That’s the first time I hear someone lubing hotswap sockets. (Late April’s fool joke? 
)
No joke!
Most hotswap sockets are only held in by solder. Pushing switches in and pulling them out causes stress through friction between the metal of the socket and that of the switch pin. This strains the solder joint and makes the switch insertion and removal feel gritty.
Applying an electrical contact lubricant lets the joints between the switch pins and sockets slide smoothly against each other. It makes for easier insertion and removal of switches. It also maintains conductivity and protects the pin to socket joint from corrosion and dust.
I usually apply contact lubricant to all electrical plugs and sockets such as RAM, CPU, USB, power and others. It makes everything feel smooth and nice.
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Ok, this actually makes sense for Kailh hotswap sockets on switch insertion and for Millmax hotswap sockets on switch removal.
I though never saw a broken out hotswap socket so far, neither Kailh nor Millmax. Especially Millmaxes have a crown on the one side of the PCB and the solder on the other side — at least how I solder them. I consider these to sit quite tight. Kailh hotswap sockets are SMD-style soldered and at least from SMD-mounted USB micro sockets it is known that the solder connection tends to break after a while due to torsion from the USB cable. So I assume this counts more for Kailh hotswap sockets than for Millmaxes.
With these having contact pins very close together, I’d be very cautions with conductive lubricants as this easily could short-circuit neighbour pins, especially for very close pins of RAM, CPUs or PCI cards.
I’m not sure how the contact lubricant works on a micro level. I should do some research on this.
It’s actually an interesting question, The lubricant may or may not be might not conductive but a thin layer could allow electrons to pass through somehow. I suspect it collects in micro cavities within the metals, thus reducing friction, while allowing tiny peaks of metal to make contact.
I know that the stuff does lubricate and it doesn’t create conductive bridges between connectors. It’s commonly used by technicians who assemble electronic parts for aircraft and for rehabilitation of dirty joints.
You can get a basic contact lubricant spray at a local electronic supply store for around $10. I sell the best contact lubricant and switch lubes within Australia.
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- Lubing NK Creams, Holy Pandas, Halo Trues, MX Blacks (from one of the boards I need to desolder below)
- Desolder 3 boards
- Finish two M0110a + Vortex Vibe projects that are essentially 95% done
- Part out and desolder a nonworking M0110a for its switches (Unfortunately, not Alps SKCC Tall Creams, but Mitsumi’s are actually pretty good)
- Reprogram 96key PCB
- Build M60-A
- Make cotton dust covers for all boards
Literally all of these is because I’ve been working a lot lately. But this should be the last weekend that I actually need to work…all of the tools and parts are just scattered around and on my desk lol (If it’s not in my line of sight, I don’t think to do it)
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Hehe, yeah, we already discussed that half a year ago in the Post your Keyboard thread. Just stumbled upon it again by accident. 
For all others: The link above also includes an picture of @dwarflemur’s orange-pink-ish BM43a.
Actually I fear that we got the same color. It’s just not clear if there was a vendor mishap on either side or the color descriptions were just that bad.
The main thing right now is an h87a in an acrylic TKL case. The main thing that’s holding me back is that with the switch plate being 4.5mm, it’s not allowing the PCB to flatten properly one all the switches are soldered in. The result of it is that I’m getting constant spacebar rattle (I’ve tried everything in the book to fix it, except maybe swapping out the stems of the stabs), which goes away when I flex the plate/PCB inwards.
I’m going to have to desolder this thing for the 2nd or 3rd time, but I’m waiting for a heating source to come in (hair dryer) so that I can attempt to flatten it out a bit.
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I’m pretty psyched to have some extra time now that I’m funemployed for a few and home 24/7. That said I have a family and a freelance business I’m trying to restart, so what really is free time? My list of unfinished projects includes:
-
mythosmann’s TG4x kit with original TG3 caps, plates and mill-max sockets waiting on
a. switches — I’ve ordered Seriko switches and I’m waiting on them to be finished and shipped out (currently they are delayed by coronavirus) — OR — maybe I want to get some vint blacks and try them (it’s a long shot, but does anyone have any cop board blacks they’d want to pass on to me?); and
b. keycaps — Should I go with /dev/tty0? I have them right now sitting unused. If not, then I need to get a new set of caps.
