I've been planning on building my first custom for a while now but going high end wasn't an option for now so I decided to rebuild my Pok3r LE for now.
Switches:
To my surprise, desoldering all the Cherry MX Nature Whites was a lot easier than I expected. I mainly bought the Pok3r with nature whites because it was one of the only Cherry MX switches I haven't tried yet. IMO, the heavier spring makes them a lot nicer than reds and worked better for my typing style BUT they are a bit scratchy sounding. I added some lube to the sliders without desoldering which made it feel and sound a little better. Now that they're off the board, i', going to take them apart and properly lube them and maybe give them another shot. I've had a bag of 67g Zealios v2 lubed up with Krytox 205g0 and sitting in my desk drawer for a while now. The difference in sound and typing feel is night and day. Bottom line, these are be best switches I've used.
The stabilizers on the Pok3r are probably the worst I've had experienced but I managed to make them pretty decent with the clipping and lubing mod. The stabs are plate mount but I noticed they make contact with the PCB so I also did the band aid mod. Now I don't have experience with any high end boards but these are sounding pretty good to my ears.
The stock Keycaps were so loose on the stems when the keyboard delivered that I immediately swapped them out with a Ducky doubleshot PBT set. Cheap, but at least they don't fall off. I will swap these out with a better set sometime in the future. Also, IMO the legends on the Vortex keycaps were trash and I probably would have swapped them out anyways.
I had a sheet of Sorbothane under the PCB but decided to leave it out this time. The space between the tray and PCB is very small and getting the plate/PCB out was hard because it was practically glued to the Sorbothane. I ended up having to use a hair dryer to get it warm enough to allow me to carefully pry it out. I may try to throw in some shelf liner to see if it makes any difference.
All in all, this rebuild was pretty fun and I'm ready for the next project. I will post sound comparisons between the Nature Whites and Zealios when I get a chance.
EDIT:
I threw some shelf liner I found at Home Depot between the PCB and bottom tray. Makes the keystrokes sound better IMO.
Sound test with Zealios v2 67g
https://youtu.be/dQ3q_zW8snoSound test with Cherry MX Nature Whites
https://youtu.be/qrd-SUm7SwY
