Here’s two recipes that I’ve tried on loose switches but would like to test on a whole board:
Outemu silent tactile stems in Cherry MX Blue housings. These are insanely tactile but they still manage to return even with a 62g spring. I have a sample that has been lubed with 3204 on the legs and it’s quite smooth. I may consider these for a fidget toy.
Kailh Speed Copper/Speed Burnt Orange stems in T1 housings. These have a very sharp tactile bump up top (similar to stock Speed Copper) but it’s much more pronounced, and the switch has a nice smooth linear finish, as well as the characteristic clack of Kailh stems.
I put together a switch that has turned out to be one of my favorites, I dubbed “Skream”:
Outemu Sky v2.2 housing
Novelkeys Cream stem
Sprit 45g spring
Sliders and stem lubed with Krytox 205g0
Spring bag-lubed with HOPPE’S No. 9 Lubricating Oil
They look and sound awesome! Watch the linked vid for sound test: (I’ll hopefully have one up this next weekend of these switches in my custom Preonic with aluminum case and copper plate)
The Kailh Pro Burgundy’s long-posted stem gives this a similar bottom-out sound to a Holy Panda, minus the tactile element beforehand. Not the same as a Cream, but still has a fairly “creamy” element to the bottom-out sound. Less harsh housing vibrations or a slightly softer plastic than my imaginary baseline, maybe?
I put this together specifically to have a linear with that great “tak! tak!” Holy Panda bottom out sound - but once again, I’m all about that color. More serviceable than my last colorful frankenswitch, I might actually use these after a bit of lubing.
Right: Black Mauve - Mauve with Cherry MX Black top housing. Sounds more solid (warning: subjective) than regular Mauves. Still not as good as Cherry MX Black but closer.
Left: Red Tap Dancer - Cherry MX Black bottom housing + Mauve top housing + Kailh Pro Burgundy stem. Extended stem tip striking Cherry MX Black bottom housing makes sound that reminds you of tap dancing. Two issues: shorter key travel, somewhat scratchy.
Have you ever wanted to flex an entire board of Hirose Orange switches, but can’t because you’re poor as all hell? Well oh boy do I have the frankenswitch for you! And it only needs two switches to make! WOW!
Stealirose Orange Switch
Top Housing: Cherry (for the logo)
Stem: Tangerine Rev2 (Gateron-made)
Spring: Cherry Black (or similar)
Bottom Housing: Black Gateron (or really any black bottom housing)
Name inspiration is taken from “Stealios.” The two switches that I had in mind are the Tangerine and a Cherry Black. You could do this with vint blacks, too, but the point is it’s cheaper. I don’t have a pic or a sound test yet but if someone has some extra Tangerines on the cheap then hmu.
These bois are smoooooth, and other than the spring there’s no real difference compared to stock Tangerines Rev2. I have no reference to contrast them to the real thing, however if anyone would like to temporarily/permanently donate some Hirose Orange switches so that I could do a comparison I would not be opposed.
I had bought some Gat Yellows but for whatever reason, the pcb pegs are too large for any of the pcbs(too lazy to clip) I have on hand. Had some silent Alpacas lying around to try and thought why not mix the two together.
Switch is
Milky Top
Alpaca bottom
Gat Yellow Stem
filmed
206g0 on stem, 104 oil on TX 80g springs.
I really like em! Feels good and has a very pleasant thock-ish sound on certain plates, currently using a Polypropylne one.
Sound test here(phone mic recording). Temporarily calling them Yellowjackets for the heck of it.
Another irritating thing about the Gateron milky tops, not sure if it’s an issue with different batches or not, but sometimes the part of the keycap that goes into the switch stem will catch on the edge of the top; luckily I had enough spares.
On a random and fun note, I’ve cleared time this weekend to do some force curve graphs for different springs. Since I have the time slot and resources ready, feel free to let me know if there is any particular spring or frankenswitch you’d like me to try. I can post the graphs in this thread or a new thread.
I’d love to see a force curve of a stock switch vs that same switch lubed/with pe stems. I’ve always wondered just how much resistance the scratch adds.
If possible a stock Gateron Yellow with a PE stem to see if smoothness makes a measurable difference. I’d also love to see a Gateron Yellow, with PE stems, & 68g slow curved spring if possible! I know the second request is a bit of a pain so no biggie if you can’t do that, but I’d be highly appreciative if you could do the first request. Anyways a huge thanks for taking suggestions on what to test!
I’m actually pretty curious about how springs influence tactile bumps myself - it might be neat to do a grid of 9 with three housings, stems, and springs - maybe a light one, a heavy one, and some kind of graduated one.
I’d be very interested in seeing a centralized source that lists components of the most common (eventually getting into odd combos) of frankenswitches. I remeber seeing a google sheet on discord in one of server channels pinned, but I don’t know if it is being actively maintained.