A minor issue arose. Spring weight for the space bar is now tad heavy because its weight took into account sluggishness from the stab lube now gone, making upstroke too loud.
I’ll have to either desolder the switch to reduce spring weight or put some sticky lube on the sides of stab to slow them down.
Well that’s pretty damn effective if you had a heavier spring in your spacebar switch to overcome the usual lubes & now it’s to heavy with Christo. I’ve been using 3204 & GPL204 (grade 2 I believe) for my stabs for awhile now. While they are both super effective for smoothness & killing rattle they do add a bit of sluggishness on the stabilized keys.
I got a jar of MCG129 & should be doing some testing later today (couldnt get to it last night), I might try it with a spare stabilizer also while I’m at it. Although I think you’re right that the MCG129 won’t be much different than the 3204 or GPL204. Gotta get some lighter Christo lube soon.
Actually, I recommended 111 and 112 over 129 just because I found 129 is stickiest of the three. But that doesn’t mean it’s as sticky as Krytox. 129 is definitely not as sticky as 3204.
You should give 129 a try. It’s pretty easy to wipe off anyway.
Nice, definitely gonna give it a try on some stabs later. I’ll post the results! 
I tested lubing Topre this morning.
Keyboard:
Lubes:
Areas lubed:
Observations:
Conclusion:
Update 1: After lubing and testing full board, I think 129 goes better with BKE Redux Light, not Ultralight.
So I finally messed around with the Christo 129 a little bit. I lubed two Cherry PCB mount 2u stabilizers one with a thick Krytox mix (GPL204 with a tiny bit of VPF1514) & one with 129 (I’m out of 3204 right now or I would tried one with that too as I really like 3204 for stabilizers). @donpark, you’re definitely on to something with using Christo-Lubes for stabilizers, 129 does wonders for them also! The one lubed with 129 felt a good bit smoother, was less sluggish, & was a bit quieter than the one lubed with thick Krytox mix. I’m definitely gonna give the other weights a try, but I think I may have found my favorite stabilizer lube here!
With switches on the other hand though Christo 129 didn’t stand out nearly as much. It is definitely a good lube & can be used in lieu of Tribosys & Krytox lubes, but it just didn’t really stand out between the three. I had some 78g V1 Zealios that were already lubed with 3204 & some that were still unlubed so I used those switches to test. I lubed one up with 129, lubed another one up with the thick Krytox mix, then threw them on a plateless setup to test with caps on (the switches used with the stabilizers were lubed with 3204). Honestly not too much of a difference between the three. They all made the switches very smooth & they all had roughly the same effect on the tactility of the switches. The 3204 felt the best to me in this test, but only because I thought it struck the best balance between the three.
The 129 still kept the switch feeling a little raw, reminds me a lot of the way 3203 feels. While the thick Krytox mix made the switch feel a little smoother than than 129 but a tiny bit sluggish. The 3204 gave the switch a very smooth feel with almost no impact to the speed of the upstroke. All in I would say Christo-Lube is good stuff & I am gonna get more to use in the future. I’m also gonna grab a jar of each weight next time I order. With 129 it seems like stabilizers are it’s thing. It’s no slouch with switches, but doesn’t give any better of a feel than Tribosys or Krytox does IME with it so far. Not sure if that’ll change with the 111 & 112 though.
sounds good then, do you think it would work well for something like the stock domes or 55g domes too? Or would that make it sticky like other thicker lubes?
Honestly not too much of a difference between the three.
Yeah. Subtle differences in stickiness and appearance (111 and 112 looked creamy where 129 looked more lumpy) were the only differences I could find which is frustrating.
Anyway, I think they make fine additions to a tinker’s toolbox, for stabs and for occasions when Krytox doesn’t satisfy.
do you think it would work well for something like the stock domes or 55g domes too? Or would that make it sticky like other thicker lubes?
129 slapped on generously felt a bit sluggish on stock 45g domes in-use so I’d be guessing but I think 111 or 112 applied frugally may work well. As to 55g domes, I don’t have any so hard to say. But 129 is definitely not as sticky as thick Krytox lubes. Problem is that they behave differently and very little is known about them.
Please lend a hand and experiment with the lube so we can get to know the lube better.
I did a build with MCG 111 on pre-retool MX browns this weekend.
I agree it’s a little harder to spread out than Krytox. However I realized this was because the brush was already full of grease; Krytox seems to stick to itself well, whereas this stuff seems to stick better to surfaces. I was able to remove excess by first wiping off the brush then going back to clean up the overlubed part. Note that if you are used to Krytox, MCG 111 parts will appear overlubed. There will be a noticeable white layer, versus the usual rule of thumb for Krytox which is that if you can see white lube you’ve applied too much.
