I’m wondering if there’s a difference in lubing the bottom-facing edges of a stem, which touch the bottom housing. I lubed these areas on my retooled blacks, but I’ve heard that this affects the sound. Is this the case, and if so, would there be a noticeable difference? Thanks.
Also, I bought a pack of 63.5g Sprit Springs off a redditor, but after lubing/swapping the stock Cherry springs out, they have a noticeable “spring” sound that happens throughout the keystroke. There is also a bit of scratchiness while pressing down, due to the spring. Is this a normal occurrence, and if not, would there be a way to solve this? The bottom-out clack is much louder as well, which is a good thing in my opinion. I’m just wondering if Sprit springs are supposed to be louder than stock Cherry ones.
Lubing the bottom of the stem won’t cause any issues or changes in sound as long as you have a nice thin even coat on it. Although If you have over lubed the stem I could see the switch making some squishing noises when bottomed out. As far as the springs go, spring ping/crunch is very common with factory & aftermarket springs. The way to get rid of that is to lube them with a light oil. I personally use Krytox VPF1514 for them, but any light Krytox oil would do. I’ve also heard of people having good result with knife oil like Victorinox on springs, although I have never personally tried that. The easiest way to lube springs IME is to bag lube them. Just toss the springs in a small plastic baggie, add a few drops of the oil, & shake it till it looks like all the springs have a nice thin coating. They’ll be dead quiet after that!
All springs will ping, grind, crunch, etc. to some extent. Gold-plated springs moreso than plain stainless steel.
The easiest way to fix it is to lube the springs. Shake them up in a plastic tub (like a Tupperware container) with a few drops of some high-viscosity oil lubricant (Superlube oil, GPL 106 or 107, the unbranded stuff that Meckeyalpha sells, Victorinox knife oil).
Edit: you can use a thick grease as well. I haven’t tried the tub method on springs with a grease, but it should work. You can also paint spring ends with grease.
Hey, thanks for the suggestions. I have put the springs in a small bag and put some 3204 in the bag as well, then shook them until it was spread. I also lubed both the top and bottom faces of the spring as well prior to putting the switch together. I think that Tribosys 3204 might have been too thick.
