’lo — Title must be at least 6 characters

[anon51085627]

Hello, everyone.

More than three years ago I started participating in r/mk; reading posts and comments, searching for answers, asking some questions … yeah. Sometimes, I also had an eye on geekhack, especially in regards of upcoming keycap group buys.

Back in the days, younger me was using the Cherry G83 … and it felt goood. In late 2013, macbook happened and as the months and years went by, I missed that clicking and clacking and comfortable keypressing.

tl;dr I still don’t own a mechanical keyboard.

Aesthetically, I’ve always been into modest, “minimal” TKL keyboards. Nothing fancy, purely functional design and engineering. Nowadays I’m also into 60 % keyboards …

After more than three years of research™ and decision-making, I finally know which will (hopefully) be my very first mechanical keyboard. (It’s the KARA.)

When it comes to switches, though … who would’ve thought that’s an even deeper rabbit hole than keyboard cases and layouts and whatnots itself.

Pretty sure I’m into smooth tactiles with rounded bumps, and smooth linears. I thought there’d be two, maybe three switches I should try for a longer amount of time … MX Clear, MX Grey, and MX Black.

But what about all those other switches I recently researched™ about … the drama-inducing Holy Pandas, the fluffy-smooth Alpacas, the Gateron Black Inks, et cetera.

Yeah, when it comes to switches, I’m currently confused about what I should and would like to try … and, well, could afford. Maybe for the beginning I’ll just go with the starter kit which is probably going to be offered besides the keyboard, the last starter kits looked pretty decent, and there’s some nice stabilizers in there, too.

(Oh, and did I mention lubing and filming, yet?)

Thank you for coming to me KeebTalk.

[ajoflo]

Welcome! Good to have you here.

@anon51085627

Yeah, when it comes to switches, I’m currently confused about what I should and would like to try … and, well, could afford.

Here’s some keeb science that helped me get started.

Sharing info on modded tactiles

Okay, so people here hardly ever use stock switches, especially when it comes to tactiles. I thought I would share information about some stock tactiles that have undergone some slight improvement via lubing and spring-swapping. That way, people could learn and see if it is worth doing. I encourage anyone to post any findings they have about improving stock tactiles in this basic manner. I am going to start by discussing some MX Browns that have been lubed and spring-swapped. People might be …

Easing Into Linears

I have yet to fully appreciate linear switches but I’m finding them useful on modifiers when the combination of switch, plate, case, and mounting style results in annoyingly loud modifiers. For example, mods on Holy Panda + POM plate + Lambo 60% case (tray-mount, WTF acoustics, ) combo I was trying to resuscitate over the weekend was way too loud. Replacing Holy Pandas on modifiers (Tab and Backspace too) with Gateron Yellow made them sound very pleasant. Simpler linear feel is star…

About Springs

Here is an imaginary force graph of some hypothetical springs with different qualities, which will help guide this discussion. This graph is not meant to be 100% accurate, just to illustrate some of the key points about switch springs. [image] At a high level, when you are pressing the switch, the force of the spring pushing back is looks roughly like F = KX where K is the spring constant, and X is how far you have compressed the spring. You can roughly consider K to be how stiff or “spring…

RO-59 TM KT vs Krytox vs Tribosys

Does any one have any experiance with RO-59 TM KT? Would it be worth picking up some RO-59 TM KT to use instead of the traditional Krytox / Tribosys lubes, on Zilents? Also, any thoughts on RO-59 TM KT vs Krytox vs Tribosys, would be appreciated. I’ve read through the ripster55 guides on reddit, but I’m intrested in more long term usage information. RO-59 TM KT source: https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/comments/e4ib67/usmahro59_tmkt_super_lube_wpaypal_venmo_apple_pay/

[TheNamesTy45]

Welcome to the beginning of experimentation! I’d recommend trying out some heavy linear (cherry black), lighter linears (tealios or red inks) and strongly tactile (Zealio v2 or some holy panda clone) to start.

This will give you the chance in some very broad strokes to know what your baseline preference is starting out.

I spent years experimenting with different springs, manufacturers, lubing, frankenswitching, etc. My preference ranged from feather light linears to Heavily tactile and everything in between.

After all that time I found, I hate lubing switches and how the lube wears off over time, I’m not a huge fan of tactile Mx, and I’m happiest with stock Cherry black or stock milky top gateron black (because they look like nixies - a particular vintage black switch) and Topre in an HHKB.

Have fun finding what you like!