After a while I settled into a pretty good flow for housings. I would grab a dot of lube with the very tip of my brush, then starting at the bottom of the rail make one firm stroke all the way up, then a few more to smooth and even it out, making sure to get the inside corners of the rails and not just the flat surface.
For sliders, again, I had to get over some of my instincts from Krytox. Keeping in mind that it doesn’t spread very well, I used the same technique of grabbing a tiny dot of grease with the tip of the brush and applying it just to one side of the slider. Then I used excess on the brush for the front and back. This was very slow going at first, and I never quite settled into a rhythm.
The switches are quite smooth once you get over the tactile bump (which has the distinctive and disappointing pre-retool MX scratchiness). I think this lube did a very good job overall and I can recommend it. Top-out and bottom-out do not feel soft despite the reasonably thick coat of lube, and there is no sluggishness.
The MCG 111 also did not seem to dampen sound very much, even compared to lighter Krytox greases and oils like GPL 104 and 3204. You can hear in this typing video that the switches still have the high-pitched clack that you’d typically associate with an unlubed switch.
The MCG 111 also did not seem to dampen sound very much, even compared to lighter Krytox greases and oils like GPL 104 and 3204.
Yup. I found that 111 and 112 had far less effect on sound than 129. Not necessary good or bad, just info useful depending on the desired effect.
This weekend, I tried Christo-Lube on Zilents V2 62g switches, hoping it may be the magic cure for hissing feel in Silent switches that I’m extra sensitive to.
Initial impression: they do reduce the hissing feel, particularly when the silence padding areas above and below the slider are smothered with Christo-Lube. My theory is that those paddings are touching the sides somehow, creating the hissing sensation.
I’ll post an update in a week or two after doing the full board.
My theory is that those paddings are touching the sides somehow, creating the hissing sensation.
At one point I was trying to figure out why Gateron silent switches felt less smooth, and I could not get the pads to contact the slider rails consistently on each stroke. So I ruled that out as a cause.
I think the “hissing” sound is always there, but it’s masked by the “clack” of the upstroke. If you put your ear up to a non-silent switch you can hear it always makes that kind of sound, and sometimes it sounds louder after lubing than before.
I think the “hissing” sound is always there, but it’s masked by the “clack” of the upstroke.
Could very well be although it’s more of a feel than sound to me and Zealios V2 switch with QMX clip doesn’t feel hissy at all. Yes, I do hear that ‘hissing’ sound with my ear next to all types of switches but the feel surfaces only with silent switches like Zilents while in use. Quite a mystery.
Anyway, my current plan is to fill the switches with Christo-Lube and move on because I can’t figure out what’s causing it.
How would you compare the difference between MCG 112 and, say, Permatex grease? I tend to use the latter with stabilizers doing the regular clip/bandaid as well, and seems to work quite well and is really inexpensive.
Could very well be although it’s more of a feel than sound to me and Zealios V2 switch with QMX clip doesn’t feel hissy at all. Yes, I do hear that ‘hissing’ sound with my ear next to all types of switches but the feel surfaces only with silent switches like Zilents while in use . Quite a mystery.
I have come across this issue as well with V1 Zilents & agree what you are talking about is more of a feel than sound. I originally built my Redscarf with 78g V1 Zilents, I lubed them with a mix of 204g2/VPF1514 & they had a strange slightly scratchy feel when typing at speed. If I just pressed one key, slowly or rapidly, it felt smooth but once actually typing they took on the “hissy” feel again (that is a good way of describing it since scratchy is overkill to describe the feel). I even went as far as cleaning the parts & re-lubing with 3204 which didn’t help with it.
I thought the springs were the culprit at first since they were longer & less tightly coiled than the springs in regular 78g Zealios at the time. Even after a swapping springs the issue persisted. So it is a very curious thing indeed! Not sure if this feel is just something inherent to most silent switches & we are more sensitive to it or if we just got unlucky with our batches of Zilents? The only other silent switch I have typed on enough to have an opinion of is MX Zilents (silent black stems), which did not have the same issue.
So it may be limited only to Zilents. Too bad I’m not into linears. Mystery deepens. 
Permatex was what I used before switching to Cristo-Lube. Permatex is fine but is sticky where Christo-Lube is not. Lack of stickiness helps when stabs start to make noise while in use and I need to add more lube because additional lube will not add more drag to the stabs, making it sluggish. It’s also easier to clean up.
Given that amount of lube needed for stabs is not much (I still have 90% of Permatex left) and how irritating stabs can get, getting a $8 jar is definitely worth it for me.
$8? Oooh damn, maybe I should pick some up then. Stabs are always the thing that give me the biggest headache, so I’d like to do away with that as long as I can.
If I understand what you are describing, that sounds very much like friction from the contact leaf. That is a different phenomenon.
I’d be curious to hear some audio recordings of these hissing sounds.