Cherry Profile Interference with Southfacing Switches

Cherry Profile Interference with Southfacing Switches

I’ve recently come across a Geekark BOW R2 set and was slightly disappointed with how inconsistent some of the cap stems are expecting they should be a step up from cheaper brands. I’m aware that the R2 molds (including the R1 accent kit with R2 molds) suffer from this problem, particularly the modifiers and longer keys. I have the accent kits, and they do indeed look crooked if you look at them from the top down.

I bought an R1 BOW set aftermarket just to compare. I intend to keep the better one after I do a comparison soon. But I do like how whiter R2 is compared to R1 at the moment. I’ll share any findings I’ll find at the thread.

It seems that there aren’t much discussions with cherry sets having interference for south-facing switches so this could be a start. While I could do away with aesthetically crooked keycaps, my R2 set sounds really inconsistent to the point where I’d prefer another cheaper but more even sounding set.

This video (start at 3:30) briefly explains interference between different sets on the Ikki68, particularly Geekark BOW across three different switches. I found this to be true also with my R2 and two JWK linears – oddly enough, there wasn’t much interference for my pro milky yellows, however.

Another set that I was reading about were ePBT ABS WoB sets. According to the top comment here, the set allegedly has shorter stems causing interference. I have no way to verify this at the moment and would like to ask anyone if this is indeed true.

In any case however, aside from using long-pole-stemmed switches, are there any fixes readily availble for these inconsistencies? I’ve recently started putting tape on the top of the switch stem for tightness and added height and so far it’s been working fairly okay. I’m open to other suggestions as I still want to keep my R2 for the mean time. But moving forward, this is something I’d heavily consider when looking at new sets.

Thanks.

I can confirm the row 3 interference for ePBT ABS sets, though I don’t know if this is a result of stem length. Also the ePBT dyesub PBT standard homing keys which are barred and scooped, interfere with switches regardless of their orientation – some sets may have separate molds for each, but I don’t know for sure.

Solutions that work for north facing switch interference could help here to, namely the interference washers if you can find them in your region.

I know two of these stacked removed the ePBT ABS interference.

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I had a similar issue with a keycap set by KPRepublic too, one of their grey kits (the one that has many language versions), the keycaps stems are shorter resulting with the keycaps hitting the switch top housing, had to use washers I’ve 3D printed to prevent this interference on all rows except the top one.
Even using switches with protruding stems (U4T) didn’t fully prevent this and needed washers on R3.

Seems like it’s a hit or miss with Cherry profile keycaps that aren’t GMK, as if their keycap molds vary in dimensions or standards, I have another keycap set by another vendor named Yong qiu, which have their own issues but the dimensions seem up to the standard.

Upon searching I’ve seen this issue brought up with ePBT sets too, but I can’t say myself as I don’t own sets by them.

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