Finished my purposed Linear Alps switch opening tool. Had to revise it once, but now it's a one-handed one press switch opener. You can seriously open dozens of switches in seconds this way.
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Crappier shot with some more switch types:
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More shots below:
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If I could find out what kind of plastic this is, I could order some sheets of it and start making tools for people that would like one!
These are seriously amazing. I used to HATE opening Alps switches. I'd use toothpicks and it was just so tedious and the picks would eventually wear out or break, the tips would splinter...
This is just so quick and simple. I can see a lot more spring, tactile leaf/click leaf, housing, and slider experimentation with these.
Awesome work. I can't wait to try and make one myself.
Somewhat unrelated, but that brown Alps click leaf, is it two-piece? I've never seen that before.
Yep, it's actually highly reminiscent of the contact plates inside of Alps switches, except without any contacts (the molding is not exactly the same either), and a leaf clipped onto the top just like the contact plates.
Brown Tactile Alps actually had symmetrical top housings. If you look inside the housing, there's this sort of raised pattern on the outward facing walls. On every other switch, this is only on the side with the contact plate whereas the other side is smooth.
I tried taking apart a junked switch and salvaging its contact plate to see if I could make a "ghetto SKCM brown" this way. I took it apart and tried to put it into an orange Alps housing, but it didn't fit.
It did, however, fit just perfectly in a brown Alps top housing and felt very similar to how brown tactile Alps feels (the contact and tactile leaves are not 100% the same, they are far more pronounced on the actual tactile leaves, but they are actually very similarly shaped nonetheless).
Yep, it was a weird way to do it. The successor to brown SKCM is neon green SKCM and it has a simple tactile leaf like most other switches, but its shape is reminiscent of the brown tactile Alps leaf.
They're certainly from the same lineage. Cream tactile were probably the first more typical tactile switch before Orange and then Salmon and Black, but you can just look at the leaves in most switches, clicky or tactile, and see that the browns and neons deviate a lot further than the difference between typical clicky and tactile leaves.
WHEW that was long-winded. My bad.
Lol I knew they looked familiar. Just a ball mark repair tool
Yep, it heavily inspired me to do this. The stem idea was just a "heeeey, wait" moment when I tried out the original design, haha. "Something's missing here, what can I do to make this even more simple?"