What is on your desk today?

It’s not literal, but I do have an inquisitive kitten who likes to knock over anything that’s in a stack on my shelf.

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This is a hilarious topic, and should be the subject of scientific study. How cat-proof is any particular board? How big must the cat be to knock it off the shelf?

I’d put a Monolith up against a Puma, but am unsure of leopards or lions. It is also worth considering that if a large enough cat takes up residence on top of your board, how do you pick it up if it weighs more than you do?

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One possible solution

Science is not moving forward on this hot topic, and that’s sad. Might be a funding issue.

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Isn’t that why we want brass weights in our boards? So that cats don’t accidentally knock them off shelves?

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Not exactly a desk, but hey - I figured you’d rather see my old ottoman than my lap.

Just now, I’ve decided to call this thing the Silver Surfboard; a Massdrop CTRL with Ducky’s Skyline double-shot PBT keyset and some custom switches with Trash Panda housings. All the gray! Even the stems are silver.

I’ll be doing a write-up on these switches at some point; YOK Trash Panda housings with [Outemu’s] Silent Linear stems [available through Gazzew / HBHeroinbob], and lubed with one of Gazzew’s grease lubes - “blend #2”, IIRC.

I went a little nuts with silent switches there for a minute, and after having tried pretty much everything available, I can say these are one of the most actually-silent switches out there. Cherry Silents are practically thunderous in comparison… The dampeners in these [Outemu] stems are a lot softer than other silents, and with the lube, they are whisper-quiet.

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How do they feel? Do they have a similar soft-bottom-out feeling when compared to Cherry silents?

They definitely have a softer bottom-out than regular switches as well as Gateron silents (which themselves are surprisingly snappy, but at the cost of some quietness) - and even though the dampener material itself seems softer, I definitely get less of a “mush” impression from the [Outemus] than I get from the Cherry’s. (Of all the silents I have tried, the Cherry ones are my least favorite - props to them for innovating, though.)

I think the reason for this is that where the Cherry silents and a few others have the lower dampeners divided into two or three thinner, tapering “feet”, the [Outemus] have what is essentially just a band of silicone slotted into the sides of the stem, so that bottom “foot” doesn’t collapse as much.

If I’m not too lazy I’ll do some more in-depth comparisons of the stems themselves with testing and photos.

As an aside - while I’d recommend these silent linear stems to just about anyone that wants a quiet keeb (and likes linears), I have a harder time recommending the version of the tactiles that I tried (2.2, I think - he iterates these pretty quickly and they improve with every version). They are pretty quiet, but I think the feel would be more controversial - it reminds me quite a lot of rubber domes, just that they actuate halfway down instead of at bottom-out.

Edit: Here’s a bit more of an in-depth comparison in case you’re curious.

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Confused me for a minute calling them Gazzew’s, lol. They’re made by Outemu, gazzew/hbheroinbob is just their western contact/reseller.

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Ha thanks - I’ve been wondering about that. I knew they were made by Outemu, but I had the impression that gazzew/hbheroinbob was involved with the design and iteration of the Sky bits. I’ll edit my post(s) for clarity either way since pretty much everybody here is going to be familiar with Outemu.

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I think he’s involved with the design for the modern aristotle stems or whatever they’re called now

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Yep, the Phoenix stems.

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I believe hbheroinbob did have a hand in coming up with the specs for the Outemu Sky switch revisions, but did not come up with the switches themselves. As for the silent Skies he may have had a bigger hand in those & the Phoenix stems are all both him & gazzeW, with Outemu just being the manufacturer. I could be wrong though as I ordered one batch of Skys & tight top housings through hbheroinbob & did not like them as much as HPs or V2/V1 Zealios, so I never got anymore. Plus all the extra work needed retooling the stem guide before you even start to tune them really put me of of them.

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Decided to throw my GMK Sky Dolch set on my ACR60 & show them some love. I tried out the R5 keys on my bottom row & they are actually pretty damn comfortable. Unfortunately they look like crap without a R5 spacebar (anyone know if GMK even makes these?) So I went back to a all R4 bottom row.

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Something else I’ve been curious about - is “gazzew” another moniker that hbheroinbob uses or is it a different person? (Or maybe the name of his business?)

I originally came across hbheroinbob through a post about silent Sky switches - which in turn I found while specifically looking for Outemu-made silent switches. I was looking for those as a possible route to a less-expensive silent board for a friend - one that could be put-together with one of those Outemu-only hot-swap boards. I eventually abandoned that idea for a different route, but the silent Sky stems had my curiosity.

Once I heard about switch components that you could only get through one guy, and that you’d have to message him directly rather than just order them on a website, I had to snag some… I’m a sucker for things in general that are available in many great or subtle variations - and I definitely have a weakness for “obscure” varieties or versions of things. :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s also why I couldn’t resist trying to get my hands on a XiKii :rhinoceros: top shell (similar to this one) for one of my Filcos after seeing a photo of one - not so much that it’s a rare thing, but that it would be fairly uncommon on my side of the pond. (And I really wanted an aluminum case for the board that wouldn’t change its typing angle.) Since they were meant for the Chinese market and by default they only shipped to mainland China, I ended up needing a proxy to speak with the seller and arrange shipment. That was a new experience for me, and I got the biggest kick out of it. [Insert compulsory wallet joke here], but this is easily one of my favorite hobbies ever, and I enjoy it every day.

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They are different people. I’ve bought some stuff off r/mm from someone who works for or owns gazzeW (he doesn’t go by that name on reddit, or at least didn’t at the time. gazzeW was on the invoice though) & he lives in my state PA, I can’t 100% remember where hbherionbob shipped from, but I think it was on the west coast. I think they are working with each other now & that’s why there is some confusion.

You sure? Because this is how hbheroinbob signs several of his reddit posts about the Outemu switches:

Thank you for your support.
Paul
/u/hbheroinbob
gazzew#0360 (discord)

And he’s the one who sold the Gazzew 66 last year: https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/comments/6fad2z/uscahgazzew_66_custom_60_pcb_w_paypal/

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Yeah, Gazzew and good ol Heroin Robert are the same guy.

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Huh, I’ll have to check my invoices. I could’ve swore they came from two different locations & people. Looks like I’m wrong though.

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Yeah you guys are right gazzeW & hbherionbob are the same people or at the very least he is definitely one of the people who make gazzeW go if that’s a business name. The gazzeW PCB I got was just bought off a r/mm user that lives in PA, not from anyone claiming to be/be from gazzeW.

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Received SA Leviathan and the Kokrabba artisan today, and I got the desk mats a little while ago, so I finally got to put them together on my Grid600.

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JTK Hyperfuse in Dark Green Tofu 60%.

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