After soldering 60 switches (Zilents) 5 of them actuate just from a gentle touch (and, thus, a double actuation as a result). The solder iron has no temperature regulation and is rated at 30 W and 300 C max temp. Solder was in contact with pin/plate for about 2 sec. Did I overheat the switch and it bend the contact leaf somehow? How does it work?
I solder at 650F, doubt you overheated.
Is it chatter perhaps? A cold solder joint?
Any idea what can it be then? Five out of sixty seems crazy high…
Cold joint is fixed by reflowing the solder?
It just seems weird because I can see the stem bending the leaf just slightly touching it…
yes
I wonder if the leaves have shifted upward in the housing. Did you open these to lube? If you have any extras, can you easily move the leaf by pushing the pins from underneath?
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seems plausible
Yes, I did slightly lubed them. No, I have no extras (cheaped out on the order and now regret it). I will check how the leaf behaves tomorrow, thanks for the idea!
I agree with @fatalruin, sounds more like the leaves moved on you when lubing or installing those switches than overheating. While Zealios are the easiest switches to overheat IME, I highly doubt that 30W iron is throwing out enough heat to melt the housings in under 5 sec.
This is good news if it is just leaves that moved out of place, as you can open the switch up & press on each individual leaf while heating it’s corresponding joint to fix them. If this is the case the leaves should move down a little bit & reseat themselves properly in the bottom housings when that is done. I’d do the bigger more delicate leaf that the slider contacts first, then do the smaller more robust leaf with the striking plate on it second to keep them best in place.
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warning, they’ll be about 600 degrees F when you touch them. Might wanna push with something other than your hand 
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Yeah, definitely use tweezers or some tool to do it, LOL!
Hmm, yeah, the plastic around pins is melted and it does look like there might be some lift of the leaf. I don’t like the Gateron design - shouldn’t be possible to effect the core mechanism that easy.
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Yeah Gateron has dropped the ball big time with the loose leaves issue. How melted is the bottom housing around the pins? It is normal for some flux to gather on the bottom housing around the pins which makes it look like clear housings have melted, but it shouldn’t have actually melted.
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I cannot tell for sure, it looks messy, but my eyes are not good enough to assess the situation on the bottom (also translucent makes it more difficult I think). And I cannot compare them to new switches as I soldered them all. After some fiddling with one switch (that I desoldered) the problem went away. I assume the leaf is in place now, but then no guarantee it won’t displace again after I solder it back…
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OK cool, if you were able to fix that one then the bottom housings should not be melted, it’s just left over flux for the most part (I guess there may be a small amount of surface melting looking at some of my desoldered Zealios). If you are having issues with the leaves moving on you when you go to solder them back in, I would push them back into place while the switch is installed, but before soldering, then bend the pin over on the back side of the PCB once the leave is in place. It’ll make it a bitch to remove the switch in the future, but it’ll hold the leaves in place without needing an extra hand.
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Good tip, thanks! Will try it tomorrow.
Pretty disappointed in Gat housing. Suddenly Kailh’s design gained some points =)
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