Readily available New old stock linear Alps!

Learning and discussion
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If you want some good linear Alps switches, you may want to take a look at these SKCL Yellows from China. These are the more desireable and better complicated variety of Alps. I have them myself in a Zenith handwiring project that’s on hold, and they are very smooth, but I really suggest you lube them. They require 58.8cN of force, which was 60g if I remember correctly.

I personally don’t think they are as good as SKCL Greens, but they are still great switches, especially new old stock.

MAlyYms.jpg1920×1280 325 KB

Link to the page that has them
(image belongs to DrClick on Deskthority)

There are many other new old stock Alps on Taobao, but they are all going to be of the less desired simplified variety by Forward electronics, so be aware of that. I think some could be worth messing with, since they are pretty cheap. One of the better ones I’m aware of is Alps SKBM White, but again, opinions are quite mixed on DT about this when I asked, but I don’t think they could be that bad. Keep in mind that their official rated lifetime is 10 million keystrokes.
SKBM White alps
They’re sold by the same seller, and he also sells simplified Black switches (they may not be tactile, since there were SKBM clicky blacks, so do your research)

There are so many to list that it would be a pain. But if you want to find basically all of the ones you can get, just scroll down to the recommended ones on the bottom and you will be in quite the rabbit hole.

BUT… if you see this switch; it’s NOT Blue alps! The picture is decieving, they are grey simplified alps.
the NOT blue alps

Thank you guys! This is my first ‘big’ post here. I planned to list all the ones I could find, but it wouldn’t have been worth it, because the only one really worth listing by itself was the first one. But I’m curious if any of you have tried those clicky simplified ones. I have only tried clicky simplified clones, and they were dirty :confused:

Cheers.

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Oh, right! How can you get them? Well, I got mine from a Deskthority group buy.

But there are many proxy services which you can use to import them. This thread is worth taking a look at about them.

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Any idea how quantity works? The stocks are low, is this usual for Taobao or the seller already ran out of switches?

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Eh, I highly doubt they ran out so fast. According to the Deskthority post, the seller had 105856 Yellow switches in April, so you will be a-ok!

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You never know; If KBParadise ever hears about these they may buy them all up for their boards.

It might be a good product for NovelKeys to carry!

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Hmm, Maybe I should put my extra alps64PCB to use after all hehe.

Thank you for the link! Alps availability feels like it’s getting harder by the day so it’s nice to see links like this for people interested in Alps.

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Glad I could help! Just make sure to lube them when you get them :grinning:

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Any lube recommendations for alps? I heard dry lubes are recommended

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I have never lubed switches before (due to not being able to get lube), but I think dry lubes should be a-OK.

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Also, I’m curious about those SKBM Whites. I know they are simplified, but they look intriguing.

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I got a bag of the yellow switches a while back. I’m waiting to try the on a full board, but I’m not overly-impressed. Very smooth, but the spring is strange. Actually, now that I think about it, they are quite similar to the SKCC green alps switches in my pingmaster. I like them, but I guess I’m just not a fan of linear alps in general. Which is strange b/c I really prefer linear in my MX switches.

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I really hope catweewee starts making Alps springs. I would love to get some good springs into these SKCL Yellows (ordered them from TB a couple of weeks ago). I don’t feel like giving money to SPRiT, but in the end I might have no other choice.

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Good thinking. Yeah, these might shine with a spring swap.

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Thank you for your thoughts on this. I personally like them, but wish they were smoother, though I think lube would solve that, and maybe new springs like you guys mentioned?

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I thought that lubing linear Alps was a bit of a no-no? It attracts dust and that dust is basically acid for Alps switches. Maybe I am wrong here?

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I personally would not lube unless it was dry lube. I have some salmon alps that I bought off r/mm with spray dry lube on them and they feel good.

Also, I just swapped a spring from some scratchy cream alps I had sitting around into my NOS yellow alps and it felt really good. The spring was slightly heavier. So yeah, a spring swap would improve these even more, IMO

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Thanks for the input.

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Do we have any options here from anyone who isn’t Sprit? Is Mike from NovelKeys still working on Alp’s springs or was it someone else?

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I don’t know of any non sprit options for new alps springs that are currently available.

I remember seeing someone talk about making them but it has not happened yet

Mike is selling old alps switches though, so it would make sense if he was planning to run springs at some point

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Catweewee of Singa KBD may consider making Alps springs at some point (her new MX springs have been pretty successful so far). I sure hope she does.