Holy Panda Bottom-out Drill Mod

There’s nothing bad or dangerous about this mod - other than the SACRILEGE that it poses! /s

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I’m starting my own holy panda religion!

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henceforth there shall be two schisms: the Pandestents and the Clackolics.

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You know, you guys, this is how the hobby advances. You all might be a bunch of weirdos, but you don’t have fear, there is no bottom line, nobody has a pointy-headed boss to say, no, “think about the shareholders”.

Holy Pandas themselves were magma bubbling up from the pits of “don’t give a fuck”, stupid small pools of frankenweeny silly wankerdom. And here we are. Good things stand, bullshit wilts. It’s all about the feels.

We all advance the hobby. Our perceptions are valid, our criticisms are real. The collective decides.

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it’s Holely Panda.

Definition of holey
: having holes

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In the spirit of the weirdos and not the weirdon’ts, might I suggest placing elastic under the hole. To source elastic, my old whitey tighties should suffice. Mayhaps my retired suspenders. A trampoline for the stem. For the feels!

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Holey Panda

image

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Ooh. What if there was a way to drill the hole and then plug it with some medium density rubber to make a dampened but solid bottoming out for holy pandas. Mmmmm. Must figure this out

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Play-doh? :thinking:

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This is seriously a good ideal! Reminds me of the short lived “Trampoline” mod where people were putting little rubber balls in the bottom of the stem shaft. Makes me wonder if just clipping the stems & using those (I seen them on a MKB supply site awhile back, I will add the link if I can find it) might work the same as drilling out the bottom? Or if those balls would be big enough to plug the hole & still allow for full travel? Definitely more research needed here! Think I may have to sacrifice some of my Trash Pandas to Keyboard science if NK still has them in stock so I can grab more.

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Haha it would probably shoot right out and then you’d have play doh turds all in the bottom of our case!

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Just tried ‘half-clipping’ Halo stem tip. YMMV, potentially delusive, observations:

  • bottom out feels less harsh and not at all mushy.
  • bottom out sound is still present but lower pitched and quieter.

What I did is clipped off some then used sandpaper for the rest.

Ingredients: Halo Clear stems, Trash Panda housing.

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I forgot to mention but the drill bit size I’m using is 5/64. I decided to go for it with the whole 60% as it’s noticeably quieter and I like the full travel being available.

I had mentioned that there’s a larger linear portion after the bump but when I typed I noticed I stopped pushing down shortly after that anyways so I don’t see that as a detractor. I’ll finish lubing and have a typing video soon!

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I learned about the drill mod when Outemu Sky switches first came out.

There are a number of reasons why I think it could be interesting with other switches. These include ensuring proper shaft clearance, and allowing excess lube to flow out.

The possible downside is increased shaft play, but well designed switch cases and careful choice of drill size, this should be largely avoidable.

HoleThrough Panda?

Holey panda

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I think I might do this to mine - I’d considered clipping the stems but decided against it because it really didn’t feel great to me, likely consistency issues aside. This is a much more repeatable method why didn’t I think of that

This post also made me think about a dilemma I’m having with a project; I want to use one of my GMK sets with it, but the PCB uses a North-facing design. I was thinking I’d be limited to Box Silents, as they’re the only switch I can think of that plays nicely with Cherry profile while North facing.

But! I’d never considered the reduced travel provided by stems like the Panda, Cream, or Kailh Pro as a factor. I’d bet a dollar those Creamy Inks I just put together would do just fine with them.

Man, a TIL twofer on a year-old post. This is my favorite website.

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I have to give this a try.