I’m Buddy and I’m new here to keeb talk. I’m a rubber dome nerd and have been collecting Topre keybards since 2016, and have been customizing them for the most part of 2020. At the beginning of this year I spent a couple of months on trial and error and RnD to be able to get the best feeling I can from my keyboards. I have put my findings together in a guide you can find on my website, linked below.
One product to stem from my research is a rubber gasket to install in my custom Realforces and Leopold boards, between the metal base plate and the slider housings. It makes a noticeable improvement in the feeling of the upstroke, especially with BKE redux domes! It is available for sale via the order form on my website.
I hope to be able to offer modding services in the future to anyone looking to customize their Topre keyboards. Some of my more recent projects include a painted HHKB, and a painted FC980C.
Welcome! I am very excited for this. I am another Topre nerd very excited to improve my two daily drivers (an FC660C in a Heavy-6 w/ sorbothane) and a vanilla FC980C (awaiting a Heavy-9). I am very excited to give the guide that made it’s way to the Norbauer Heavy-9 thread a try!
Welcome to the site @anon81470386! Awesome work you’ve done with your boards & glad you came here to share! The gasket is very interesting to me & I hope to order one soon for my 660C to see if it can improve it anymore than I already have. I am curious though, does the gasket eliminate the need for silencing rings or work in tandem with them for a even quieter/softer top out?
The gasket works by making the slider housings more rigid and less rattly. The idea was taken from HHKBs one-body approach with molded housings, which helps give the keyboard a solid feeling. The improvement can be felt on the upstroke, giving realforces and leopolds the same sturdy feeling as felt on the HHKB. The stronger the upstroke, the bigger the difference. You can really notice the improvement with BKE redux domes!
I’ll be installing one in a 30g board for the first time this week, but I imagine it would help, just to a lesser extent. I don’t believe it changes the sound all that much, but in extreme scenarios it would. Such as BKE heavy domes in an RGB keyboard, as those housings seem to be on the rattlier side.
I have two RGBs: one with variable, one with 30g; they are rattly AF.
Thanks for the clear and detailed instructions and photos! I am not good with my hands and have been scared to do more than dome swap. Detail gives me confidence.
Hi Buddy, Welcome! This is such a cool product and I am anxious to try it out!
Anyway, I saw that you have R2 TKL JIS gaskets and no R2 TKL ANSI gaskets. However, you’ve also listed an RGB TKL gasket for sale. Do you know if this would work for the R2 TKL ANSI as well?
The RGB TKL is not the same as the other R2 keyboards. The RGB slider housings dimensions are completely different than regular housings, and they use a more tradtional style stabilizer than other topre boards. In order to get an accurate measurement for the gasket, I have to disassemble each keyboard to get the post locations correct. I will hopefully be getting my hands on an R2 TKL ANSI very soon, at which point I can offer the gasket to everyone.
No sound samples for just the gasket, but I do have sound samples of a stock HHKB Type-S and one that I have applied all the modifications listed in my guide, except for the gasket of course.
really interesting product you have here! I have a Ghost Norbaforce with the RGB TKL internals. The biggest noise my board makes is from the spacebar as the bottom of the case is quite hollow. But that will be fixed with the dampener I have ordered. Once that is installed hopefully I can see whether the housing are rattly enough to purchase your gasket
This is so cool! Just making sure with this gasket it eliminates the need to use grease or double-sided tape to hold the housing in place right (I have a R2 RGB TKL) ? A video showing the rattling problem before and after installing the gasket would be nice!
The spacebar bottoming out is something that you can address with 1/32" thick landing pads under each stabilizer. This minimizes the sound of the plastic stabilizer bottoming out on the PCB.
