hi all, may I ask if the polishing method will helps fitting Burgundy stem into tight housing such as Gazzew’s Bobagum?
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Not paste-based polishing which is done in-place. This implies the stem has to fit before polishing can be done. But then why not try first and scratch later?
Hey @donpark , do you have any kind of conclusion on which of the polishes/methods is your favorite? Also, I wanted to ask - is tap water okay for cleaning these switches? Did you fill your waterpick with distilled water?
I have some hyperglides that I might consider polishing if it sounds easy enough. Not entirely sure if I should yet haha.
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Yup. KPS (Korean Polished Switch) Dipping Sauce Recipe is now my favorite polishing paste. I use it to polish the old way but just once. That is, apply the paste like lube to the stem only then reassemble and polish. I polish casually a full board at a time using a hotswap board while I’m reading or coding over a day or two. As to why so long it’s because I’d often forget to step on the board.
I could tell when the switch is ready with diamond paste. But not with diatoms + toothpaste so I now have to guess and then confirm by washing and drying a switch just to see if it’s smooth enough. Tedious but the result is worth the sweat IMO. YMMV.
Re water, I just use warm tap water: soak, wash, then waterpik each while removing from water.
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A batch of Hyperglides getting ready for polishing. I’ll be smothering KPS sauce only on the stems. This batch of stock Hyperglides are noticeably smoother than stock retooled, straddling the line separating acceptable from unbearable, but I think it needs some polishing to push it into happy smile territory.
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Thanks for all the info and all the work/research you’ve done on this topic! Happy polishing!
Also just FYI, if you don’t want to step on a hotswap board, the acrylic plates that come with the gateron cap switches seem really nice for breaking switches in. You could cover up to 70 at a time with a plate of 35 hyperglides on each foot 
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After a day of casual polishing (pedaling | balling), I cleaned up one of the switches to compare against stock switches. Improvement in smoothness is clear and significant so I’ll be polishing a bit more at odd angles then set aside to cleaned up later.
While I was polishing, I fidgeted with 3 stock switches. With 60g long springs, stock felt smooth enough to be used without polishing while on the switch tester. But when I tried them out in a full board among polished & lubed retooled blacks, they felt scratchy in a way that gave me some insight into how different level of scratchiness works.
When a switch is at shit-level scratchy, you can feel it upfront while pressing. With a moderately smooth switch, scratchiness is not immediately noticeable but leaves an aftertaste of texture, impression of which adds up over time. This level of scratchiness is noise experienced over time.
I’m tempted to try building a board of lubed stock hyperglides but…they’re my precious… 
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I’ve been meaning to ask, do you lube them after polishing? Or, is polishing a (superior?) substitute for lubing?
I always lube. Using them unlubed to me feels like going for a walk without wearing underwear. Some may enjoy that but I don’t. 
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Evocative analogy appreciated 
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To be more precise, properly polished blacks feel silky unlubed but lacks the snug feel lube can add which become more apparent during use.
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A lesson from my polishing session with Hyperglides:
I was sloppy with cleaning and a few switches were unexpectedly scratchy. Upon closer inspection, I found they had dried toothpaste in the hole where stem poles go. After cleaning them out, switches became smooth.
In future polishing sessions, I am going to:
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Soak the switches in warm water for a few hours before washing them. Toothpaste dries up pretty fast and soaking will loosen them up enough to be removed easily with waterpik.
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Be more through with waterpik, particularly in the stem pole hole and side rails of the housing. Other parts of the switches are less troublesome to clean but housing needs more work.
I tried lubing 3204 again because I was running low on 205g0 but conclusion is 205g0 is the only lube for this fine classic switch. Hyperglides are sure sounded and felt the same as retooled in the switch tester but they seem more solid, tighter, and deeper sounding in use. Could be me imagining things but this set of Hyperglides is I think best polished set I made so far. Feels and sounds awesome.
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I built a kbd8x with vintage blacks but they turned out to be kind of scratchy… I think I might rebuild my board after polishing the vints. I have one question, when you clean the switches do you keep the parts in order (like the pole with the same housing that you polished it with) or do you just mix around the parts? I heard someone say that it was important to not mix around parts of vint blacks so I was wondering if the same logic applies heres.
I believe that would be because your hyperglides were made closer to the beginning of the molds life than your retools. I have some early retooled blacks & with the same spring they feel the same if not a tiny bit tighter than my Hyperglide reds I got TBH. I really believe the best switches are the ones made early in a fresh or freshly retooled mold’s life.
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No I don’t. It’s too much work as it is already. 
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That makes a lot of sense.
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I started polishing two hyperglides differently to understand why diatoms+toothpaste+PG paste applied switch felt rough from start to finish. My guess is that diatoms stops getting smaller at certain point, say 3 microns.
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Baking soda + PG - water could also be used. Baking soda particles are 65~70microns in diameter. Paste wasn’t really sticking to the surface so I had to smother on both the stem and housing. Switch felt very rough while polishing. At least the stem doesn’t stick like with toothpaste does sometimes when pushed at an angle.
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Diamond paste (0.5micro) - Went on well and switch still smooth while polishing. This wasn’t the case with scratchy retools which felt very rough in the beginning and gets smooth only toward the end. It’s a good measure of how smooth the switch is stock. This batch of hyperglide is much smoother so diamond paste was only running into minor irregularities.
My latest theory is that diatoms and baking soda are useful with really scratchy switches but what works best at super smooth level are diamond paste and toothpaste. Not sure what’s in the toothpaste I’m using but I think it must breakdown to much smaller particles, say submicrons.
I’ll report back with more details later when I’m done w/polishing.
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Yea I don’t mix the parts around either. I found that it doesn’t really matter as all of them are smooth enough with diamond paste for it not to feel any difference.
Just make sure you have consistent application and breaking in service. Then it’s no problem.
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After a few hours of fidgeting the two keys, baking soda one got a lot smoother. closer to diamond paste but edges still sticks. I’ll have to test a switch coated with just PG to see if that’s causing it.
A bit more research to learn that baking soda aka sodium bicarbonate can breakdown to sub-microns although it’s not clear if rubbing action can do that because there are patents to make sub-micron size, suggesting it’s not possible or too costly to do the other means.
I now suspect diatoms are not useful for making smooth switches smoother because I have not been able to find a paper saying it can breakdown to submicron range. It may even create scratches because diatom is very hard substance.
I like how this thread is evolving into how I work, chipping away at a problem through persistent tinkering. Like Gracie Jiu Jitsu, winning through accumulated small damages, although I’m reminded more of killing with a spoon which took off in Korean culture perhaps because Koreans use spoon as the main utensil. We use chopsticks too but they’re thought of as secondary or sidekick.
Anyway, that’s enough side-tracking. Will report back later with more unnecessary details. 
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PG wasn’t the cause of switch sticking. So it must be baking soda and whatever is in toothpaste.
Hyperglide polished with just diamond paste came out smoother than the one polished with baking soda + PG. Not sure what to make of the result.
Just started polishing another set the old fashion way. Nothing but the switch but step on the board for as long as I can stand. I know. It’s a bit nutty but I’ll report back on the condition of the switches once a week.
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