Just did some reading through this thread again and the things that both @donpark and @treeleaf64 have found out about this area as of late are really impressive. I can’t speak for myself as I would not be able to test this myself due to a variety of things, but I am very curious about all this.
If this stuff keeps up I might end up coming into the market of buying some double-polished switches. hint hint
Haha. I doubt I’ll ever let my sets go but some may start polishing to sell given how quality of vints are, by nature, less consistent than polishing.
I’m definitely going to read up on double polishing and do some hyperglides when I order some from Swagkeys, as it seems like they’re in stock and I’m going to do a small group buy with some locals to split shipping from Korea. Polished hyperglides sound interesting for some builds I have planned *hint hint @Dr.Doof *
I don’t think double-polishing is necessary if the user is not highly sensitive to smoothness. Depends on what you’re looking for: smooth enough for use or smoothest you can make.
Just a heads up, after lots of research and use of diamond pastes in other hobbies of mine, one thing I discovered is that the diamonds will actually embed themselves into soft materials. This may cause issues with the longevity of the switches, as the diamonds wear away more material over time.
Just to be clear, I have no experience using the paste with switches, just thought it was something you all should be aware of. But I love the innovation and experimentation going on here. Keep up the good work!
Nice to know. Hopefully lube mitigate that somewhat although I may have to clean and relube after a while to ensure loosened diamond bits are removed. Thanks!
I appreciate the compliment
Remember, this should only be used for things you don’t think are smooth enough to be usable. Make sure your vints are really perfectly clean before you do any diamond paste - i thought my friend’s vints were unsolvable but they feel quite good when i’ve ultrasoniced the life out of them 
From treeleaf
Is there a specific reason you guys went straight for diamond paste? I do lots of tool sharpening, and use of diamond paste is usually for polishing exceptionally hard modern steels that would take ages with other mediums. Using it for plastics seems kinda like cleaning your dishes with a pressure washer. 
As fun as that sounds, I’d bet you could save money, time, and effort cleaning by using more traditional abrasives (super fine aluminum oxide, silicon carbide). You can order these as a powder and make your own paste, or pre-mixed in the form of jewelry/auto polishes.
Your successful use of toothpaste is a prime example of this as that just about the most gentle “polish” there is.
Not putting any of your efforts down, as I’m really impressed with what you guys have been accomplishing. Just hoping to contribute to the knowledge base. 
I definitely agree that diamond paste is overkill. I just happened run into it first on Amazon when I was looking for very fine abrasive to polish retooled blacks with, that’s all. And the fact that it came in a convenient form with right viscosity helped.
If aluminum oxide or silicon carbide are sold in toothpaste like form and size on Amazon, I’ll give them a try.
Do you mind giving a link to the polishing agents you suggested that will be similar to the original 0.5um diamond paste we are using now 
That would be nice as the replacement should be something readily available, with easily replicable results.
Just off the top of my head, diatomaceous earth added to toothpaste could work very well, and you can get a lifetime supply of it in the garden section of your favorite store for $8-15. It will be near the (garden) insect repellants.
Diatoms are actually what makes up those crazy expensive Japanese whetstones that chefs and swordsmiths love. The beauty of them is they’re friable, meaning they break down and get finer as you go. So you can attain your .5 micron and beyond.
That’s a great tip! Edible too. 
Found a small bottle of the stuff on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Harris-Diatomaceous-Earth-Food-Grade/dp/B06X952WC5/
I got an earful from my wife about wasting toothpaste last time so I may use a mix of baking powder (not sure if this is needed with diatoms in there) and diatoms in PG (leftover propylene glycol from e-liquid vaping days) instead next time, assuming the strange cocktail won’t explode on my face. 
I believe the diamond pastes use a wax-based carrier. You could use some paraffin wax (tea candle) melted and mixed with a little mineral spirits or turpentine. When it cools, it’ll form a pasty consistency rather than the hard candle form. Then add DE to that.
Of course, that method is quite a bit more involved. For something more ready-made, I’d experiment with car polishes and compounds (coarser polishes), both plain and with added DE.
All good suggestions. I’ll do some experiments when I get some diatoms powder. Thx.
Imagine somebody milking r/mm with your RnD
I’ve no beef in the game other than as a hobby so more power to anyone who chooses to do it commercially. I do like the fact that there seems to be some market demand.
Scroll down to bottom for video of bruteforce polishing. Roughly twice a second, so around ~6hrs per batch. Not bad at all.
UPDATE: I do think the polishing machine can be improved by changing the pads to more grippy rubber and adding to backing of each pad some rods or asymmetrical balls that randomly push against the pad to tilt the angle. Intent of the design change is force stem to rub against sides of the housing rails.
Rumors I heard it ain’t good
Kudos for someone trying to commercialize breaking in switches. Fortunately this is a small community if it’s great bad or indifferent word gets around quick.
As someone who put some time into this. Direct pushes like this do work but not as much as you might think. I sent samples to DonPark to compare against various methods a while back and came to a similar results. It will definately make the switches smoother then stock but further noticeable improvements can be made with other methods including different actuation methods and additives such as diamond paste, toothpaste, DE etc.
It’s interesting that the reddit post also mentioned to keep the housings and stems together. This makes sense to me. I dumped all my switches together in an ultrasonic cleaner and was disappointed when reassembled.
Its been a while but last time I tried setting up a different actuation machine, yay more power tools, I messed up a batch of switches and keycaps (my fault too much power…). I think my problem was I should have stuck with keeping the plate on the sander side and used some foam to push the switches against, I also think a line of switches would be better then a grid. Will get back to testing around eventually.
Polishing a single switch using Diatoms+PG mix had mixed result. Switch felt smoother but still sounds scratchy. I think Diatoms takes longer to polish to satisfying smoothness than diamond paste. The powder is very fine so I’m going to try dry powder polishing next.
For now, thinking of using a brush to powder both housing and stem. Another options may be to use a blower. Just puffing some into a switch through the top with stem pressed made a switch extremely scratchy but I want an even coat. If you want to try as well, be sure to put on a google and a good mask.
Oh, I did some digging and I think chalk can also be used like diatoms for polishing.
Started polishing two more switches two different ways:
Dry polishing: This is result of just placing the tip of diatoms bottom on the switch top and puffing into it with stem pressed. I didn’t expect the coat of powder to be this good.
Wet polishing: This is with paste made from mixing diatoms with toothpaste (cheapest Arm & Hammer kind).
UPDATE: Neither turned out satisfying. Definitely smoother than stock but not as smooth as the first one I tried, Diatoms in PG. Dry polishing also made unbearable screeching sound. So I threw everything into one pot.
Then I dipped the stems. Bag lubing is another option but I already made a bottle of the magic sauce and dipping was easier than bagging. Polishing three switches this time.
KPS (Korean Polished Switch) Dipping Sauce Recipe:
- Diatoms (1tsp)
- Toothpaste (1tsp)
- PG (adjust amount to reach desired viscosity)
Viscosity should be such that stem dipped into it will be thickly and evenly coated, thick enough to fill gaps between the stem and the housing.
UPDATE2:
Actually, I used a brush to apply a thin coat on one of the three. That one came out pretty smooth after polishing. The other two were dipped and literally covered with the sauce and came out very smooth after polishing. I mean double-polishing level of smoothness in one shot. I think the difference was filling the gaps between the stem and the housing with abrasive.
So I recommend dipping over brushing or bagging (haven’t tried bagging yet so leaving it out). I think this will be my new polishing method since polishing twice is not smart when I can get the same result doing it once. A big thanks to @b00zled for suggesting diatoms+toothpaste combo. It’s working great!
