Adding stabilizers to a KBD66 after the switches have been soldered?

[FSund]

I finally got my KBD66 assembled, and I've bee loving it so far.

I went for a standard ISO layout, but with a split right shift.


I went for a split right shift mostly because I belived it would be easier getting hold of a 1.25u + a 1u keycap for those keys than getting a 2.25u keycap.
I have now realized my mistake, as the standard left shift on ANSI layout boards are of course 2.25! Meaning that I would get an extra of those keys with most keycap sets...

After using the board for a couple of days I've realized that I'll probably just map both keys to RSHIFT anyway, as I have no use for the extra FN key, and I keep hitting the wrong key when trying to use RSHIFT.

Is there any easy way to fix this, i.e. to make the two keys into a single 2.25u RSHIFT?
The board uses PCB mount stabs, but perhaps it's possible to use plate mount for just this one key?

Here is a detail shot of the plate and the two switches I'm considering "merging"


As you can see there is a small cutout at the bottom of the hole in the plate, which I think is to accomodate for PCB mount stabilizers, but I'm not sure.
Does it look like it's possible to use plate mount stabilizers here?

An easy solution would be to just skip the stabs overall, but I'm not sure how well that would work...

[merlin64]

I would argue that you won't need a stabilizer for a key that small. Of course YMMV. Besides, putting in a stabilizer after the soldering has been done on plate mounted board is super hard and will require finesse, patience, and possibly desoldering of surrounding switches to pry the plate a bit to offer some room.

My suggestion is to just desolder the two switches, replace with one and be done with it.

[Moistgun]

I would argue that you won't need a stabilizer for a key that small. Of course YMMV. Besides, putting in a stabilizer after the soldering has been done on plate mounted board is super hard and will require finesse, patience, and possibly desoldering of surrounding switches to pry the plate a bit to offer some room.

My suggestion is to just desolder the two switches, replace with one and be done with it.

Yep

[FSund]

I would argue that you won't need a stabilizer for a key that small. Of course YMMV. Besides, putting in a stabilizer after the soldering has been done on plate mounted board is super hard and will require finesse, patience, and possibly desoldering of surrounding switches to pry the plate a bit to offer some room.

My suggestion is to just desolder the two switches, replace with one and be done with it.

Thanks. I guess you're right.
I tried putting the space bar stabs in after soldering just the corner keys on this board (this was before I realized I had plate mounted stabs), and even that was nigh on impossible. There's even less room here!

[DesignersMind]

I know this is from forever ago but just in case someone else searches this: yes, I have successfully added a (PCB mount) stabilizer after all the switches are soldered. I was using screw in stabilizers so I had to sand down the brass threaded cylinder a bit to allow it to fit between the plate and PCB. You have to do it one side at a time, and it's like doing that game Operation. The steps are below.

1. Lube all the stab parts you want and get it ready by putting the stems in the outer housing but don't add the wire yet
2. Desolder and remove the switch that the stab will be stabilizing
3. Insert just one of the sides of the stab and put the little clip into the (big) hole (will be diagonal)
4. Use pliers to slide the other side of the stab half into place. Add screw from behind if using screw-in
5. Repeat with other half
6. lube the wire and slide it into place between the plate and PCB. Depending on the plate, you may need to desolder a couple more switches to make this possible. For instance, when adding stabs for R shift you might have to desolder the menu and CTRL keys. It helps if you have long thin tweezers, or you can use a spacebar wire to help move it around
7. Use some pliers or thin screwdriver to clip the wire into place on both halves of the stab, and you're done!

Warning, this might scratch the surface of the PCB if using screw-in stabs.

Anyway, hope this is helpful
-DM