Was typing away on my new build last night and noticed the left shift just stopped working. Pulled the plate out and the socket had literally popped off the PCB because I didn't properly seat the switch. Has anyone else had luck with cheaper hotswap boards or is this just a me problem?
I had a talk with a guy at the Austin meetup last Saturday who said he runs his stabilizers bone dry with just a tiny bit of grease on the wire ends... and his build felt smoother than mine which I drenched in Krytox. He said all that thick lube just makes them sluggish over time and now I'm wondering if I've been doing it wrong this whole time. Has anyone else tried cutting way back on stabilizer lube and actually liked it better?
I was stuck deciding between a brass and aluminum plate for my first custom keyboard build last month. Went with brass because I wanted that heavier feel and deeper sound, but man the weight difference is real - my board now feels like a brick on the desk. The typing sound is this nice low thock but I wonder if aluminum would've been easier on my wrists for long coding sessions. Anyone else pick one and end up wishing they'd gone the other way?
I swapped them on my aluminum case board last weekend and the deeper housing on the Cherries killed that hollow echo I hated, has anyone else noticed the same difference between those two switch families?
Been building for three years and it just clicked that the reason my linears felt scratchy was because I was using too much lube (I was globbing it on like toothpaste) but thanks to a random Reddit thread where someone said 'less is more' I tried a single tiny drop per stem and now my Gateron Inks sound like butter, has anyone else had that 'aha' moment where you realize you've been doing a basic step completely backwards?
I was waiting for my order last Saturday and this dude in a custom board shirt tells his friend that Gateron Yellows are basically just hyped up entry switches. He said he swapped to some random brand I'd never heard of and it changed his whole typing feel. It got me thinking, I've been using Yellows for like 2 years because everyone says they're the best budget linears. But maybe I'm missing out on something better for my next build. Has anyone else had a moment where you realized you were just following the crowd with a popular switch choice?
I was totally skeptical about paying for a dedicated switch opener when a screwdriver always worked for me. Then I tried to swap springs on 60 Cherry MX Browns last weekend and my thumbs were killing me after the third one. Does anyone else find that the right tool actually saves more time than you'd think?
Spent $18 on a wire puller from a small maker on Etsy after that and it popped caps off like butter the first try, anyone else have a simple tool that saved them money in the long run?
I was putting together a new build on Saturday night and snapped the left shift stem clean off my Durock v2 stabilizer while trying to work some Krytox 205g0 into the housing. Honestly, I panicked and tried to superglue it back together but that made things worse because the stem got stuck halfway down. Has anyone else had a stabilizer fail like this during modding and what did you do to fix it without ordering an entire new set?
Went to my first local keyboard meetup last month in Austin and this one guy literally would not stop critiquing my board before I even set it down. I saved up for six months to build a budget NK65 entry with Gateron Yellows and some cheap PBT caps I lubed myself. He picked it up, clicked a single key, and said "you should have just saved for a real custom, these budget builds are a waste." I told him I was proud of it and he goes "I mean, it works I guess, but you can't even compare it to my TGR." I was so irritated I almost packed up and left right there. Has anyone else run into this kind of elitist attitude at events? Makes me not want to go to another one.
I spent months trying to get a deeper, poppier sound out of my polycarbonate build and kept adding more foam layers. Turns out all that EVA foam was killing the natural resonance of the plate and case. Switched to just a thin piece of shelf liner under the PCB on my Tofu60 last weekend and the difference was immediate - way better bottom out sound and the keys feel less mushy too. Has anyone else experimented with removing foam altogether or found a specific thickness that works best for certain case materials?
I was reading through Deskthority archives last night and found a post from some guy in 2017 measuring switch wobble on vintage Alps SKCM oranges. He showed that the wobble on a standard plate-mounted Alps switch is nearly double what you get from a modern Cherry MX housing. I just finished my first Alps build with a KBParadise V60 and the keycaps rattle like a truck on a dirt road. Has anyone found a reliable fix for this or am I stuck with it?
I went to the Chicago keyboard meetup last month and brought this batch of frankenswitches I'd been working on for like 3 months. Mixed Gateron yellow stems with some old Cherry housings and spring swapped them to 60g. Thought they'd be this buttery smooth thing. Well I let like 8 people try them on my test board and every single person pulled a face or said something like "huh that's weird." One guy just straight up said they felt scratchy. I was so sure I'd cracked some secret combo but nope. Total waste of like 40 bucks in parts and a ton of evenings. Has anyone else brought a build to a meetup and had it get roasted like that? What did you end up doing with the switches?
