The Ink Yellows V2 after lubing with tribosys 3204 and TX films:With their stock springs: Warning, these stock springs are incredibly pingy. My goal from the start was to use different superlight springs, but this is just a warning for normal people who plan to use this switch in a normal manner.
sound: I originally had gateron standard reds to compare. The ink yellows definitely sound nicer as they have a lower pitched somewhat more muted (less echoey perhaps?) sound to them. I like their sound.
smoothness: They have similar scratchiness to my prior gateron reds, maybe slightly less scratchy. But overall I'm guessing these are a scratchy kind of switch rather than a smooth one (as you press you can feel the scratchy rubbing as it depresses). It's honestly not a big deal and isn't noticed as you type normally. I've never experienced the buttery smooth Tealios or the like so I can't truly compare.
Sprit Springs 30gSo this is where things get interesting. When I say these are 30g, it means that their bottom out is 30g and their actuation is actually just 20g!!! For comparison, the lightest commercial mx style switch out there has an actuation of 35g (the gateron clears). Yes, these springs make your switches literally like air, but they work. They work fine on keycaps and even on stabilizer keys like shift, however don't use them for the spacebar.
Why would you use these? To the 0.1% of people who have an interest in typing with literally zero resistance, these get the job done. I would not recommend going lower but perhaps you could. They bounce back to their position fine so there's no worry about them not having enough force to bounce back.
WARNING: You're gonna make your life miserable with the combination of Ink Yellows and 30g Sprit springs. I was a madman and had to test the extremes... I had to know and now I know. It's not listed the actuation distance for Ink Yellows, but they are designed like speed switches and their total travel is just 3.4mm (4mm is the standard total travel). One could guess their actuation distance to be somewhere between 1.1 to 1.5mm (the actuation distance for normal switches is 2mm). So now combine this significant decrease in actuation distance with springs that make it feel like your typing on air, and you have a recipe for tons of typing errors. The less actuation distance is very noticeable as even grazing a keycap when attempting to hit another causes an error. Resting with the slightest weight causes an error. The less bottom-out distance is nice and preferable to me. I just wanted a more compact keystroke and this works fine. If there was only some switch that has a typical 2mm actuation distance with a shorter ~3.5mm bottom out.
Okay... So why on earth would you do this? Well, for anyone with serious pain in their wrists/digits and nothing else works, then you can try this. I originally was having pains and wondered what the point was of all the unecessary travel in switches and heavy resistance in springs was, which led me down this rabbit hole. And the experience is actually quite incredible. There's just no resistance, such an easy effortless typing experience. It would be quite pleasant if you were a perfectly accurate typist. If there was some way to combine the pleasure of the effortlessness but somehow still protect against accidental errors, then that would be great. But that's not possible; the two are eternally at odds with each other I suppose.
I'll finish by saying that this is not all doom and gloom. I like this setup. Even with errors, I type fine on it; I just have to be more careful. It actually helps to improve accuracy and truly over a long period of time I must see how I adapt as this can't be judged too quickly. But I think the overwhelming majority of people will be driven mad within an hour of using this setup.
Safer RecommendationsMy recommendation for those who want the lightest typing experience is gateron clears. They still provide the resistance necessary to allow you to rest your fingers on the keys and protect against many more accidental presses. Another option which I'm quite interested in is the Kaihl Box Silent Pinks. They're another 35g actuation but with 3.6mm travel and 1.8mm actuation. Perhaps a nice middleground between a typical switch and a speed switch.
Have fun typing
