... hand wiring is probably faster/easier, and is definitely cheaper.
I thought that Alps required both a plate and a solid PCB to sit sturdy enough. There are wings that would hold it to the plate, but apparently they snap off quite easily. I did not know about these wings until I read about them - whenever I have desoldered Alps switches I have lifted them out without feeling that there would be any snaps holding them the plate.
It substantially depends on (1) whether the little plastic wings are undamaged, and (2) how tight the plate is to the shape of the switches. If the plate is very tight (and especially if it’s also thicker than average), then it doesn’t matter so much whether the little clips are still there, and by the same token if a switch-donor board has a tight plate, you need to be very careful when removing switches if you don’t want to damage them. If the plate is looser and the clips are damaged or missing, then they can be less stable, but a board with a loose plate is ideal as a switch donor, because the switches pop out without as much risk to the plastic clips.
I found that I could fairly well prototype an alps plate + backing board with a thick card stock type material (i.e. one layer cut to hold the switches, then another layer with holes poked in it for the leads), and then direct wire from the other side. This holds the switches in quite well, and I suspect the same could be done with any arbitrary existing metal plate (i.e. add a 1-2mm layer of card stock or plastic or whatever with holes drilled in it for the leads, and then wire them from the other side), in the case that the plate alone wasn’t enough to hold in switches whose plastic clips had been damaged.