I spent like 2 weeks going back and forth on Gateron Yellows vs Cherry MX Reds for my custom board. Ended up going with the Gaterons because they were half the price at $15 for a 90 pack on AliExpress. Honestly they feel way smoother stock than the Cherries I tried at a meetup last month. Only thing is the housing is a bit looser so keycaps wobble more. Anyone else find Gaterons just feel better for linear builds even if the QC is hit or miss?
I fought this for like 6 months. Kept thinking lubing the stabilizer wire was a waste of time and just did the housing. Finally after my last build (a TKL with a rattly spacebar that drove me nuts), I tried it. Put a tiny bit of dielectric grease on the wire ends where they contact the stab housing. The difference was night and day (no more pinging sound). Cost me like $2 for the grease and I already had it laying around. Has anyone else had a specific piece of advice they ignored for way too long before trying it?
I was running Gateron Yellows in my first custom board for about 8 months and they felt fine but sounded kinda hollow and high pitched. Then a buddy at my shop let me try his board with some Durock POM linears and I was shocked at the difference. I swapped mine out last weekend, same keeb, same keycaps, same plate and everything else. The sound got way deeper and fuller, like night and day just from switching the switches. Anyone else had a huge change like that from just swapping one part?
I was swapping out some Gateron Yellows for Boba U4Ts on my DZ60 build last night. Pulled the switch out and the entire solder pad on the left Shift key came off with it. No hotswap on that board, so I had to jumper a wire from the switch leg to the nearest diode. Took me an hour with a magnifying glass and some 30 gauge wire. Has anyone else had luck fixing ripped pads with just wire or do you just toss the PCB?
I was real proud of my last build, a 65% with some nice creamy switches I'd been hyped about for weeks. Posted a pic of the PCB and this random dude just commented "look at those cold joints on row 3." I was kinda annoyed at first but I zoomed in and yeah he was totally right, there were like 4 or 5 spots where the solder hadn't flowed all the way around the pin. Took me a good hour to redo them all with a fresh tip and some new flux core solder. Now I double check every single joint with a magnifying lamp before I even think about putting the case together. Fixed a whole bunch of weird key chatter I was blaming on the switches too. Has anyone else had a stranger's critique actually fix a problem you didn't even know you had?
I swapped out my JWK linears for Gateron Yellows on a budget build last week and the smoothness difference was huge for half the price, anyone else find the hype around JWKs isn't always worth it?
I went all in on a brass switch plate for a TKL build back in February because I heard it gives a deeper sound, but I never finished soldering the PCB and it just collected dust until last week. Finally got the board together and honestly the weight feels nice but I can't tell if the sound is actually different from my aluminum board. Does anyone else have a half-finished build sitting around that you spent good money on parts for?
For 2 years I meticulously brushed lube onto each stem side, took like 4 hours per board. Then I tried just bag lubing springs and dipping the stem rails in Krytox 205g0, it's 90% as smooth but takes 30 minutes tops. Anyone else cut corners and get the same results?
I built a TKL last month with a brass plate and was chasing that deeper, thocky sound everyone talks about. Threw some 2mm polyfill foam between the plate and PCB, and it turned into a muffled mess. Learned that brass is already dense enough to dampen things on its own without extra help. Pulled the foam out and got back the nice clack I was actually after. Has anyone else overcorrected with dampening materials and had to backtrack?
I used to swear by soldering everything. Thought hotswap was just for people too lazy to learn. Then a guy named Mike at a meetup in Austin told me my joints looked fine, but he noticed I was swapping boards every two weeks. He said hotswap would let me test five different switch types in the time it took me to desolder one. Bought a hotswap board last month and I've already tried three new linears I never would have bothered with. Anyone else find that hotswap actually made you experiment more with switches?
I was watching a Keybored video last night and he mentioned that the angle you press a spacebar changes the sound because of the stabilizer wire twisting slightly. I never thought about that before. I tested it this morning and yeah, hitting it on the left edge sounds way hollower than the center. Has anyone else noticed this or found a way to make it more consistent?
The spacebar had a visible banana bend and two of the mods wouldn't even sit flush on the switch. Has anyone else had better luck with those cheaper PBT sets or should I just save up for the real thing?