As a beginner, I almost get cursed upon here for trying to lube stabilisers with vaseline. However, vaseline (paraffin jelly) is chemically identical to paraffin oil, only more viscous. So yes, I enjoyed reading your post.
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Thank you! In terms of building I was much closer to a beginner two years ago, when I built that keyboard - especially when it came to plates that weren’t metal. That was new jazz to me at the time.
I learned a lot in the process - and that build is also why I now keep a “plate fork” around. Turns out other folks had trouble (or maybe just sore fingers) with soft plates, and made a perfect tool for making them easier to build with.
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Hello again everyone, today I did a lot. I compared Cherry profiles from different manufacturers. Lubricated and tested Fecker linear switches. Also lubricated and tested TTC BP. It seems to me that the closest to GMK in size is the KBDFans ABS Cherry profile. But PBT keycaps have their own small changes in profile. Also, I will say that Fecker was very pleasing. They have a good heavy stroke. Minimal stem and housing wobbling. And they sound good on PBT keycaps. And I liked the sound of TTC BP switches more on KBDFans keycaps. Both stock switches and with lubrication. But since 21kb keycaps are quieter when typing, I installed them.”
here spoiler as usual a lot of photos.
TTC BP
They have a feature. You can disassemble them without removing the rgb magnifier. But to assemble them during lubrication when they are inside the lubrication station does not work. This glass is in the way. Does not give. You need to pull each one out and manually snap it into place.
Yes, I finally found what I need this pencil for. Which I bought already like a year ago, but did not know what to do with it.
A few videos.
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Cyberpunk approved!
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@donpark, after your post here, I realized I never posted a follow up on my attempt of a RO-59 alternative with paraffin oil that I posted about here.
I agree with about the tremendous amount of time lost to curing with RO-59, so I figured adding straight PTFE powder to paraffin oil would mean that as the paraffin oil evaporates just the PTFE would be left behind and it seems to work better at helping the PTFE adhere to the switch housings and stems than the water-based RO-59.
I didn’t encounter any downsides to using it on my NK Dream Creams other than some oil seepage at the seams where the top and bottom housings meet, and the top housing around stem if applied too liberally.
It will separate after it sits for a while, so shaking before use is necessary.
Once mixed, it is noticeably thicker than RO-59.
Couldn’t really decide on a good name for it, so after talking to it with a friend I went with…
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Thanks for this post. I’m going to try bag lubing with the mix you suggested.
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I made this post almost a month ago and initially I concluded that the o-ring didn’t make too much of a difference when the whole assembly is mounted in top mount mode with the gummy o-ring left in place, or at least with the one that I had.
Well I tried putting in the o-ring that came with the FBTKL and this time around I hear a more definitive change. No sound test this time but to my ears it sounds like its a little bit closer in sound to the gummy o-ring mount, a little bit more isolated sound and a slight reduction in hollowness. I think the change here is the slightly larger cross section of the o-ring, which allows for more contact with the internal case to allow it to act closer to a true gasket.
If you have a top mount board its worth trying out considering the o-ring fits into the space between the pcb and the plate to begin with.
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Built the Orion 87 Fried Egg over the last week…much to my surprise I rather like the purple-ish Black Lotus switches with the white and yellow of the keyboard, which has me rethinking my aversion to that colour keycaps (why are there so many purple/pastel-purple keycap sets/accents?).
I don’t think the keycaps work particularly well (XVX Gerbera), but they were the easiest to schlepp around the world to try out. And I do rather like that profile (and know what it sounds like).
The spacebar needs some work, and I think I’ll probably take out the antenna as I have no battery to run it wireless (and probably won’t bother getting one) - fingers crossed that will help.
built it with all foam, Owlstabs and tried out several switches (well, just did a couple of test switches):
- Black Lotus sounds the best after lubing ( my first lubed switch!)
- Illusion (nicer stock than BL, but beaten by lubed BL)
- Aflion Blue Sky (not as deep as I thought it would be
- MM Wuque Studio all Pom (much more muted than I expected, and not in a good way)
- Fried Egg (I think, just didnt like it)
Still waiting for London Fog to arrive…
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Starting to deep clean the OG HHKB. Yup, I’d say that looks like about 24 years of dust and crud.
But it was also insightful! First, Control and R Shift being stabilized by a Costar-esque system. The spacebar was completely different though. It’s more similar to Topre boards that came after it save for the springs on either side of the spacebar. It’s lost one to time and I have no idea if I’ll be able to find a replacement.
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Ever deeper down the rabbit hole of this hobby… 
Currently running the 24 hour break-in period with some Gateron KS-9 Pro 2.0’s.
This is from DingKeys. I went with the 4-way expansion, and also grabbed the off-center kit as well.
In the current setup, running at 75% speed, I am seeing ~310 actuations-per-minute, so 250K would take about 13.5 hours. In this clip it shows that it’s pulling 2 watts, but after about 20 to 30 minutes it is holding steady at 1 watt. I placed the PTFE tape in all of the places in which friction is occurring, as well as applying a daily liberal coating of my PTFE/Paraffin Oil mixture.
Checking in on it after several hours, the motor is barely above room temperature.
From ordering to delivery, it took about 2 months.
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I have no frame of reference on this, but the prices for the break-in machine seem surprisingly reasonable.
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Looks awesome. Let us know how the broken-in switches turned out compared to stock switches as well as other switches known to be very smooth stock.
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Really curious about this break-in thing: is it done to smoothen out friction surfaces in a faster way than normal typing to have, in the end, smooth switch operation?
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