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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: tp4tissue on Sat, 18 July 2020, 21:16:44
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I've used it on my piano, it's pretty slick and completely dry. you can put it into a grease though if necessary.
Anyone try it on keeb ?
Pretty sure it conducts so, definitely has to be in a grease.
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i tried graphite powder in a peerless keyboard and it did nothing but then it may be athat the switches are hopeless too, but then i do not know why one would buy a powdered lubricant for a mechanical keyboard when you have to buy the grease anyway to use it, i tried because i had the graphite on hand.
although maybe could be good in box switches as they are meant to be somewhat water and dust resistant, so should not short them and be a bit less messy
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Well, graphite, you have to polish it into the surface really hard and lay it on thick. Tungsten disulfide, you can just polish it on lightly and it will work.
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tastes like batteries
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I tried this as lubricant on Alps switches in my video covering a range of Alps lubes.
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Sorry for the necro -
I'm going in!
I know in years past others have been hesitant to dabble with WS2 because of the price, but it has come way down.
I've personally tried some 30+ lubricants on Alps/Topre/Cherry switches and my favorite was always a teflon coating but...
Some Tungsten Disulfide factors:
- lower coefficient of friction than moly/graphite/PTFE
- doesn't need heat or adhesion prep like PTFE to work well (things like RO-59 KT), just lightly buff it in
- currently cost effective and can be bought from the source (I'm seeing it as 1/8th the price by volume of the miller stephenson products like GPL/Krytox on common keyboard sites)
- dry, good for all switch families
I will be trying it on an entire holy panda board and a white alps split board.
May take a couple weeks to arrive but look forward to updating.
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Graphite powder is HIGHLY conductive, not a good idea in electronics or a switch.
Tungsten Disulfide is not as conductive (deemed semi-conductive), but again not great.
Being powders, both of these can migrate, especially in something like a switch where the air gets swished around quite a bit due to massive changes in volume. While by themselves they would be unlikely to cause a switch to short, they can get trapped in the existing lube and create conductive bridges. I wouldn't use either on a keyboard.
Tungsten Carbide is rather low risk except during manufacturing while Graphite is extremely bad for your lungs and can even enter through skin or eye contact.
Side note, stop over thinking lube.
We are not high rpm, high friction, high heat, these are keyboards not a mission to Mars or top fuel dragster. Other than drag due to viscosity you aren't going to notice a difference between the most expensive lube and the cheapest lube. Just make sure it's safe on plastics and bare in mind viscosity, thicker feels smooth, thinner feels more crisp. Viscosity is more important than the type of lube you use and not all switches get better with (more) lube. If they already have a good amount of lube and your springs don't ping more lube will do little to nothing.
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Thanks for responding, though I think the general dismissive tone wasn't warranted.
Tungsten Disulfide is not as conductive (deemed semi-conductive), but again not great.
The contact leafs are widely separated, there is nothing inside the switch to short. And at the low voltage here, the resistance will make it even more irrelevant.
Being powders, both of these can migrate
WS2 is generally used to impregnate a substrate, through polishing it on to a sheen. There is little to no remaining powder.
I wouldn't use either on a keyboard.
- Graphite is extremely bad for your lungs and can even enter through skin or eye contact.
Not sure who said they were going to use graphite. I brought it up as a comparison to common highly lubricious dry lubricants.
Side note, stop over thinking lube.
We are not high rpm, high friction, high heat, these are keyboards not a mission to Mars or top fuel dragster. Other than drag due to viscosity you aren't going to notice a difference between the most expensive lube and the cheapest lube.
That's great man. Well I disagree.
I absolutely feel the difference, which is why I've put in the work of testing so many. And why people like Chyros here have done the same.
I get more enjoyment out of this than dragsters anyways. And Elon has Mars covered.