It turned out to be a happy mistake. When I went to retrieve the dots from inside the folded printer paper, the heat had made them stick to the paper, so when I tried to remove them the top surface of the gripping dots torn off and stayed behind on the printer paper. While this was not part of my brilliant plan to reduce the height of the gripping dots, it worked very well to do that. The adhesive side was still fine and the sponge side was thinner. I placed the dots on the spacebar landing pad and so far they work great. Significant reduction in spacebar clack and no noticeable reduction in key travel.
I still have high hopes for my Sugru silicon spacebar mod. I noticed today the most pleasing noise in my house other than my keyboard—our KONG dog toy. This is a rubber toy you can load up with kibble and your dog pushes it along the floor knocking out bits to eat. On a tile floor the sound this rubber makes is even deeper than a silenced HHKB. Obviously silicon is not the same chemical makeup as rubber, but maybe the Sugru mod will be equally pleasing. For now the burned and butchered gripping dots are working very well.
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update: I did a test of the Sugru on the outside of a donor case (wanted to be sure it would stick to this type of plastic). I was able to roll the material out very thin and it kept its shape and size. Banging the bottom of a spacebar on the this rubber/silicon blob confirms it will mute the clacking sound (at least in this exterior setting). This Sugru stuff is supposed to have incredible longevity too. I’m going to try this when my current gripping dot spacebar mod fatigues.
