Ways to Silence/Quiet a Keyboard

[vastvosau]

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Hey guys, I'm looking to build a keyboard soon that will hopefully be much quieter than my current Corsair Keyboard with Cherry Blues. I have a daughter that is 2 months old that will be sleeping in my office while I work from home. I have ventured into the idea of building a custom keyboard, and a top consideration is how to make sure the keyboard is silent (or at least MUCH more quiet than my current keyboard.)

Above are the 4 ways I have learned to ensure that my keyboard is silent/quiet: wooden/acrylic cases to absorb sound, silent switches (Healios pictured above), foam inserts for the case, and lubing the switches and stabilizers. Any other considerations would be helpful to further ensure a nice quiet KB.

For my build, I'm considering the following:
65% PCB (not sure which one to buy, advice appreciated)
Wooden Case
Healios or Tangerine switches

[vastvosau]

Two more questions: does the mounting plate for the switches affect the sound that much, and does the overall weight of the keyboard affect the sound?

[rxc92]

I hate to say it, but your best option for silent switches might just be a rubber dome.

[Riverman]

I agree.  Personally, I'd go with a scissor switch keyboard or a silenced Topre if it was going to be in the same room as a sleeping baby.  I think my wife would have killed me if I had suggested putting a computer with a mechanical keyboard in the same room as either of my kids.   I currently have two keyboards with Cherry MX silent black switches: a Cherry G80-3494 and a DasKeyboard 4 that I customized.  The stabilizers are the loudest part of either of them.  One's a hollow cheap plastic keyboard with PCB-mounted switches and the other is a very solid plastic and metal one with a steel plate, but the stabilizers are by far the thing that makes the most difference in the noise level.

[Polymer]

I dunno...Silent MX can be pretty quiet...Still, I don't see how you work in a home office without making noise whether that be the mouse or keyboard (any keyboard).  How do you do a conference call? 

Maybe build a silent box in the room? 

[rxc92]

Even R2 silenced Topre is much louder than a scissor switch; there are plenty of nice (and very cheap) scissor switch keyboards you can buy at local stores. There's no reason to use a mechanical keyboard when silence is number one.

[Sup]

I hate to say it, but your best option for silent switches might just be a rubber dome.

Idk bruh my Silent black MX build lubed with 3204 is more silent then all the rubberdomes at my workplace.

[Solotov]

Buy mx silent black switch, swap springs to the weight you like, lube those switch and stabs 

[Hyde]

Even R2 silenced Topre is much louder than a scissor switch; there are plenty of nice (and very cheap) scissor switch keyboards you can buy at local stores. There's no reason to use a mechanical keyboard when silence is number one.

I've come to realize Realforce stock silent is quite bad (I bought a R2 Silent model), the best silent is if you mod Topre yourself.

I would say get a regular R2 Realforce and then get DESKeys silence rings #3 is the most recommended standard in terms of tactility vs silence, so if you want it to be even quieter I would say go with #4 or #5.

Although if you do everything you listed you should be ok with Cherry style switches too I think.

[psxndc]

I dunno. Zilents are pretty flipping quiet.


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