Funky Frankenswitches

[throwbois]

What tops fit boba bottoms? I want to try a PC top and see how that changes the sound

[Deadeye]

You can get PC Boba tops, and for the stems that are too tight, Outemu tops. You can get those on their own from 3DKeebs, or from Gazzew on reddit.

[throwbois]

Thanks!! Just got some outemu clear tops and hopefully it adds some clack to the thocks of bobas

[Deadeye]

@smshark

I’d be curious to see if you have a different experience with the stock switch

Re: Lightwave V2’s -

I lubed-up a batch of these and have been testing them today, and they are most definitely a speed switch. Maybe 1mm?

Lots more info coming in a video fairly soon, but these strike me as a good gaming switch for the combination of early actuation and mush-free, subtle dampening.

[chalcocabana]

Preparing to make some Deadpools/Gazzew-Ron Burgundies with Kailh Pro Burgundies, Gazzew white tops and Gateron KS-3 bases. The two test switches I put together and lubed yesterday were actuating perfectly fine but today they are not actuating at all. I’m going to make some more to test but was just wondering if there was something simple I was missing?

[Deadeye]

Definitely odd that they worked yesterday and not today. I’d suggest systematically ruling-out potential causes;

• verify that other switches do work in the same device and socket these switches are failing to work in

• inspect the sockets themselves for contamination; dust, lube, etc.

• test those sockets with tweezers if possible

• try assembling a couple without lube and see how they behave (what type of lube?)

• inspect the failing switches for potential issues; bent leaves inside, bent pins outside, maybe contamination

[chalcocabana]

I appreciate the reply. The lube suggestion definitely seems like something that could fix the issue as I’m almost certain that I am a heavier handed luber than I need to be lol The sockets are fine thank goodness. That would have bummed me out even more lol

[chalcocabana]

From slowshi on Discord (I’m promiscuous when asking questions I’m sorry). But the switches work perfectly fine now! I can’t believe people have figured this sort of thing out. That’s one of my favorite parts about all this tinkering.

[Deadeye]

In retrospect, that makes a lot of sense. Glad you got an answer! I’ll update the entries here and on my site with this information.

[quartzi]

Hi Deadeye, since you experienced on Gat Ink Yellow, do you have any insight on its housing ? Any linear experimental recipe ?

[Deadeye]

So far, I’ve mostly tried tactile stems in it - but I’ve got some free time and a bowl of random switches on-hand - I’ll get back to you if I find anything worth trying.

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Edit: @quartzi; I’d say most of the linear stems I have are better in their original housings or the improvement is so minor it’s not worth the money, like Frogs or Tangerines, for example - however, I did find two that I like better in the Ink Yellow housing than in their own:

• YOK / BSUN Panda stems (you know, the ones people chuck after making Holy Pandas) make for a nice, low-wobble, normal-travel linear that actuates more or less normally. If you have Ink Yellows but don’t like the short travel, this might be an inexpensive way to “normalize” them. These also look cool if you like black and yellow.

• Cherry Silent stems sound and feel much better in Ink Yellow housings to me than in the Cherry Nylon-ish ones. If you have any of these wet-sand simulators around and don’t want to quite spend the dosh for Zeal housings to make MX Zilents, these might be a nice alternative. These also appear to have a more or less normal actuation.

I don’t yet have a device to measure it, but these appear to actuate at 2mm, or perhaps farther down. The Ink Yellow stems are a bit less versatile than the housings; most switches you put them in will actuate if you breathe on them too hard.

Incidentally, I also found that Bobagum housings are another great place to put Cherry Silent stems; they’re nice and snug with the tops without being too tight, and they trade a bit of silence for a bit more firm dampening compared to the Gazzew silent stems, if that’s your bag. Nice and smooth. There’s some E/W wobble but virtually none in the N/W direction, and they have a nice, soft feel and sound compared to the Ink housings with the same stem, for example.

[quartzi]

Thank you for great sharing

[mwb]

I’m not planning on getting any new boards soon (maybe not ever – I have too many) so I’ve really been trying to dial in a good switch for a rebuild I need to do. Here’s the latest switch chimera I tried:

Polia Stem (Kaihl, possible Halo Clone)
Taro Ball Housing (JWK Medium Tactile Leaf)
TX Switch Gap Films (0.150mm)
TX Long Spring (67g)

I’ve only made 10 of these and put them on the home row of a Preonic but so far they feel great! I had been tinkering with basically the same switch but a Moyu instead of a Polia stem and these feel a little more pronounce through the bump. Polias also seem to be a little bit longer poled though I’m not 100% sure on that.

As a disclaimer: my ideal tactile starts right away and stays consistent through bottom out (which I, unfortunately, do every time). I believe that I like the feeling of these long stem tactiles because they bring an abrupt end to the tactile event rather than let it peter out at the end.

[Deadeye]

On a whim, I decided to write an article about why I love frankenswitches so much - if you’re interested in knowing what that’s all about, you can read it on my website here:

Why Frankenswitches? | switchbox.studio

[iaman]

Love it! One additional note is that there’s a new switch in town—Twilight—that is an elevated frankenswitch! Love to see the loop getting tighter on these!

[Reimu64]

Awesome write up dude! I’m not into the whole frankenswitch scene, but now I’d like to try out a couple of your recipes for sure.

Will you cover clicky switches too?

[Deadeye]

@iaman Thank you - and that’s awesome! Ya love to see it. I might have to pin an addendum on the tail of that article.

@Reimu64 Thank you as well - and yes! I just got in some clickies yesterday that I ordered for the purposes of doing a comparison, with a few extras for experimenting.

[sarvopari]

Great post

I like skimming this thread every now and then to learn about switches, just as you said, because y’all bring in nuance and educated guesses into your experiments; whereas this would be me attempting to make a switch:

[mwb]

did you just make that? that’s great!

[sushu]

“Thick Thock Browns” “Brown U4T’s”

• MX Brown housing w/ U4T stem
• Less tactile than U4T’s
• Sound surprisingly good
• What browns should have been ～＿～

I love Sake’s but my fingers get tired sometimes, so I daily these instead～！！ They are just enough for me. I used 63.5g Durock springs bag lubed w/ 105g0, stems and housings lubed w/ 205g0, but avoided the legs. I have a sound test but I can’t post links (>_<) Tofu65 with case foam, ePBT keycaps. I recommend trying these if you have leftovers！！

Edit, Soundtest:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1szOEUZGB8C8gHYD0gucki7zfxMalvtiN/view?usp=sharing