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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Geroximo on Sun, 17 May 2020, 15:10:42
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Hi,
I've been out of the keyboard game for a few months. When I left there was an IC for a Stemshaver to shave off oversized stems from pre-retooled BOX switches.
I can't find this product anywhere ... is the Stemshaver a thing? Can I get one somewhere or didn't it make it past the IC ?
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There is the cruciformer which is usually in stock regularly.
I'm just going to be honest and say I wouldn't even recommend box switches if you don't already have them. I got some retooled box jades towards the end of last year which should have seen multiple revisions at that point and not even needed shaving, but I was paranoid and got the cruciformer and used it just to cover my bases. Fast forward to testing a few sets on my board, all gmk/jtk sets that I very much really liked before I realized that my stems were being cracked and I thought it was just click bar rattle or something as I was putting some caps on.
I pretty much gave up on my interest in keyboards for months after that because I was so mad.
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There is the cruciformer which is usually in stock regularly.
I'm just going to be honest and say I wouldn't even recommend box switches if you don't already have them. I got some retooled box jades towards the end of last year which should have seen multiple revisions at that point and not even needed shaving, but I was paranoid and got the cruciformer and used it just to cover my bases. Fast forward to testing a few sets on my board, all gmk/jtk sets that I very much really liked before I realized that my stems were being cracked and I thought it was just click bar rattle or something as I was putting some caps on.
I pretty much gave up on my interest in keyboards for months after that because I was so mad.
Why would they still crack caps after having shaved the stems? I don't have any fancy GMK caps, maybe I never will other than to try to witness this fabled phenomena. I have unmodified box switches on 5 boards now with no cracked caps. I bought all of mine late last year and early this year, and made sure that they were new production. Who knows how many suppliers are still sitting on the old switches and trying whatever they can to offload them.
Even if they did crack my caps, I would rather have box jades and navies with some cracked caps than any other modern clicky switch. I could see where the tables would turn in that regard with all of the fantastic boutique linears and tactiles available.
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I have a keyboard with old BOX Black switches that I want to use again.
I still haven't decided yet if I'll go with the Cruciformer or if I'll sacrifice a cheap set of keycaps on it.
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If you don't shave them another alternative is to get PBT keycaps. I've read a lot of comments that PBT caps don't crack even with the box switches before retooling.