Author Topic: Lube Orange Alps?  (Read 2453 times)

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Offline jone5ey

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  • Location: Virginia
Lube Orange Alps?
« on: Tue, 07 August 2018, 14:19:30 »
Hello, everyone! I'm new to GH but not to the love of keyboards. That fascination has landed me in the position of restoring an Apple Extended Keyboard (m0115) with orange alps. The board I'm intending to restore is in somewhat rough condition, and being well aware of the susceptibility of alps switches to foreign contaminants (read: dust and assorted crap), I want to clean the switches in an ultrasonic cleaner. Thanks to Chyros' Alps Trilogy (Part 3) (great watch- highly recommended), I now know orange alps are made of a different plastic than some later generation SKCM switches and come with factory lube. My question is this: having read so much conflicting advice out there on lubing Alps, should I lube the orange alps after cleaning to replace the factory lube with something dry like molybdenum disulfide? Should I use something else, or refrain from lubing them entirely? Any thoughts or potential pitfalls to avoid regarding lubing Alps would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Offline chyros

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Re: Lube Orange Alps?
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 07 August 2018, 15:35:27 »
I'd avoid lubing if at all possible.
Check my keyboard video reviews:


Offline jone5ey

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  • Location: Virginia
Re: Lube Orange Alps?
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 07 August 2018, 16:01:09 »
Alrighty, good enough for me! Thanks for the quick reply. I'll test clean one first and if it feels alright reassembled I'll leave them well enough alone post-cleaning. Certainly don't want to ruin them as they were hard to find in the first place...

P.S. love your videos!  :thumb:

Offline mike52787

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Re: Lube Orange Alps?
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 07 August 2018, 18:43:02 »
The only thing alps need lube on is the springs to remove the ping. The factory lube on first generation alps is top tier.
« Last Edit: Tue, 07 August 2018, 19:00:27 by mike52787 »

Offline jone5ey

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  • Location: Virginia
Re: Lube Orange Alps?
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 08 August 2018, 16:35:58 »
Top tier as in of very high quality? I suppose I could lube the springs with something high grade if cleaning increases the ping... Nothing stock to compare it to, really,  other than the switches themselves before the cleaning (which from all accounts could be terrible and gravelly)...

Offline f32h80fsd08h34r5

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  • Location: US-
Re: Lube Orange Alps?
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 15 August 2018, 12:32:32 »
The only thing alps need lube on is the springs to remove the ping. The factory lube on first generation alps is top tier.

Is it weird that I really like the ping?

Offline Auslander

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Re: Lube Orange Alps?
« Reply #6 on: Wed, 15 August 2018, 17:01:55 »
Tribosys 3203 will make it feel amazing.
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