O-Ring Rubber Switch Dampeners now available

[TheProfosist]

I plan to buy some red ones when they are available

[curro123083]

I plan to buy some red ones when they are available

Second that...

Sent from my Photon 4G

[sordna]

After doing some research, the new O-rings will be EPDM (ethylene propylene). The size is the same as the current O-rings. There will be two hardness levels available: 40A and 50A. The 40A will come in Red and the 50A will be in black.

Awesome, I'll be getting some red ones then! By the way, having tried both harder, and softer materials (soft-landing pads) I have come to the conclusion that 40A durometer is the ideal. Before the soft-landing pads (I believe the gray firm ones are around 30A) I thought that the softer the better, but when I tried them on my red MX switches I discovered that I couldn't easily tell if I bottomed out the key or not, so I found myself pushing the keys harder! 40A o-rings was the sweet spot for me, they are quiet & shock absorbing (more so than 50A-70A o-rings) and still "bouncy" (no vague/mushy feeling). Of course, some people like softer, some like harder; these are my personal observations/preferences I'm sharing here, so YMMV.

[TheProfosist]

i bout the firm EK Soft Landing pads thought they were much too mushy idk what i would have don it i would have gotten the soft ones. i recently switched my SteelSeries 7G over to WASD's current o-rings and saw an immediate improvement though for my tastes they may just be a tad hard (a very small tad). How are they going to comapre to the new ones that WASD has on the way?

[sordna]

What is the life expectancy of these "O" rings? (the ones supplied by WASD)

Most rubber/silicone materials dry / harden over the years, maybe WASDkeyboards can give us an actual estimate for the material they are going with.

i bout the firm EK Soft Landing pads thought they were much too mushy idk what i would have don it i would have gotten the soft ones. i recently switched my SteelSeries 7G over to WASD's current o-rings and saw an immediate improvement though for my tastes they may just be a tad hard (a very small tad). How are they going to comapre to the new ones that WASD has on the way?

If you found the firm pads mushy, you would have found the soft ones feel like quicksand!
Regarding o-rings, our findings match exatcly, I too found the current 50A durometer o-rings a tad too hard, so the 40A red ones WASDkeyboards are going to stock should be just about perfect.

[TheProfosist]

sounds great ill definitely buy a set of red o-rings for my WASD V1 Custom Blues keyboard as i can no longer stand the bottoming out noise.

[wasdkeyboards]

What is the life expectancy of these "O" rings? (the ones supplied by WASD)

Nitrile life expectancy is about 10 years. I don't have a spec for the EPDM o-rings, but it's supposed to be much longer, I'd say 20+ years.

[Paulie]

For £10.23, I reckon it's worth a try on my Filco with blues. Hopefully it'll stop my heavy-handedness. And the resulting ping.

[Lanx]

eta  on red o-rings?

[TheProfosist]

eta  on red o-rings?

middle of november

[Bongoojingie]

After doing some research, the new O-rings will be EPDM (ethylene propylene). The size is the same as the current O-rings. There will be two hardness levels available: 40A and 50A. The 40A will come in Red and the 50A will be in black.

Overall, EPDM is a better material with tougher tear resistance and longer lifespan. Currently, the O-rings are made are nitrile which are still pretty good, but I figured why not use the best?

Downside is slightly higher cost and weak resistance to petroleum based grease. We use lithium grease here so we have to be careful not to get the grease on the O-rings as it can cause the O-rings to break down. So do take care with this if you ever need to re-grease your keys or use a silicone based grease instead.

So does this mean the nitrile ones are safe to use with lithium grease?

[sordna]

So does this mean the nitrile ones are safe to use with lithium grease?

I don't think the keycaps (where the o-rings are installed) ever come to contact with grease (which is used on stabilizers). It's a non issue IMO.

[whiskerBox]

Thats a pretty good price as they are $2.27 for a 10 - pack @ lowes and home depot

[Lanx]

Thats a pretty good price as they are $2.27 for a 10 - pack @ lowes and home depot

don't give them ideas!

[Input Nirvana]

Remember, Homo Depot and Lowers are full on, homeowner rip-off retailers. Anything you buy in a tiny quantity will be a poor dollar value.

I love the 50A black nitrile o-rings, but would love to try hitting the 40A red EPDM and see how it is.

Typical WASD, always doing the best. Sheesh!

[Bongoojingie]

I don't think the keycaps (where the o-rings are installed) ever come to contact with grease (which is used on stabilizers). It's a non issue IMO.

Well, from the base of the stem where the stabilizer attaches to where the O-ring is in place is only a few mm apart at best.  Depending on how liberal you are with the lube and having to put the keycaps back on after the lube is applied, I would say it would be relatively easy to have them come in contact.  

I'll agree it's a minor issue and just requires you to be a little more careful, but I wouldn't say it's a non-issue.  According to a material safety data sheet I found, they recommend using nitrile gloves to handle white lithium grease, so I would definitely say it's a safe combination  Just in case anybody else is curious.

[sordna]

I really doubt the o-rings will disintegrate if the touch some grease. Their surface may dull a little but they'll still work fine. It's not like they will withstand huge forces like they do when squeezed by metal screws etc, in usual o-ring applications. Anyway, it would be an easy thing to test by dipping an o-ring in the grease for a few days.

[wasdkeyboards]

Current nitrile O-rings are perfectly safe with lithium grease.

