Lubed and spring swapped some Gateron deeping 4.0mm travel switches. TX medium 67g springs and 205g0
Results are quite nice. Stems are tub lubed. They sound very consistent and still have a solid bottom out sound.
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Today I built my M0llY with the lubed Gateron Deepings I worked on yesterday.
It’s a very nice board. Of course it is also an amazing steal for $70. After I built it I did some typing and was a bit bummed because I didn’t like the sound or feel of the switches. But then I removed the silicon insert in the case. Oh boy. Night and day difference. Sound and feel is 100% better.
Also, I found a good use for some old LEDs. I don’t think I’ll ever leave capslock on by accident…. 
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[ Darude: Sandstorm Inensifies ]
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More work-couch than workbench today, adjusted the Kastenwagen1840 PCB (which nopun already adjusted to fit a ISO Enter) to fit a RP2040 helios, as I learned its not 100% pin compatible with the Elite C. The Pin for the first Status LED was not routed to a GPIO if you just switch out the MCU. So I adapted the PCB to a Helios footprint. As im too lazy to wait for my SMD LEDs to arrive, I did the first test with 3mm ones. And after some fiddling with the QMK files and creating a VIAL port of the Firmware, this looks extremely well. Very excited for the finished project.
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what keycaps are these?
AKKO WOB Building Blocks
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Yup. They’re okay. They feel like somebody added a sculpt to XDA. I like them, but I think I like their SA-L better. Akko had a run for a while where many of their budget sets contained good 40s kitting, including mini-spaces and my precious 1.75u Enter keys. The stuff that’s in-stock now isn’t quite as well suited to what I have been doing.
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I built another Stellar65 this morning. Couldn’t pass on the super cheap deal from Omnitype. $70 for a nice hotswap kit that includes a carry case? That’s an insane value. I think I like this one even more than my night runner edition. Love the matte black.
This one is built with newly arrived BSUN waves rail bottom-out linears
New switches are very good but need work. The single stage loong spring feels good but needs lubrication to eliminate spring ping Also, this is a deep, thocky switch. But since its sound profile is rather clean and low pitch, any higher pitched sound sticks out. These suffer, like most switches, from an irritating high-pitched tick when you tap the front edge of the keycap. It happens often while touch typing for me, probably because when I type fast my fingers don’t press the center of the keycap.
It took me a long time but I’m pretty sure over the past year I’ve isolated this problem and found a solution. I’m quite certain the noise comes from the stem pole colliding with the shaft in the bottom housing. A very careful coating of 205g0 on the stem pole (carefully avoiding overlubing and the tip) seems to completely silence the noise.
This is a time-intensive process to say the least. So, I’ll be trying these out for a good few weeks before I move forward with fixing all of them.
Keycaps are Key Kobo Instant. The mod colored pipe key should have an orange legend. Designer dropped the ball on that one. 
Key Kobo continues to impress me. They’ve been the only option I’ve found lately that I could say was on even footing with GMK. The only issues I’ve had have been due to the designer’s choices for kitting or novelties. But the factory is capable of making extremely nice keycaps. Need more designers for key kobo 
Also, forgot to mention but I had some Staebies left over from a long time ago that I used here. My GOD I detest these stabilizers. Finally got them to feel and sound acceptable, but these have to be the worst option on the current market for stabilizers.
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That is the biggest opening i’ve seen for the stem hole, I wonder if overtime that shape of a cutout will lead to more debris getting into the switch.
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Great write up on the switch! I got these in recently and I think my only complaint (and I really should have known better) is that they 55g spring weight but then with a 22mm spring, it doesn’t feel like 55g. It probably is closer to 58 or 59g.
I should have caught this, but at the same time in retrospective, I think it is misleading. Maybe switches with longer springs should come with a “really feels like this weight” stat.
Yes, They feel more like 65g to me. That’s good, because I like a medium-weight spring. But it’s certainly nothing like a traditional 55g switch in push feel.
I just tested them against a NK Launch edition switch (63.5g). They are quite heavier at the top, pushing the Cream stem in first, then they level out, and they end up slightly lighter than the cream at the end. So maybe more like a 60g switch that is more consistently weighted throughout, due to the long spring.
