Why clip the extra two pins of a five pin. Wouldn’t leaving them on make for more stability?
Some PCBs don’t have the holes for the extra two pins. Also switches are easier to install without those extra pins.
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To add to this, the posts can vary a little bit from switch manufacturer to switch manufacturer, and the hole size can vary a bit PCB vendor to PCB vendor, so the posts can be very tight in some boards
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Always leave them on when you can. If you are working with a PCB without support for them, then cut.
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Could you recommend a hotswap PCB with tight holes?
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I hardly have any hotswap ones, I’m the wrong one to ask. I think the one that came with the leaf60 I had a while ago was pretty tight iirc. I prefer soldered in general, I got several WT60-Ds a while ago and have been using those for everything.
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Did not know that, would need to clip in that case.
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imo best is to test a few before in the PCB before deciding whether or not to clip. Keeping the posts will make it easier to make them straight when putting together
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Not sure about the PCB holes, but I can tell you the NK65’s plate is pretty grippy.
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I just put some franken-switches with Gat Milky housings in my Drop Preonic and they were very hard to get in, but it was possible. I came to the conclusion that it was because of the 5-pin base layout. YMMV!
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Actually IME that is normal with Gaterons. They seem to have the thickest PCB fixing pins of all MX clones right now. If you ever swap in different switches you’ll notice the fixing holes barely holding them in after Gaterons.
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That would not surprise me one bit given how hard I pressed to get them in 
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Having a bit of resistance of those pins can be very usefull when adding a foam layer between plate and PCB. The combined friction force of all switch pins keeps the foam compressed without using your fingers, making the soldering process easy.
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Yes agree. Considering I’m about to build a Tokyo60 with foam that has been at the top of my mind.
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Picked up a new DZ60RGB v2 yesterday and alphas U, I, O, and P’s right leg holes were way too tight. Although I hadn’t had any issues up to this point, I cycled through all 63 switches thinking maybe the bottom housings themselves had the imperfection. After closer inspection, the material they use to paint the PCB black looks to have incorrectly pooled down those holes and I’m hesitate to try widening them with any force, thinking I might scrap or damage something I shouldn’t. In the end, I just clipped the effected switch legs and continued the build. That was a first. Lesson learned.
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