Key "clattering" with Cherry stabilizers

[face]

Hey,

did you experience key clattering when using Cherry stabilizers? My bigger keys don't sound very mature with them...
Is there a way to fix this?

Best regards
Max

[czarek]

For me unmodded cherry stabs are actually mushy and not clacky enough I'd say. I always clip them to make them feel less mushy. If they do make some weird noises you may use some silicone grease to lube them. I believe (by the looks of it) it's the same stuff that is being used by Topre and Unicomp in their keyboards.

[Wodan]

Just make sure you use low viscosity grease for any keyboard application. The only point I use higher viscosity than 350 is the stabilzer joints.

[face]

Ok, I'll try to lube them! As I understand it it's not possible to clip the stabilizers without desoldering. Maybe I will do this when I eventually change to the GH60 (maybe I will change the plate to get a short right shift with an extra key so I will have to unclip everything anyway, but since my bankaccount is empty I'll have to wait for that to happen). Until then, I'll go with lubing.

Found the imgur on keyboard lubes and will try the Kryptox GLP 205.

[LewisR]

I had some that rattled badly and I had to replace the entire stabilizers. I believe they were some poorly made clone.

[Stabilized]

Be wary where you are buying your stabilisers from if you don't want to have this kind of problem. I have noticed that ones that are sold by some sellers are made in China by third party manufacturers (usually cheaper) and suffer from this problem.
I have found that they use thinner wire, have more relaxes tolerances on the moulding, and make the sliders and housings from a rougher material (they feel gritty). Even with lube it doesn't always solve the problem!

[rootwyrm]

Definitely watch for counterfeits and knockoffs. These things are complete junk. They have atrocious stem-walk if you're lucky. Half the time the "scratchiness" isn't, it's the stem assembly actually walking inside of the housing. Kailh's knockoffs are absolutely godawful with this and the only fix is to replace them with quality parts.

Depending what style stabilizers, you may also need to apply thick grease (lithium grease is good) to the plate anchor/wobble points. This is pretty uncommon these days - even on plate mount stabilized boards - but they're still out there on some. There's a very, very small lip in the plate which keeps the wire from walking. That's where you want the grease. Use low viscosity where the wire touches the plastic though.
For unclipped stabilizers, I also recommend a thick grease on the keycap stem exterior when using thick keycaps. Especially thick PBT. Some keycaps (notably Ducky) actually have thick enough stems to rub just a touch there even when everything's in tolerance.