First off, there's another difference between these and "genuine" MX. The slider rod and tube are slightly different and they leave a smaller gap at bottom out (eyeballing it, it looks closer to 0.5mm compared to the 0.8mm of "genuine" MX). Which means trampoline modding these requires different thicknesses of material. The balls from IMSTO result in too much loss of travel and increased "mush". I'll be posting more about this in the trampoline mod thread, but so far it looks like slices of orings do the best job.
I haven't mounted my Zealios yet so I can't speak to the wobbliness. But at least with Alps switches, the wobbliness allows for less resistance when striking a key a bit off-center. In that regard I would think it's preferable for taller caps like SA.
Binding is all about pressure angle, so taller caps will bind LESS than short ones:
And in general, more play means more chance of binding. With a lower tolerance gap and more slider contact points the slider should bind less (assuming the contact areas are smooth). Slider shape more than anything determines binding, but it generally gets worse with more play, not better (see my explanation below).
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I did some measurements of the Zealio switch vs MX Tactile gray, and I'd say the dimensions were very close, subject to digital caliper calibration / human error.
MX Tactile Gray got the following measurements:
8.72mm (slider)
7.15mm (top of slider)
5.63mm (measurement from front to rear of switch, above where legs are)
Purple Zealio
8.7mm (slider)
7.09mm (top of slider)
5.54mm (measurement from front to rear of switch, above where legs are)
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If anything, I would say this is a fair compromise as I'd rather have a slightly wobblier stem than to have a (Cherry profile) keycap catch onto regular Gateron top housing as reported by members.
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The "catching" referred to has more to do with the case top design than the slider. Cherry cap stems are 5.6mm diameter, Gateron caps are 5.2mm. So Cherry stems can catch on the case top opening more easily. A wobbly slider will actually make this worse, not better.
Two of your measurements are relevant, the width inside the rails and the width above them, as both affect the horizontal play in the slider and at this scale, tiny amounts matter.
might be slightly smaller, though because it's a bit "wobblier", there's less friction against slider channels, resulting in a smoother feel. also quieter because of different plastic
I respectfully disagree. Friction is independent of surface area (surprised? It's true:
http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae140.cfm), but directly dependent on force and surface smoothness and wobbly sliders increase the sideways force present at the contact point. Most thermoplastics tend to have a coefficient of friction that decreases with load force, so that will help reduce the frictional force, but not enough to offset the increase in actual force. So you have increased force and it's acting on a smaller area. Which means you're getting faster wear which will introduce even more wobble. If the switch is pressed perfectly straight, there is no difference in friction between a wobbly slider and one with tighter tolerances, since the same areas of the slider and case are in contact and they're very similar (the side forces are then only generated by the contact leaves and will be consistent between them). But off straight angle, the wobbly slider will tilt and increase side forces and wear, whereas a tighter tolerance slider will not.
In other words, the looseness is not needed for smoothness (smooth surfaces is), but will increase wear and wobbliness with use.
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As for the slight grinding you sometimes feel while bottoming out -- I've only been able to replicate it when pushing the stem against the "Gateron" logo while applying a diagonal downwards force. From what I feel, it seems like it's from the metal leaf touching the sidewall of the top of the stem, after the bump. If pressing the switch directly up and down, the switch leaf doesn't rub against the side wall which resulted in no grinding feel around the last 0.5mm (or less) of travel. Adding some thick lube where the top of the leg meets the top of the stem helped greatly reduce/remove the grinding feel.
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The first two pictures in my post show that the slider is contacting the metal inside the bottom housing. You can see the scraped area on the slider inside the cutaway of the leg. You may well be right that this is not the cause of the grinding feel, though, especially if it goes away by lubing that top area. I will test further when I get home again today.
But now for the most important part of my post: Zealios feel awesome and are really smooth and tactile. There are some relatively minor issues which I think should have been mentioned by reviewers, since they impact some buyers, but they do the job they set out to do: be smoother Clears with better spring choices.
My experience with the 67g, 65g and 62g (I swapped some Sprit 62g springs into a few) is that the reviewers got it right. They descibe them well. I like the feel of the 65g ones best, although I still prefer the lightness of the 62g ones. Undecided which I'll use in my actual builds yet.
For my purposes, I will "gold" mod all my Zealios. It's more work than scraping Clear sliders, but less than doing that AND installing stickers,
for a better end result. I'll probably also end up lubing them, installing trampolines and adding latex to the top housings, because... well, that makes them as close to perfection as I'm expecting to be able get with ANY switches.
Thank you Zeal! My expectations for these was higher than it should have been, but in almost all respects was matched by these switches. My small disappointments relating to the looseness of the slider should not dampen people's enthusiasm for these awesome switches. I was hoping for these to be "no mods needed", but it turns out that for my urm.. "special" criteria for my switches I do still need to do some mods. Point is, though, that the end result is amazing.
I could not get the same feel from MX Clears no matter how many mods I do to them. I post all this other info out of a need for completeness and accuracy.
