PCB out of the top frame and set the frame aside.

On the back of the PCB, remove the small M2 screws that hold the plate on. The plate then lifts off.

Keep these screws: they fit the standoffs that come with our plates (step 12).

Our plates come with brass standoffs. You don't have to use them: without them, the switches hold the plate to the PCB. Using them screws the plate down for a firmer feel.

The standoffs can go on the PCB or the plate, but fitting them to the PCB makes lining everything up easier:

• Push the threaded end down through the PCB from the switch side, so the brass body sits on top of the PCB.
• Fix it underneath with the nut.

Use the stabilizer cutouts to line each foam up. Each only fits one way, and nothing needs trimming. If you've fitted standoffs, they come up through the holes in the foam.

1. PE foam first: lay it straight onto the PCB. It's the thin sheet with small cutouts.
2. Plate foam on top: lay it over the PE foam. It's the thicker sheet with a square cutout for each switch.

Using only one of them? It goes straight onto the PCB.

Lay the plate on top of the foam, using the stabilizers to check it's the right way round.

• Our plate, with standoffs: screw the plate down onto the standoffs with M2 pan-head screws. The ones you took out in step 9 work, or use the ones supplied with the plate.
• Our plate, without standoffs: just lay it on. The switches hold it in place once they're in.
• Stock plate: line it up and refit the screws from the back of the PCB.

Push each switch straight down until it clicks into the plate.

Q HE: the magnetic switches have no pins, so there's nothing to bend. Just press them in firmly.

Q, Q Pro and Q Max: support each hot-swap socket as you go (below).

Peel the adhesive backing off a gasket strip, line it up along a plate tab, and press it down gently to stick it in place. Repeat for each tab.

Lay the plate and PCB back into the top frame, face down.

Press the round connector straight down onto the module until it clicks.

Push the ribbon cable's plug straight back into its socket until it's fully seated.

Lay any case foam in the bottom case, then plug the battery cable back into the PCB.

Line the top frame up with the bottom case: notches in the bottom case lock it in place. Hold the two halves together, turn the board over and refit the gold screws with the hex tool.

Press the keycaps back on, then the knob cap.