I bit the bullet and mounted a full GMK set to my new box reds. It wasn’t that big of a deal since it is my Aero set that everyone seems to hate 
Anywho, I too will be reporting back in a week or two. Very good start though. No cracking at all at first mount. Time will tell. This is in stark contrast to the old box stems because I could easily hear the keycaps crack when I put them on the first time.
I have a Contra with pre-retooled box white switches and grab bag DSA caps on it. I haven’t removed the caps a lot, but have not noticed any cracking/stress so far.
I am also putting together a board for someone with retooled box navy and Royal navy DSA caps. So far, there doesn’t seem to be a problem and I’ve had to remove caps a few times.
I don’t know if there was evidence of cracking as much with DSA caps, but I just wanted to add my experience with both pre-retool and retooled switches.
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Patiently waiting for your experience.
Me too! Would love to know whether I can safely pop some Box Royal Clears on my M60-A whenever it shows up.
It’s been about 5 or so days since I put my Maxkeys SA lime on my Novelias. Will check tonight to see if there is any damage although I assume they will be fine since my SA lime has historically been on the loose side.
It’s been 10 days since I put a set of GMK caps on my re-tooled box reds. No signs of stress or cracks on any caps. I’ve used it daily. I’ve removed and remounted them several times.
There are so many factors to account for, so no blanket statements.
I can say for sure that this batch of box reds (from Novelkeys) does not put stress on GMK Aero keycaps. Also, The keycaps don’t feel significantly looser when i put them on Gateron blacks like my other caps that were previously damaged did.
I would assume that retooled box reds (from Novelkeys) are safe to use on GMK caps. But you know what happens when you assume
I should be even safer with PBT caps, shouldn’t it.
That sounds promising. Still not sure I want to risk my Laser set.
yes. PBT is more elastic than ABS.
Yes, I understand that sentiment for sure. I have a lot of damage to my Nautilus, Dolch, and Hyperfuse sets. You could at least try putting a keycap that you know you won’t need on a switch and letting it sit a while.
Really sorry to hear about your nice sets… And thanks for being willing to test the retooled stems on your Aero set. If you don’t end up showing any stretching or damage within the next reasonable timeframe (whatever that might be!) I think we can safely assume that the risk posed to GMK sets by the retooled stems is minimal, or at least significantly lower than the original stems. GMK has been using the same molds for a very long time, so I wouldn’t think there would be any variation between sets.
To anyone who bought BOX switches through CandyKeys, they’re offering replacements free of charge. I bought my old BOX Navies from them back in March and wasn’t sure if they were willing to replace them, so I contacted them and asked - and they promptly told me they’ll happily replace them too. We won’t even have to send back the old switches.
Thanks for the heads-up - I contacted CandyKeys too about my order, and they are gladly replacing my BOX switches as well. Good thing I hadn’t soldered them onto my board yet.
No problem, glad I could help. 
[IC] Stemshaver - a tool to fix BOX switches
So, after 3 full weeks of GMK Aero on box red switches, no caps were cracked or stressed. I took them off and carefully examined each and every one. On to experiment No.2
I’ve placed my Aero set on box pale blues. I’ll give it a week or two and report back. I did not hear any cracking when I installed the caps.
23 days after putting GMK Aero on retooled box pale blues:
No signs of stress marks and no cracks. I’m using a 65% board, so we don’t have a full 104 test. This process is tiresome, but at least the results have been positive so far.
Now I am trying Hako Clears (retooled). I’ll report back in a few weeks
2 weeks on Hako Clear switches and no stress marks or cracks. Looks like a good report card for retooled box switches.
I also have a stem shaver prototype for old switches that I’m testing out. Seems to do the trick so far, but I’ll need more time to keep the caps on the old, shaved switches to see if they crack.
Have you been using the same GMK Aero on your retooled box pale blues as well as the retooled hako clears?
Yes. Not the most scientific test but I’ve been using the same GMK set for 3 sets of box switches now. Box red, box pale blue and Hako clear (all retooled). I’ll probably try with my Led Zep set on the next round.
The Aero set does still fit well on regular mx stems though. So, I do not believe it has been stretched out. In fact, I just put the Aero set on some mx clears and they are super tight as expected.
Any ideas on rescuing cracked gmk stems?