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Oh wow! I didn’t think the weight feeling was that drastic. I don’t have that many medium switches out and about to compare. I like them, but I don’t really want to spring swap so I might resale them only due to the fact that I feel slightly bamboozled.
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How I do it (to soften bottom out sound or remove squeaks from slipping stem tip):
- Place a dab of 205g0 on a smooth flat surface (I use a jar lid) then spread it thinly to using a brush.
- Hold a stem firmly vertically (using a stem holder) and swirl the tip on the jar lid.
Yup. Spring swap can be an eye opener. Perfect spring keeps on giving.
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Maybe the dampening pads molded into the bottom housings of Deeppings do have some effect. It sounds like you were getting a double dampened situation with the silicone insert installed possibly. I know just from the talking back & forth we’ve done on here our preferences are fairly similar & I love the Deeppings I have in the Matrix 3.0. Speaking of I do need to get some more of them. HMX snow crashes & the BSUN waves are also on my radar since you said you like both of them. Not sure if it’s just my more old school tastes showing through, but I still prefer rail bottom out to long pole (not that I dislike long pole, just like rail bottom out a little better).
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I made a fine mess of plate trimming but Bastion TKL PCB is working just fine in…I forget what the name is but its cast-iron case sounds pretty good. Switches: Akko POM Browns except for the Cherry Ergo Clear switch CannonKeys threw in along with the PCB.
NOTE how F9-F12 cluster is north-facing in F12 layout. For south-facing, you’ll have to go with F13 layout.
UPDATE: Doh. 7U spacebar means I’ll have to fix cut some more PC.
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Today I replaced the stock stabs in my workhorse keeb (a Yunzii AL71) with Durock V3 clip-ins (plate-mount). The stock stabs were above average for what they were, but man, what an improvement. 
Perfect thing to do with a little downtime babysitting the printers today.
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Pin-dripping worked with clear nail polish. Here is first test batch being dried. Just dip a pin into nail polish then touch the base of two pins to release just enough to fill gaps between pin and housing.
No idea how long this will last but, as long as chips don’t fall out, they should be stuck in position.
UPDATE: They’re Gateron Ink bottom housings. Not many loose but many pins move with slightest pressure, the kind a switch would experience as stem moves up and down. My hypothesis is that loose leaf is the source of the ‘dusty’ feel. 
UPDATE2: After nail polish on pins dried, pins seemed stiffer. Usually, they’d give sideways. Weird.
I tried the same with one of the Gateron North Pole V1 switches which had what felt like a scratch mid-stroke as well as loose pin issue. Same with bonus: stiffer pin and no more scratch. Hard to tell what happened but I suspect tiny pin slippage could not only feel ‘dusty’ in use (typing fast) but ‘scratchy’ when pins are pressed more slowly.
I also tried applying nail polish to bottom side of some unused keycap. Not much pitch change but sound seemed crisper/harder. I’ll check on it after a few weeks to see how it changed over time.
Anyway, result is still tentative as I haven’t seen through the lifecycle yet nor tried other candidates like rubber cement and crazy glue.
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Another crazy experiment idea: sealing shut a switch with the stuff instead of film. [UPDATE: Nail polished switch is firmer and less wobbly than filmed. Filmed switch’s bottom out sounds relatively soft where nail polished one sounds hard.]
I want to see how much of a mess it’ll be to reopen the switch. I have some broken Inks around to sacrifice. [UPDATE: confirmed that sealed switches can be unsealed using a switch opener and…no mess that I could see. Just needs a tad more force than normal switches.]
Not crazy. Just curious.
Observation: Of the two leaves, the leaf with thinner pin is more likely to teeter totter when nudged sideways. Applying nail polish fixed that, no idea for how long yet.
BUT I can say that this is a promising alternative type of solution to several old mechanical keyboard troubles. Finding the ideal substance could take some time though.
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Don, that looks like a KeebMonkey WK870 case. I have a light gray version, it’s a bit heavy.
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Aha. Thanks. The name and vendor sounds familiar now. 