Does Kailh Box White / Box Silent Brown still break GMK keycaps?

Learning and discussion Key switches
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Hello!

I have built two keyboards last week, both with GMK Daifuku keycaps - one with Kailh Box White switches, and one with Kailh Box Silent Brown switches.

Just today I read a lot of posts from 2018-2020 that Kailh BOX switches break GMK keycaps - even after the retooling.

Is this still true today? Should I worry and take off my keycaps before they get damaged?

Thank you so much for the help!

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I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the silent box design causing issues with keycaps. However, yes, I would be cautious with the box white.

Since they’re already on there, the damage is done. If something was going to happen, it’s already happened. No need to get them off quickly.

When you put the keycaps on the switches, do it in a quiet room. If you hear a noise when you put them on, that is the stem cracking. Sounds obvious, but I’ve cracked several without really thinking about what the actual cause of that noise was. Would be safest to just not use ABS caps on those box white, but I have a lot of keycap sets and I wouldn’t be too bothered if some of them got stretched or slightly cracked, especially if it was a setup I really liked.

The easiest way to tell if they are stretched or cracked is to put them on another switch and see if they are really loose. They’ll likely be pretty loose on Gateron switches b/c those stems are already on the small side. The only time I noticed my cracked or stretched GMK caps is when I put them on UMWHPE stems, which are very undersized. They will come off when typing on those, lol.

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Thank god, I haven’t actually put the keycaps on the Box Whites yet, so I might have discovered this just in time!

The other caps are already on the Box Silent Browns, but I did the test you suggested with a Cherry MX green switch I had lying around, and the caps sit about the same way on the Silent Browns and the Cherry switch, so I feel like I’m in the clear?

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probably so

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Thank you, I appreciate your opinion :slight_smile:

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If you ever end up with some switches you have doubts about, Geon makes a tool they call the Trimmer that can shave-down those fat stems and make them safe to use.

A lot of Kailh’s stems seem to run a little chubby, but I haven’t seen a broken cap stem in years. Thankfully, that old first run of BOXes is increasingly uncommon in the wild - almost all I’ve personally run into were soldered into stock boards with caps already on them.