c. soldering supplies and experience (I’m scared! I’ve got a basic soldering kit but I haven’t really ever soldered anything more than wires. My hands are clumsy and unsteady. I don’t wanna use too little heat, or too much, or the wrong kind of solder, or … eek!). I need felix felicis but for soldering technique. -
an unbuilt XD75, blocking on
a. switches (maybe Seriko? see above. If not, maybe vint blacks or NK creams); and
b. keycaps (since I stole the MDA Big Bang caps that came with this for use on my zlant); and
c. again, my worry about soldering (see c above). -
A zlant with gat yellows, currently case-less and rocking MDA Big Bang BUT in its final form:
a. needs a case: ideally a yellow fluorescent keeblade or workalike (I don’t want to support Q anymore given his behavior to some); and
b. needs matching yellow caps for the gateron yellow switches and hopefully soon yellow case, perhaps kbdfans’ R2 XDA 40V2 or (in my dreams) Serika. Yup. I’ll keep dreaming…
Let’s say I manage to get some of these long-suffering todo items ticked off during this coronavirus isolation time… this neatly ties up my loose ends since I can put MDA Big Bang on the Serikas on the XD75, which means I’ll be at keyboard steady state, at least until @yasintahir greenlights version 2 of YAS-62, when I’ll need to buy that (duh) and a set of switches and caps to go with it! The cycle continues.
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Obtaining new projects is also stopping me from finishing other projects 
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This is so true. My list above has grown exponentially from buying stuff in the last week or so, plus I haven’t taken care of any that stuff I listed yet… 
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Funnily the opposite happened to me these days:
A parcel from WorldspawnsKeebs with three sub-40% kits arrived on Thursday last week just in time for the Easter weekend. Built all three kits it contained (Pain27, Jerkin and Reviung39) over the long weekend and even started and finished my brass JD40 yesterday since I am currently not in home office but on home holidays (sic).
Some potato shots in order of completion:
Pain27 with MDA Big Bone
Features Millmax hotswap sockets and Durock T1 switches.
I really like how MDA key caps look on it. Nevertheless thinking if I should put SA Vilebloom on instead for some color without any modifiers. Will probably try once round 1.5 arrives.
Also might replace the T1 switches probably with some 30 leftover Zealios which I nearly can’t use elsewhere.
Reviung39 with SA 1976 ortho kit
Features Millmax hotswap sockets and Kailh Box Jades.
Still thinking if I should order a SA Vilebloom Ergodox kit for it (though misses the yellow 1u keys which I would need two ortho kits for 
) as I like its colors more. And once SA Jadeite is out and shipped, it will likely receive that key cap set anyways.
Brass JD40 with MT3 Godspeed (Ares/Solar colorway)
Got it from 1upkeyboards.com a few months ago while it was on sale for nearly 50% of. (Seems sold out now, just the steel and carbon variants are still available and still on sale. 
) I kinda like the combination of this vintage looking key cap profile, kinda vintage colors and the rather technical and simple looking brass case.
On purpose (and because I’m lazy ) I did not try to conserve the brass. I’m really curious if and how it will gain patina over time and how that changes the look.
Currently features Millmax hotswap sockets and Zilents v2 67g.
Will though probably swap the Zilents against some Kailh Box Navies since I want these heavier Zilents in my MiniVan daily driver which currently has 62g Zilents v2.
Jerkin with SA Laser
It’s the keyboard shown in the lower half of the picture. The keyboard in the upper half is my Alpha28 with GMK Mitolet for size and color comparison; for some reason I thought in the past that the Mitolet and Laser colors are way more similar.
The Jerkin features Millmax hotswap sockets and Zealios v2. (The Alpha28 has soldered Kailh Box Royals.)
The Jerkin wasn’t finished until today as some of the included screws for the case were too short, and the replacement screws (as well as SA Laser) arrived only today. Nevertheless I’m thinking about getting black screws instead of the silver ones seen in the pictures.
Conclusion
So in the end, despite I kinda finished more projects than were incoming these days (if you don’t count key cap sets as projects ), I still have four projects which are planned for modifications. (With which we are back at the posting’s original topic. Never ending story… )
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I need to get around to converting my pingmaster… but I got the lazies…
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Just built that BM43a today, kinda as a “cheap and orange” themed keyboard, with completely orange colored, but rather crappy, wobbly and not that clicky “TTC Orange Blue Clicky” switches (what a name! 
) and" JTK Orange on Black CS:GO" (aka “JTK Charred Orange”) as key cap set.
Tried to at least keep the profile proper, but that didn’t work out for the Enter key being used as Spacebar and the Menu key being used as Tab. And of course the left 0/Ins is a Shift key and the bottom right one is the Menu key, The two Star keys are Ctrl and Alt and the Anchor key is the OS key And the only Shift key is actually a SpaceFn while Enter is a pure space key.
The only not cheap parts in this build are the Millmax sockets I soldered in.
So here are two potato shots, the first outside during a cloudy sunset:
Here actually the anodization even looks like an orange color and seems not that far away from the keycap set’s orange.
And the other shot is indoors with warm-white LED lighting (same mobile phone camera and both times no flash):
Here the case IMHO looks rather like a cold gold and not really orange, with a big difference to the key cap set’s orange.
