I messed up in a million ways, but I managed not to screw it up too badly to be happy with it. It used 35-year-old switches and keycaps. Case is dowel joints, an up-jumped rustic picture frame. This was also my first keyboard build with QMK firmware and then the VIAL config tool. Some lessons:
ALPS stabilizers are a pain.
Don't let sleepy English majors design PCBs after midnight. Seriously, the thing barely works for this layout, but should be slightly better for Cherry MX switches.
One is strangely zen when one accidentally deletes all the PCB design files for such a flawed PCB. Still have the fabrication Gerber, but with half a dozen errors that's very near to useless.
Don't be a coward with your woodworking. There is a bigger gap between case and keys than I'd like.
On the other hand, don't be stupid. The pecan inlay on the back may be there to cover up where I sliced right into the dowels joining the frame together.
Love when wood and tech meet. There's a 10" rack craze going on right now, and I was debating on joining the fold as I've switched from my 1-server mentality to a cluster of micro-PCs. Instead I'm building a custom rack/enclosure out of a black alluminum extrusion frame and wood panel inlays. Not much woodworking to it, but it will match some of my other projects.