Costar / Cherry stabilizers for my custom keyboard

[Rakanishu2199]

Hey peeps,

You guys will probably be able to help, I am a bit confused right now. I am building a custom mechanical keyboard (Gateron Browns).
I own a Das Professional S and am unsatisfied with the space bar. This is the only key on the board that uses a Cherry stabilizer, other keys use Costar type.
Since I am building a custom keyboard, I had decided to go for Costar stabilizers for all keys.

- Costar keys wobble a bit but do not change the feel of the switch
- Cherry key (space) do not wobble but completely destroys the MX blue feel. It is still tactile but the actuation is different e.g. bottoming out the key feels horrible.

Now to the important point. I would like to go for White Blank thick PBT keycaps with Cherry profile - which is rather hard to find.
Currently on Massdrop: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/blank-pbt-keycaps

There is a discussion ongoing (pages 7-8) about the stabilizer compatibility but it seems that the keyset do not work with Costar stabs but do with Cherry stabs.
This is not 100% clear to me why since the Costar stabs use the little inserts just like the Cherry stab fit into the keycap, right?

I have read some time ago about a hack to make Cherry stabs not feel mushy anymore. Has anyone experimented it? Satisfied / Unsatisfied?

- Should I go for Cherry stabs for my custom board and modify them so that they feel right?
- Should I go for this keyset and Costar stabs and hack the keycaps to make them compatible?
- Should I go for Costar stabs and find a compatible keyset?

There are still 3 days left for me to make a choice, I am sure you can help me, thanks! 

[Rakanishu2199]

I own a Das Professional S and am unsatisfied with the space bar. This is the only key on the board that uses a Cherry stabilizer, other keys use Costar type.

This might actually be incorrect. Can someone confirm or correct? Thank you. I can provide pics of my Das if needed.

[Rakanishu2199]

So I ordered the same keyset but from the group buy at GeekHack.

Could someone please confirm if these are Costar compatible, and if not why - so that I know which stabilizers I should order for my custom keyboard. Thank you. 

[Zukoi]

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Stabiliser

You are right that Costar keycaps are basically Cherry keycaps with inserts. I wouldn't know why they wouldn't have cross compatibility. Especially since it doesn't seem like the distance between the Cherry and Costar stabs are different.

As for the mods, you can lube a stab with lithium grease to eliminate the mushy feeling reported on the Cherry stabs. With that being said, I doubt there would be much of a difference if you are lubing the stabs. I like Cherry stabs because they are easier to remove but Costar aren't too bad as long you are careful.

[Rakanishu2199]

Thank you.

The guy at MD also said Costar stabilizer would work and posted a picture of the spacebars and shift key
https://d3jqoivu6qpygv.cloudfront.net/img_comment/GTP9ZX_20150615_122207_66598.png

I am not sure about the 7' spacebar but the two other ones should work. I'll just go with this and see how it works. Problem solved, thanks! 

[Oobly]

The problem with Costar stabs and thick keycaps is that the stabiliser wire rubs against the inside of the keycap. On Cherry stabs the wire is in a different position and doesn't come close to the cap.

Cherry stabs can be clipped to get rid of the mushy feeling (little tabs on the bottom of the sliders that cushion the bottom-out). Then they feel as good or even better than Costar stabs.

Costar stabs are fiddly, irritating and difficult to work with compared to Cherry. They also have a higher tendency to rattle than Cherry.

For these reasons I always use Cherry stabs in my customs.