Lubing switches with vaseline

I lazy lubed (the extremely lazy lube just to be clear) on one of my keyboards with vaseline I haven’t noticed any problems yet and it has been almost a year now. It sounds better but the typing experience has downgraded :frowning: what do yall think about lubing switches with vaseline? (Don’t cancel me)

2 Likes

It can break down certain kinds of plastics on the months-to-years scale, so I’d avoid it even if it seems to work in the short term.

6 Likes

which kinds of plastic?

1 Like

In the words of Ice Cube. No Vaseline.

1 Like

Don’t gotta worry about getting cancelled here, we’re all about learning what can & can’t be done with switches/stabs/builds & helping each other out. That said using vaseline was probably a bad choice as like @Piperaceae said it can break down certain plastics in the long run. I’d have to search it up to see which plastics in particular. Although if it’s been working fine for you I wouldn’t worry to much about it till the switches get to the point you don’t like the feel anymore. I do suggest not using it in the future though. Like you said the typing feel is already deteriorating within a year & most likely you’ll end up having to trash those switches when they get to the point you don’t like the feel anymore. I know it’s pricey but Krytox & Tribosys are really the best options IME. If you live somewhere where it’s hard to get ot just really expensive I’m sure one of us from NA or EU wouldn’t mind proxying some for you.

4 Likes

Just wanted to add to @Rob27shred’s point, but for the amount of lube needed for a keyboard, even buying the good stuff tends to be the cheapest component of a build.

I’m lazy about it and find it stressful to lube switches, but I’ve lubed dozens of stabilizers and the 5ml jar of 205g0 I bought in 2021 still has enough for probably 100 more stabs.

2 Likes

Horses for courses, and if you’re determined to lube switches, everybody else is right; use a well-tested product. Vaseline will react badly to many plastics, and I think you can probably find keyboard stories worse than yours online.

Now that said, for plate-mount stabs specifically, I’m pretty comfortable with silicone faucet grease. It’s food safe and has to be in situ for an extended period of time, lubricating moving parts that consist of an interface between plastic and metal from a wide variety of manufacturers and price points. I’m not sure of its electrical properties, but it shares key ingredients with dielectric grease, so I’d personally be fine with trying it on PCB mount stabs with a PCB I felt comfortable that I could replace someday, but even my cheap ass wouldn’t use it on switches. If you spelunk in that rabbit hole, just get some krytox. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Yall this is the most friendly forum I think has ever existed

2 Likes

ok, thanks.

1 Like