My first round of polishing was on a set of filthy Taobao-grade vint blanks from elboard. These were seriously rough after an initial run through the utlrasonic cleaner so they were a perfect candidate. The switches came out much smoother but these were in such bad condition that I don’t think the diamond paste was enough. They have an odd feeling to them, ‘feathery’ is the only word that comes to mind.I had put paste on the stem poles because a lot of the poles had long scratches like dirt or sand had gotten into the little hole in the bottom housing…overall, though, it’s a night and day difference!
I’ll be doing another round of polishing when I get some more Hyperglides, and I’m contemplating making a YT tutorial on the process as well.
Welcome! I had a pretty similar experience with the vints from Elboard. They were seriously manky to start with but ultrasonic cleaning plus a lot of TLC (and lubing and filming) made them substantially better. I get what you mean about them feeling feathery - it’s something I could definitely still hear as well. I’d still rate Hyperglides as noticeably smoother in my experience but I learned a ton with the vints, so it was definitely still worth it.
Looking forward to the content if you choose to make it!
vapor/chemical polishing would probably be a lot easier as they are smooth enough stock to not need pre-sanding. stick the cap stem in some blu-tack or similar to stand them up and to keep that area from being polished, pick a solvent to match the stem material, and have at it. i’ve done acrylic and abs and it is orders of magnitude easier/faster/smoother than abrasive polishing.
Yeah I definitely learned a lot from mine too. I got another batch of Hyperglides in the mail so I’m going to film the tutorial over the next few days and hopefully have it up by the end of this week - stay tuned! I’m planning on just doing the basic method with 0.5 micron paste, rather than delving into using PG to dilute or ‘bag pasting’ or the like. I’ll try to get some good macro photographs of the polished stems and housings while I’m at it.
Sounds good! I had good luck with the 0.5 micron diamond paste as well but I definitely found that mixing in a bit of plain toothpaste made it more compliant to use, for whatever that’s worth.
I polished my batch at the same time that I had some vints and it seemed like the most noticeable wear was always on the south side of the stem on both. Not what I expected but an interesting result. Looking forward to seeing how yours turn out!
Quick Question: So if I were to use diamond paste, what method would be best to “polish” black hyperglides. I was thinking of using a break in machine like the one made on dingkeys but I read earlier that it doesn’t take long to “polish” the switches.
Break-in machines are expensive and time consuming to build. Most also can’t handle a full board at once.
I use a board with broken (zap!) hot-swap PCB. To start with, turn it over and step on it for a couple of hours while working or listening to music. Finish it off by rolling a squash ball over the switches, forcing switch stems to be pushed at odd angles, for another hour.
I polished north of 500 Cherry blacks and polishing part was the least tedious part of the process. It’s applying diamond paste and cleaning that’s most tedious. As to drying, all you have to do is wait a day or two.
…interested in trying vapor polishing – seems to have an even lower barrier to entry compared to diamond polishing. Question for those experienced with cherry switches though, would you say the stem is issue rather than the housing?
The drawback to vapor polishing assuming it can reach equivalent smoothness is that we can only apply this to the stem. With diamond polishing, we can polish both stem and housings.
Has anyone tried polishing black cherries with nylon powder for printers? I tried sanding stems separately. The method was to round off all the corners of the stem and leg and then just rub against the nylon plate
Okay, so i tried to find some summaries of what the current optimal polishing method would be.
There is a lot of replies on this topic so it’s a little hard to compile everything or try to find the original comment a reply is referring to. Thanks for your contribution to this topic!
So the current consensus is this? Please help me fill in the gaps here:
use diatoms + toothpaste if super scratchy; 0.5um diamond paste + toothpaste if mildly scratchy
apply to stem in the ideal friction areas (legs, pole, sides)
3a. either mount the switches on a board, with no keycaps, and tilt it upside down. then use your foot or some way in which you type on the board back and forth for 2 days on and off?
3b. or mount the switches on a board, no keycaps, face up, and roll a tennis ball for 30 minutes?
soak parts in warm soapy water
throw into a ultrasonic cleaner for 2 cycles of 9 minutes. each cycle replace the water and add new denture tab.
5b repeat twice for stem and top housing each; once for bottom housing
let them dry overnight
lube and assemble
???
profit
Is the 30 minute rolling ball method outdated now? or can it still yield some smoothness?
use diatoms + toothpaste if super scratchy; 0.5um diamond paste + toothpaste if mildly scratchy.
No. Just the diamond paste.
apply to stem in the ideal friction areas (legs, pole, sides)
Yes
3a. either mount the switches on a board, with no keycaps, and tilt it upside down. then use your foot or some way in which you type on the board back and forth for 2 days on and off?
Actual polishing time can be as short as a few hours if you do it rigorously. How it’s done is not important. Just try to get all 4 sides and corners of the stem rubbing against the switch housing.
3b. or mount the switches on a board, no keycaps, face up, and roll a tennis ball for 30 minutes?
Optional. Seems to help but no solid proof this helps.
soak parts in warm soapy water
Yes. This is too loosen dried up paste.
throw into a ultrasonic cleaner for 2 cycles of 9 minutes. each cycle replace the water and add new denture tab.
5b repeat twice for stem and top housing each; once for bottom housing
Not essential but why not if you have a ultrasonic cleaner.
let them dry overnight
Or dry outside.
lube and assemble
Yup
Is the 30 minute rolling ball method outdated now? or can it still yield some smoothness?
