Popping-in to lend a confirmation; I just got some Moyu’s today and have had the same experience messing around with them.
Generally I’ve found the Moyu stem surprisingly meh for frankenswitching despite how much I love the stock switch - but - the Moyu housing might just be my new favorite place to put tactile Gazzew stems. (Any of them - but especially the U4.)
To me, all the Gazzew tactiles feel better in the Moyu housing vs the Boba (which is okay with me because I love those housings with other stems anyway).
Had a head-scratching experience with these last night. A few nights ago I built a few U4’s with Moyu stems and they felt great, I even filmed them even though I knew it probably wasn’t going to add much.
Then, last night I broke out the lube station and did the whole assembly line but, when I started to put the tops on the stems wouldn’t return. I found that the tops I was trying were really tight on the Moyu stem which explains why they wouldn’t return. Lubing the heck out of the top helped a little but not enough for them to be usable.
Were there different versions of the tops for the U4s? I have a mixed batch, some that I bought from MK Ultra and some that I bought from someone on mechmarket. I looked at the mold marks on the front of the U4 tops and the ones returned fine had similar markings to the ones that didn’t (1-1 and 1-3 for working and 1-8 and 1-5 for not). I mean, I guess the molds could be a little different but I know that Gazzew tweaks things a lot so I’m wondering if there have been different versions of the tops and, if so, if there’s an easy way to tell them apart.’
Edit: Well, it’s late here and I’m probably making lots of mistakes but I believe I found that the issue is different-sized Moyu stems and not different sized Boba tops. This does make sense as I’ve purchased Moyus from multiple sources (the original GB by RandomKeys – I think, Drop, mechmarkets) and I usually take the switche apart immediately when they come in which means I have a mixed back. So far I’ve found 5 stems that work with the Bobas and 15 that don’t, I would think I have fewer of the olders ones but my sample size is not really large enough to make any determinations. I think I will turn in and try and test all of the Moyu stems I have tomorrow. I have a cheap caliper somewhere around the house, maybe I’ll have to bring it out.
Quite possibly. If there are no other differences (the LED slot shape is usually useful for identifying variant Gazzew-designed tops) then it’s most likely him dialing in production tolerances.
If I’m not wrong, the RGB clear tops are similar to the Outemu Ice housings that Gazzew helped to produce from years back. These clear tops were modified to have no-slit, so that they had tighter tolerances (slit doesn’t matter since the housings are transparent after all)
Btw, not too sure if this is the right place but I thought it’d be good talk about how cool of a guy Gazzew/hbheroinbob is:
Storytime
I first used Outemu Ice Purples 62g as I learnt they were “budget Zealios” for my Tecware Phantom (Outemu-only hotswap). Joined the Boba U4 initial GB and indicated that I owned the Ice Purples. Gazzew personally reached out to me on Discord, telling me to just purchase the U4 stems only and reuse my Ice housings so that I’d save a lot more cash. The stems were delivered quickly, I placed them in the Ice housings and did some light donut + spring lubing with Krytox 205g0 and viola, my favourite switches till date! I’m impressed with how Gazzew gave me an opportunity to enjoy the U4s at a much lower price, even when it meant that he earns less
If the Boba tops end up being too tight for the Moyu stems, you can also get regular Outemu tops from Gazzew by themselves - those are a bit less tight.
With the Bobas and Moyus I have, the fit is too tight.
Thanks! I was going to ask you about that but I didn’t want to bug you.
I’ve been able to cobble together 30 or so stems that return extremely easily. I’m using the same Boba top so I know for sure that the variability is in the stem “thickness.” I still haven’t measured the stems with a caliper but that might be a weekend project for me. I’m hoping I can put together about 75 of these for a board but if I can’t I’ll reach out to Gazzew. Issue is that he’s currently not shipping within California so I might have to drive down to the OC to meet him
Id like to make more U4s lighter. I have a zilent 65g which feels awesome, so i wanted to match that. I know that even the stock 62g U4 spring is heavier than zilent 65g, so what do you guys recommend me?