So it’s not as bad as I remembered it when writing this posting initially, but I still think the case color and the keycaps don’t really fit together colorwise as I usually use keyboards indoors…
And the BM43a’s quite unique R3 to R4 offset of 0.75u is also way more awkward and annoying than I expected. I’m probably to much more used to uniform stagger (via Zlant and UT47.2) whose R3 to R4 offset is also a 0.25u off compared to standard stagger, but in the opposite direction, i.e. just a 0.25u offset between those two rows.
I’m also annoyed by the position of the .> key and wonder of I should rather use a cursor key layout like this:
Looks ugly, but is actually quite usable. I use a similar layout on the second layer of all my 60% keyboards without dedicated cursor keys: Fn-Menu and Fn-Control are left and right and Fn-Enter and Fn-Shift are Up and Down. Especially my daily driver at work, a Tex Yoda II has this style of cursor keys. (Yeah, I’m no vi user and I’m no fan of HJKL, )
Addendum: Just noticed that despite the BM43a is 0.75u less wide than my MiniVan Catalyst with aluminium case (12u vs 12,75u), it is remarkably heavier. Probably because of that chamfering on the upper side of the case.
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I’m sorry, but that CS:GO enter key is hilariously bad lmaoooo. That’s a pretty good looking build overall though. I think I put right shift to the right of the up arrow since that’s where I expect it…
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No need to be sorry. Yeah, that key cap (and a bunch of CS:GO themed full-size spacebars in that set) are hilarious and IMHO only can be used in an ironic sense. (I don’t even really know that game. ) I also could’ve used the normal Enter which is also included in the set, but this key cap just cried for being used in such a not-that-serious build.
I though suspect that the key cap set is actually targeted towards gamers who play that game and want their LAN party keyboard to be properly themed… I bought that key cap set, because I dig orange and it wasn’t that expensive. As I mentioned, it’s a rather cheap-themed build,
I also could’ve used GMK SkIIdata (which was about triple the price of the CS:GO keycap set), but that’s reserved for some more serious builds like the Kira80.
Thanks! 
Was done in an afternoon (I’m currently on Home Holidays…) and most work was soldering in the Millmax hotswap sockets—also because the pin holes of the BM43a PCB were rather tight and a few times dangerously close to some SMD components.
Ah, right, I remember: you are a RShift user and I’m a LShift user. Makes sense that way.
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And I forgot even one more unfinished project:
-
A naked (unpainted) black TKC 1800 with green plate. Got it for a bit less than normal when a bunch of them were up on Massdrop a year ago or so. Planned with GMK >Terminal_ R2 (hence the green plate).
Might become my next “home holidays” or weekend-during-COVID-19-lockdown build, but I just ran out of Millmax hotswap sockets,
(Well, there are still enough left for another 40% build, but not for a full-size build.)Additionally I run out of my favourite switches (Zealios, Zilents, Kailh Box Royal, Kailh Box Navy and Kailh Box Jades), Still have a bag of nice and orange Healios, so I might just use them initially although they’re planned them for some build with orange keycaps.
I ordered some more Zealios and Zilents at Massdrop’s leftovers shop “Yanbo’s Closet” about two or three weeks ago, but they’re not yet even shipped, probably due to COVID-19…
Just was reminded of it over in the “What is on your desk today?” thread…
Will add this and the also missing Ginny kit to the main posting for completeness.
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Well I’m finally making progress:
Leaf60: Ordered my Alps plate. Once it arrives I can build it up with brown alps.
SI 60%: Just need to lube the space invader switches then they’ll be “done”. Thankfully I don’t need to desolder in order to lube.
VIA Rebuild: Just laziness now. Going to use silk switches. I need to desolder, and rebuild it with a cooler PCB too!
LZ Physix: Big laziness here from me. I need to lube and film my NK Dry yellow switches before building up this fun one.
FR87: I need to lube the T1 switches inside. At least the whole plate/board won’t require me to desolder with the switch top removal plate/half plate.
CA66: I need to get a new plate made to try something out. Then I’ll probably go with some silk switches instead of jades 
Alternative option is NK Blueberries
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The need for a workbench haha 
Solved 
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I was trying to desolder switches I don’t like from my Alf X3 and didn’t notice the tip was ****ed up on my desoldering gun and pulling pads off the board. So now I’m missing five or six pads and am going to have to patch it up with lil wires…
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Oh yeah, that’s a pain in the ass. I used to mess up pads a lot when I was first getting started. Glad I learned about switch bridges.
It’s funny how many things you can F up in this hobby but somehow still manage to make it work in the end.
cough my F AT spacebar 
Still haven’t fixed it after a year because anger reasons…
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