So lately I’ve been really interested in the SMK Monterey Clicky Switches, I just love the sound and love that I only need to buy a new pcb and not new keycaps and plate, I was wondering from people who have built one or more, How hard was it? Apart from the soldering was it that hard to find some of these, if so where should I buy these (I was thinking Taobao) also what would you guys change about what you did, like do you regret lubing them and if not which lube would you recommend, ? Also last 2 question, could i make the pcb hotswap with my mill max sockets and where should i look for the pcb (I want 60% with arrow keys like in the gk64) Thank you!
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I have no experience with Alps and millmax. Alps/SMK have long and fat legs. Need a big millmax or holtite.
Apparently the montery smk’s are a different pcb mount, so it might still need the big mill max’s. Thanks for telling me about that!
I’ve made a hotswap Alps build (it’s actually my first keyboard build) and Alps legs don’t fit into millmax sockets; I had to use a Dremel tool to ‘shave’ off a couple millimetres of width to get them to fit into millmax sockets.
There’s a possibility it’s similar with SMK switches, but I haven’t seen them side by side with a regular Alps switch, so I can’t say for sure.
For the PCB, I used these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32919981329.html It’s a 60% with arrow keys if you want.
In terms of finding these switches…it can’t hurt to make a buy request on r/mm to see if anyone has some.
SMK monterey switches have been out of production for some time AFAIK. Although you can definitely find them for sale in vintage boards or already harvested IME. Right now I’m sitting on about 70 Monterey blues & a 660 layout PCB made specifically for Monterey switches. Just need to find someone selling an old broken Leopold 660M or even better one of the OG alum cases Dorp sold for them some years back to complete the build. They definitely feel really good IMO, reminds me of bamboo SKCM whites. Very smooth & crisp with a great click sound. Although still a little short in those parameters VS SKCM blues.
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Yeah, those are the same reasons i want the sound, but the feel also sounds very close too what i want or just plain what i want, so these might server me well till i find blue alps for a reasonable prive
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ooh smart idea, thanks for the input!
FYI, it looks like larger Millmax sockets are available for Alps:
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