I like the blueberries, but they definitely need lube to be at their best. Lubed mine with 205g0 on the slider and stem. The stock springs were also too heavy for my liking, so I swapped the out for something lighter.
SA R3 is quickly becoming my favorite profile and these caps feel and sound great on these switches - except for the space bar. The combination of the large tactile bump with the brass plate make the SA space bar extremely loud. I cut a piece of sorbothane to fit inside the space bar to absorb some of the vibration and it works pretty well.
Decided to finally put everything together for my Rakk Lam-Ang Pro, since I made a Filipino friend, and tossed in the TTC Gold Reds I had lying around. I’m… quite pleasantly surprised by these switches. I lubed some of the loose ones, and they didn’t take too well to it, so I wasn’t expecting a lot out of these. Now that I’m actually using them, they don’t sound half bad, and they actually feel smooth enough to use on a daily driver… even if this won’t be my daily driver. I’m gonna give them a good, honest break-in and then see if they take to lube any better - maybe put some heavier springs and some thicker lube in them, and see what I can do about these stabs, since they’re by far the weakest link. Damn plate-mount cherry stabs being out of stock everywhere. I wish I could fit some Costars in this silly plate!
These Lam-Angs are pretty rad, all things considered. I’d been interested in this chassis since I first heard about it from Tae Keyboards - I had definitely considered tracking down a proxy to get one.
Not long ago, I did stumble on a de-badged barebones version being sold from the US; it’s not branded, only comes with one top shell, has no foam pre-installed, and has no packaging or documentation - but it’s definitely the Lam-Ang Pro; the software syncs right up to it. I was so stoked to see it I bought one for myself, and one for a friend that I knew was looking for something similar.
At $80 USD and including both Bluetooth and hot-swap features, it’s a highly practical, feature-rich, and affordable platform. Now that I know these are obtainable in the US without much hassle, this is now now my short list of go-to recommendations for people curious about the hobby.
If I could only have ONE mech, it would probably be this one - I think it makes for a perfect daily driver. It’s totally possible to build this into something very satisfying to use, while at the same time it’s not delicately crafted from expensive materials, so I don’t feel the need to be precious with it. For me, this makes it a much better daily, and a much better test-bed for new switches than the Massdrop CTRL I’d previously been using for that purpose.
Speaking of which… what is the deal with TTC switches? Is there a particular reason they exist, or a particular niche they fill? Just curious about them.
Who knows why they exist - all I know is that it’s a pretty decent switch, especially for the price. They’re smooth enough, have practically no wobble, and don’t even sound too terrible!
TTC is also known as “those guys what make the Razer switches”, in case you didn’t know.
I’m rocking the Acrylic Tofu built with a purple ano plate, some cheap PBT dyesub caps from AliExpress, BOX Reds and the AN-C PCB I picked up from Cannonkeys. Plus some iced coffee from my Chemex. This is my “budget” board and while I have nicer and more expensive boards, this one keeps showing up on my desk more often then not. I love it.
Solid all around, good coffee, good cookbooks, and a nice keyboard. What coffee are you using? I’ve been working to find the perfect coffee for making iced espresso.
I’ve been lucky here in Portland we have so many good local roasters. This is an Ethiopian yirgacheffe light roast from Sauvi Island Coffee Co. It’s great iced. It’s a blueberry bomb and almost drinks like a tea. I brew it in a Chemex using 300g ice in the bottom, then 60g coffee and 700g water over three pours and using a 45 second bloom.
Dang that sounds delightful. There’s no dearth of options here in the Bay Area either. I’ve got my go tos for cold brew and hot espresso, but I just haven’t found that right one for the iced espresso yet. I have family in Portland so I’ll definitely have to try that one next time I’m up there.
Box reds are smoother than any un-lubed regular MX switch and the bottom out is very satisfying if you are into the bottom out feel. A great budget choice.
I suppose he meant Cherry by “regular MX”, since almost everything is smoother than Cherry. But compared to all the other options we have today, box switches ended up being a swing and a miss.
I love how switch preference is so polarizing in the community. It provides for some good discussion and the occasional science experiment.
For me, I’ve landed on light to medium linears as my preference. BOX reds are my pick so far, but I can’t wait to try more. I have 62g tangerines on the way and am hoping to snag alpacas next time they come up for sale. Creams and gat yellows were a huge miss for me. The leathery feel of creams I hated, and even after switch films and a quality lube job with 205g0 on my gat yellows they were still super scratchy. Gat and cherry reds were ok but not something I’d want to invest more time into. I love the BOX reds because they are smooth stock, cheap, and have very little wobble in the batch I got.
True I am behind the times I haven’t tried Alpacas or Tangerines, etc. but Box Reds are way smoother than Cherry Reds, Gat Reds, Tealios, etc. and come with none of the spring ping that tends to happen on all three of the aforementioned switches. I remember buying Tealios and expecting bliss only to find out without lubing them they ping and barely feel better than a Gat Yellow. Lubed is another story completely.
Maybe I need to get some box reds to try, but I have box yellows which I thought were similar to box reds and they definitely are not smoother than tealios.
Maybe I got a bad batch of Telios. They were from 1Up so I don’t think they were knock offs. Box Reds have an early bottom out, which you feel. I think this is why folks think they are not as smooth as they are. The actual down stroke is very smooth, it is just quickly met with the impact of bottoming out.
I guess if you are taking the “whole” keystroke into account, including the shorter travel and hard bottom out, then Box Reds are not as smooth.
