Harvesting Cheap Switches

04 Mar 2011, 23:16

Hello new here. Question.
What are the cheapest keyboards to harvest cherry switches from?
Red?
Blue?
Brown?
Black?
Clear?
by cheapest I mean typically found in thrift stores/ebay.
Thanks.
C :mrgreen:

04 Mar 2011, 23:24

Assuming eBay.com:

Brown->Compaq 11800
Black->Various WYSE Terminal boards
Clear->Cherry MX8000 (various models - ask seller to pull a keycap)
Blue->NIB BlackWidow? lol
Red->Non existent

04 Mar 2011, 23:51

Are those WYSE Terminal boards have the old type of cherry black switches?

04 Mar 2011, 23:54

Will probably depend on the year they made them. Most of them should be the older ones.

05 Mar 2011, 00:43

The Scorpius M10 might be a cheaper source for blues.

As for reds, you can make ghetto reds out of a black switch and a brown/blue spring.

Now, we should start one for common Alps switches. Or maybe start a harvesting wiki.

05 Mar 2011, 03:32

You can get blues out of some Chicony 5191's for cheap, just need to get the seller to check first, also they are PCB mounted so nice and easy if you just want to do a spring/slider swap.

05 Mar 2011, 04:04

I thought I read that the Chicony 5191 are "fake" cherries...do the switches differ within the same model?

05 Mar 2011, 05:10

thanks, all. These are good info.

.... Black Widow NIB .hah!

05 Mar 2011, 05:15

wanabe wrote:I thought I read that the Chicony 5191 are "fake" cherries...do the switches differ within the same model?

It's usually fake Taiwan Cherries. You'll get blues if you're really lucky.

05 Mar 2011, 08:35

Chicony really are an unreliable Crop for harvesting...they pop up with fake cherry switches, monetereys, i've even had one with cherry-stem mitsumis. Taiwanese roullette for switches.

05 Mar 2011, 18:03

The iOne on Amazon is $60 NIB and has Blues.

12 Mar 2011, 03:26

sixty wrote:....
Clear->Cherry MX8000 (various models - ask seller to pull a keycap)

i just got mine in the mail today; my first experience with MX Clears. The seller did take my offer of 40$ + 5$ shipping and it was shipped fast and was well packed.

12 Mar 2011, 03:27

That seller oughta send me a free board...I got him SO many sales!

12 Mar 2011, 03:30

and at that price i was thinking about getting two... i held back and got just the one.

15 Mar 2011, 10:02

i think that the red switch is the most expensive among the others. before filco Red, the only way i can get a red switch is either get myself a g80-3494 or a ducky with mixed switch.

15 Mar 2011, 13:54

I never saw a Ducky mixed switch with reds...?

18 Mar 2011, 05:57

Other than pulling switches, does anyone know where to buy the actual switches from? I would only like a few of each.

I already have Cherry Clears, Blacks, and Blues from Digi-Key.

18 Mar 2011, 11:52

The other ones are harder to get due to mass higher MOQ at Cherry. You can get reds at digikey too, but it takes 6 months and you have to order at least 2000.

18 Mar 2011, 14:21

Couldn't somebody have a switch group buy? I don't know how many people need 200 switches, but I'm almost sure you can find 10 people who'd like 20 switches.

Harvesting Cheap Switches

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