Big question to anyone that's installed o-rings before. Everyone that has done this installation just mentions removing keycap, putting on o-ring, putting back on key cap. And most will rave about how it noticeably reduced their bottoming out distance. But here's the problem I find with that:
When I go to put the keycap back on, it takes considerably more force to slide the keycap back on all the way (something like 1-3lbs of force I'd estimate based on when you first removed the keycaps and/or when put them back on without o-rings) than the amount of tension in whatever spring you're using (45-80g most likely) So about 10-20 times more force, we can all agree on that right? The spring force is not able to push the keycap back on all the way. So how does this slide the keycap back on all the way? Answer, as far I can tell it doesn't, it never will!! Why, because the O-ring blocks the KEY CAP from moving all the way to the black plastic stationary part of the switch like it would normally without any obstruction, ie the o-ring. Thus, you are never going to push the keycap on all the way. The best you can do is compress the elastic o-ring slightly, this tiny compression distance is the ONLY reduction in bottoming out travel distance you will get. How, far is that tiny distance? I suggest you try compressing an o-ring. For 50a shore hardness you can MAYBE compress half the thickness if you apply tons of force, like the amount of force that could break the plastic key caps and switches, and for 70a it's much much less, it's not a linear scale.
So unless your key caps just fly on and off like butter with 40g of force, the only way to properly install o-rings is to take apart the entire switch and hold the slider in place while you force the keycap back on. The point of this would be to 1. Reduce the travel distance to bottom out, 2. Secure the key caps on fully (big problem with thicker rings), and 3. lower how high the key caps rest relative to the baseplate/main body of the the keyboard, and in turn your desk/wristpad.
Otherwise, your keycaps are resting up higher, about the thickness of the o-ring minus how far you were able to compress it, and your bottom out distance is only reduced by how much you were able to compress the o-ring.
I'm really surprised I've never seen anyone else share this. Don't believe me, try putting on 2 or 3 of the normal 1.5-1.9mm thick o-rings most people get to pronounce the effect more, you probably won't be able to even get the keycap to stay on properly.
If someone has found otherwise, I'd love to know about it, I've considered freezing my keyboard (without caps on) and warming up the key caps to compress the siders and expand the keycaps slighlty and maybe the 45g springs will be enough then. Otherwise I have to desolder, remove, and take apart every switch then force the keycaps on each slider, then put back to together and resolder every switch, but some of the key caps would block the screws from going back in, so ... Seriously no one else in the world has noticed shared this? (I tried but could not find any such results)