Im looking into TX springs, but there are too many variables.
SHORT?
LONG?
55g, 57g or 60g?
Any thoughts that could help me not having to pick 6 packs of different springs?
I don’t have that much experience with springs but I think long springs might be the way to go. I started using them relatively recently and they work fine. Haven’t done any side by side comparison and can’t really say if they make a significant difference, but seems to be the trend right now.
I’ve been using 55g bobas for a few months now, and I’m typing this on some as well, and I really enjoy the weighting of them, and have no return issues what so ever.
Why are long springs the way to go? What is their benefit? My initial guess is they make it harder to press due to extra tension, not sure if that would be an advantage
they increase the upward pressure on the stems while still allowing you to reduce the overall weight of the springs further than normal, so you could do like 50 or 45g bobas with long springs is the assumption.
This is very interesting, because in the last few days I built some U4Ts using the Blue Ice housings, and OUTEMU clear tight no-slot tops.
I actually enjoyed them more than the real U4T Thock Bobas, using the same [55 G Large springs].
They are a little smoother and less tactile than the Boba housings, at least for me, so they are safer at lower spring weights. And I think they sound more echo-ey. It was an interesting sound that wasn’t better or worse than regular U4T.
So I think that U4 Thock in the Blue Ice housings is a viable switch. My U4 [silent] in the Blue Ice hasn’t been as successful, though. I think it produces more shuffling noise than the Boba housing, but maybe I just built them improperly. So far, I only enjoy U4T Ice.
Okay, I went through this, and even have Zilent 62 G.
I don’t think I’ve ever built a U4 Boba that feels as ‘light’ as Zilent [V2] 62 G.
But the springs you want to buy are indeed 57 G TX [original] and 55 G TX [Large].
55 G Spirit should also work.
I can’t remember how well 55 G TX [original size] works.
I personally found 55 G weights to be a little iffy with U4 Boba, although they will work with 1U keys. [Modifiers may be a different story]. If you lube carelessly [best not to lube the housing at all, IMHO], you can gum up the switch. I guess 55 G should be okay if you lube carefully [only the stem + spring].
I found 55 G TX [Large] to be more forgiving, because of the higher initial weight. Although it seems to ‘catch’ a little more on the upstroke than something like 57 G or 55 Spirit.
A more reliable weight is 60 G TX [original size]. However, as others have commented, it barely feels lighter than the stock 62 G. Seems to be more forgiving of bad lubing.
U4 Boba is a fairly tactile switch, and seems to be high-friction in design, at least at first. Although sensitive to spring weight and type, it seems to be high-friction no matter what you do.
I also tried Progressive springs, however it didn’t work so great. 68 P Spirit did work well with the Halo stems, producing excellent Holy Bobas.
I tried out 55 long with blue ink housing and leg lubed with 3203. They give a big round smooth bump. However the return is lacking a bit, maybe 60g long spring or heavier progressive spring will do a better job
It’s funny, 68P works pretty well with the U4T Thock stems, doesn’t feel that heavy, so you’d think it works okay with silent U4, but it felt weak/indistinct/mushy when I tried it. Maybe I put the springs in upside-down or something!
Sounds like 55 L and Ink housing is maybe the lower limit on what’s possible?
What about Bobagum, I wonder. What’s the lowest spring weight you can get away with having U4 silent stem in a Bobagum housing?
EDIT: What’s the softest, lightest U4 silent one could make? Maybe Gazzew needs a ‘medium-tactile’ version of the U4 like what JWK did to their T1 stem.
I don’t use linear so can’t really tell. My guess is should be possible to go below 55g long for linear as they got a softer leaf. Maybe 50g long?
For light weighting tactile switch, I think a long spring is a must. To retain the tactility the lower the weight the longer the spring it needs to be.
This kind of explain why TTC blueish white feel like a 67g bottom out tactile while just having a 50g bottom out