Most of the recommendations for switch pullers are the generic green IC ones. I took the recommendations and these work okay but ended up hulking out some switches causing some of the switch plate retainer tabs on the switches to stick-in.
Looking around at other switch puller designs like Rama and Novel keys the prongs on the pullers are much shorter.
I used a Dremel tool to grid down the prong then buff them to get rid of the sharp edges that resulted in an awesome upgrade. The reduced width of the tool prongs allows the top housing of the witch to stop from squeezing too hard damaging the switch.
I had a white plate to deal with so added electric tape to prevent marking the plate with the tool.
Left is the original tool right is the grinded down version
Also saw that problem on the edges of the case with hotswap boards.
Didn’t know it could still work by shortening the legs, thanks a lot for the tip!
You can grind down one side and it will work! I did one side at first and confirmed it was okay before doing the other side.
The final version is shown below. Besides grinding the tops used a hair tie band to keep it from opening too much and electric tape on the ends to prevent scratching plates. The electric tape will eventually wear down after a couple hundred switches. However it gives reassurance that I won’t scratch anything allowing for faster work.
I own a few. They all have issues. The RAMA one is my least favorite. I have 2 of them. They both are designed in a way that seems to promote ripping the top hosing off of my switches more often than pulling the switch from the keyboard.
Believe it or not, this one is superior in performance.
Just wanted to say thanks for this post - I similarly modified my puller and the process of using it is so much more smooth now.
I didn’t shorten my tines quite as much, but just enough to squeeze them between the switches and the case of my tester board comfortably. I also gave them a good smoothing - my Chinesium distant imitation of a Dremel was finally useful for something!
Interesting - I had the opposite problem!
The tool that came with my keyboard just flat out didn’t work on the Gateron optical switches - the tines aren’t long enough. I actually cut myself trying.
I reverted to an unmodified IC puller, and it works a treat - instant results, next to no force required.
Shoutout to ZapCables for:
1: Having all the parts to do this and a huge amount of options
2: Awesome customer service they are flexible, with reasonable requests, and very helpful!
