I used the Dremel 4000 in the lowest speed possible, and the wool felt cotton that comes with it, I dissolved the toothpaste in water and used it to polish all sides of the switch. I took me a lot of time to polish all the stems.
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I can see how that would take a lot of time , but I think it would be a lot faster than what I am doing right now. I will try to get my hands on a dremel and try your polishing method.
I remember that different toothpaste has different abrasion amounts, so can I know what toothpaste you used as well? 
It is a good question I thought in use different toothpastes but I used a toothpaste that I already had and did not intend to use it, Colgate Total 12 I think it is low abrasion. In the start I was kinda scary to fucked up all the switches, but with low speed I was able to use the dremel enough time to check if everything was ok. Finally to remove the toothpaste I used a ultrasonic cleaner.
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When I tried polishing with Dremel, I didn’t use any lubricant so the cotton pad just ate through the stem. So it’s good to know toothpaste helps. There were two other problems I had:
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Speed - lowest speed on my Dremel was still too high to polish safely. DIY low RPM polisher is something to look into.
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Positioning - using a hand to hold the stem being polished against polishing pad was difficult, particularly when polishing stem legs. It will also result in uneven quality. However, it’s not clear if differences in polish quality can be felt. Maybe I’m worrying too much.
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Yes, it is hard, I used a diamond holder.
I found that the stems are very good after the polish but I have problems with the bottom housing because not all of my switches are smooth, so I tested using a Gateron bottom housing and there is a big difference, they are significantly smooth, I don’t know if I will able to polish the bottom housing I saw felt polish pads that are thin maybe could be useful to reach the rails, but I am not sure if I will do it.
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We’ll need Micro-Dremel to polish the bottom housing. lol
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I have also tried to use dremel in a similar way but with the water-diluted 0.5 micron diamond paste.
For me, it worked less effective than ball polishing, and also the paste splashed in all directions.
I also tried it to polish cherry stab stems. Here, using sand paper with varying grit seemed to have better effect too.
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I have opened the switches after just a few minutes of polishing and I could see that the diamond paste moved from the areas of friction.
I wonder how effective is this.
Maybe the switch really needs be filled up with the paste for better results?
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Polishing with raw paste was more effective than PG-diluted paste which implies thicker coat matters more than even coat so, yeah, I think filling the gap between stem and housing as much as possible may help.
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Yep, makes sense now. Getting a decent coverage with raw or lightly diluted paste would not be cheap
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Anyhow, I did some ball rolling over the creams (didn’t count how long probably around 1 hour) and the hissing is down substantially. Some scratching is present but it is minor.
I am thinking to try tooth brushing paste in large amounts on my next batch.
Like, just put a pea sized amount in a bottom housing and let it spread by itself.
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Just tried polishing a Cherry black with toothpaste I’m use. Basically thickly coating slider rails, stem sides and legs, stem poles, contact leaves. About a pea-sized dollop used for just one switch. Reassembled, key presses felt squeaky but Cherry black spring is strong so had no problem pounding on it from all sides with a ball. After 10 minutes, disassembled and cleaned with waterpik (dang convenient). Even just 10 minute left some polishing streaks. Very encouraging.
Digging a little on toothpaste, turns out toothpaste’s abrasive particle can range from tens of nanometers to several hundreds. Since our 0.5 micron diamond paste is 500nm, polishing initially with diamond paste then finishing with toothpaste may be something to try. But before trying that, I’m going to ball-polish about 10 using just toothpaste for longer than an hour to see what that does. Anyway, it’s gonna take some guessing and testing or good luck to find the right toothpaste. A lot of room for tinkering here.
Lovely material, btw. Easy to get, easy to apply and clean. Minty fresh. 
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Looks like non-abrasive or sensitive teeth kind is recommended for removing scratches with toothpaste.
Some suitable toothpaste products to try include Arm & Hammer Dental Care Sensitive (48 RDA), Weleda Children’s Tooth Gel (45 RDA), Colgate 2-in-1 Fresh Mint (70 RDA), Colgate Total (70 RDA) and Colgate Regular (68 RDA). Abrasive toothpastes you should avoid include Colgate Sensitive Max Strength( 83 RDA) and Sensodyne (79 RDA).
Whenever you use toothpaste to remove a scratch we suggest trying it in a small area to ensure it doesn’t damage the surface. Also, make sure not to be aggressive when rubbing the surface.
One I use is for sensitive teeth so I’m all good I think. Minty polished Cherry blacks ahead!
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- What is rda?
- Why the use of sensitive teeth? I would think the non-sensitive would remove material faster…
- Loved ur combo tooth paste + waterpick. Next time remember to floss too
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RDA:
Relative dentin abrasivity ( RDA ) is a method of measuring of the erosive effect of abrasives in toothpaste on tooth dentin. It involves using standardized abrasives compared against the test sample.
Non-sensitive teeth toothpaste are not recommended for polishing use because they can leave behind scratches. I’d have tried them too if I had some around the house but I don’t.
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So this is a left-field thought and someone may have already done this - but has anyone here tried these processes with Creams - with or without the polishing compound?
I could see there being at least some demand for a way to break-in POM housing switches a little faster / more consistently.
I think someone has pretty good result. Personally, I have not because:
a. all my Creams are already broken in.
b. I’ve no doubt polishing would’ve smoothed Creams.
c. I’ve not used Creams since discovering polished blacks’ bassier sound.
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It sounds like you are polishing and cleaning the switches without removing the leaves. Is this correct? Seems like there would be issues if they were not removed.
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Thanks for your input but I haven’t had any issue so far. Besides, stem legs won’t get polished without the leaves.