Swapping springs definitely affects the force. That's actually why I actually wanted to keep the springs the same for comparison.
Here are all the combinations I've tried. I did a bunch of test pushing the switches into each other in order to check their relative stiffness, so this chart is in order from most to least stiff initial bump.
I am only comparing which switch gets pushed in first initially. Comparing them post-bump is a lot trickier. All of these are using a Box Royal housing unless I say 'stock' so I'm not bothering to write that part each time.
Switch | Notes |
Box Royal slider w/ Hako Clear spring | Just a spring swap but the Hako spring is much heavier than stock Box Royals |
Box Royal slider w/ Hako True spring | Wait, how could this be below the Clear spring you ask? More discussion below |
Hako Clear slider w/ Hako Clear spring | The Hako Clear slider seems to be really tactile |
Hako True slider w/ Hako True spring | Feels really smooth. I like this one |
Box Royal slider w/ Box Royal spring | Stock Box Royal |
Hako Clear/Violet slider w/ Box Royal spring | Couldn't actually tell the difference between the two Hakos here. Pretty sure the sliders are actually the same |
Hako True slider w/ Box Royal spring | I think it's different from the above... |
Stock Hako Clear | It's stock... |
Stock Hako True | It's stock... |
Hako Violet slider w/ Violet spring | Slider feels very sticky. Spring is too weak for the job. |
Stock Hako Violet | It's stock... |
OK, some takeaways from this. First of all while the housing is definitely a big part of the Box Royal's huge tactile bump, the slider design is also part of it. Given the same spring none of these switches ever beat the bump of the Royals. Obviously another slider with a heavy spring can be Royals with a light spring though.
A lot of you might wonder how could a Box Royal slider with a Hako Clear spring require more force than the same slider with a Hako True spring. Trues use a heavier spring, right? Well, the True spring definitely is heavier when bottoming out, but it's actually a nonlinear spring. I think Clears are too but it's more pronounced in Trues. So Trues are very heavy to bottom out but they actually require
less force early on, and these bumps are all quite early in the switch's travel. Sure enough if I continue to push them together I see the one with the True spring eventually 'win' and push back the Clear spring.
As near as I can tell Hako Clear and Hako Violet actually use the same slider, it's just that Violets have a much lighter spring. There is no appreciable difference between the two if you swap out their springs. Trues feel every so slightly different though...but maybe I'm just crazy. It's a pretty subtle difference that could maybe be explained by the amount of lube or something.
The Hako Violet spring is just not strong enough to deal with the stiff housing. It's feels kind of sticky and slow on the return. In fact I did get it to actually stick in place once, and that's without even having the weight of a keycap or anything. I would avoid that combination.
All of the Hako switches also felt slightly sticky when used with the Box Royal spring, though not nearly as bad as the Violets with their stock springs. Oddly enough a stock Box Royal doesn't feel this way. So its slider may be optimized to handle the return better. This was not an issue when using the heavier Hako springs though.
In the end the only two combos I really recommend are the Hako Clear slider + spring in Box Royal housings or the Hako True slider + spring in Box Royal housings. They're basically just more tactile versions of their respective stock switches, and I always felt that their stock tactility was lacking. You might also consider just using their springs with Box Royal sliders if you want even more tactility but that almost feels like overkill to me. Of course if you're not a fan of nonlinear Hako springs (though I am) I thought maybe the Hako sliders with Box Royal springs would work but the weird stickiness on the return bothers me. I would rather just use stock Box Royals at that point.
I've put way too much work into this...well it would be interesting to some non-Hako tactile Box switches in these housings as well but I don't actually have any. But a more tactile Burnt Orange or something would be worth trying if I did.