Lithium grease is only applied to stabilizer parts and will be never come in contact with the O-ring. However, precaution should be used when handling the O-rings and grease. I recommend that you wash your hands before handling the EPDM O-rings. EPDM will swell if you get grease on it. I don't have them on hand yet, but I will do some testing to see how sensitive they really before putting them on the website.

I don't know what these cheap O-rings from the hardware store are, but I've looked at several O-ring vendors and quality O-rings are not cheap even when I purchase 20,000-40,000 at a time.

[Bongoojingie]

Current nitrile O-rings are perfectly safe with lithium grease.

Lithium grease is only applied to stabilizer parts and will be never come in contact with the O-ring. However, precaution should be used when handling the O-rings and grease. I recommend that you wash your hands before handling the EPDM O-rings. EPDM will swell if you get grease on it. I don't have them on hand yet, but I will do some testing to see how sensitive they really before putting them on the website.

I don't know what these cheap O-rings from the hardware store are, but I've looked at several O-ring vendors and quality O-rings are not cheap even when I purchase 20,000-40,000 at a time.

Thanks for the diligence, I appreciate it.  I bought the nitrile ones from you

[whiskerBox]

I don't know what these cheap O-rings from the hardware store are, but I've looked at several O-ring vendors and quality O-rings are not cheap even when I purchase 20,000-40,000 at a time.

From my experience you have a way better deal than the local stores(Lowes/Home Depot). In order to get the same quantity that you are offering it would cost $27.46 with tax, but I am not sure as to what quality they are I just know that those are how much the ones that fit cost.

[wasdkeyboards]

From my experience you have a way better deal than the local stores(Lowes/Home Depot). In order to get the same quantity that you are offering it would cost $27.46 with tax, but I am not sure as to what quality they are I just know that those are how much the ones that fit cost.

Oops! Sorry, I read the last post wrong. I thought you said your could get the same amount for $2.00 at Lowes or Home Depot. I was about to drive over there and look, haha.

[whiskerBox]

Oops! Sorry, I read the last post wrong. I thought you said your could get the same amount for $2.00 at Lowes or Home Depot. I was about to drive over there and look, haha.

You can get 10 of them for $2.27 but to do a whole keyboard its well 10 times that. I almost bought them because I am impatient but they didn't have enough :laugh:

[sordna]

You can get 10 of them for $2.27 but to do a whole keyboard its well 10 times that. I almost bought them because I am impatient but they didn't have enough :laugh:

Local stores almost certainly have the hard 70A+ durometer o-rings, you don't want to buy those. if you're in a hurry, you can get the current black nitrile / 50A duromoter o-rings from WASD: http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/keyboard-accessories-2/cherry-mx-rubber-switch-dampeners.html

[whiskerBox]

We need an O-ring wiki explaining the differences between the different kinds of O-rings

[TheProfosist]

We need an O-ring wiki explaining the differences between the different kinds of O-rings

well the o-ring mod was as prevalent until WASD starting carrying the o-rings so there was just a thread or 2 on the topic I believe.

[itlnstln]

DIP wiki.

The only wiki contribution I have ever made.  I follow the Korean wiki philosophy.

[itlnstln]

Why re-invent the wheel?  They just needed to be stored in the same warehouse.

To be clear, I copied the tables from Elite, but the additional information was original work.

[sordna]

We need an O-ring wiki explaining the differences between the different kinds of O-rings

This is the original o-ring wiki, with some info about different kinds of o-rings in the discussion thread:

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:5450

[Khaotik55]

Hey wasdkeyboards! I ordered the o-rings off of you a few days ago and received them, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for unfortunately

I wanted it to reduce the key travel more than I wanted it to reduce the "clack" of bottoming out. I found out that I enjoyed the key travel the most when I had 2 o-rings on the same stem but this was too close to the actuation point of my Cherry MX Reds which resulted in the key not actuating 100% of the time.

Is there any way you could stock a slightly "higher" o-ring that reduces key travel more than the current ones but isn't quite as tall as 2 of the current o-rings together? Or tell me what size that would be? Thank you!

Edit:
I figure an o-ring of that thickness has to be somewhat firmer as well so you don't get that gummy feeling of a fat o-ring.

[sordna]

Reduced key travel is generally considered a drawback, I doubt it would be a good business decision for WASD to stock such thicker o-rings :-) You can try getting keycaps with shorter stems, like Cherry doubleshot keycaps; with those the reduced travel of the standard o-rings is more pronounced. If you want to try different o-rings you should try size 106 or 107 (standard AS568A sizing) both of which are 50% thicker than the 008 size you have. About $6 on Amazon and eligible for Prime shipping... they are slightly harder than wasd's so should be perfect for your specialized purpose. The 106 have same inner diameter as the 008 ones you have, but might be harder to stretch to put them on. The 107 have a lightly bigger diameter (keeping the same thickness as the 106) although the diameter is almost the same as the keycap stems... a quarter of a milimeter less than the stems. Assuming tight tolerances they should be perfect, but if they come a teeny bit too large they could slip off too easily. In the interest of science you gotta order and try both, and let us know your findings!

http://www.amazon.com/-106--Ring-Durometer-Black-Width/dp/B000FMYR48
http://www.amazon.com/-107--Ring-Durometer-Black-Width/dp/B000FN0XPY