Hi Alps fans! Sliding up in this thread to ask some advice. I have an Alps64 and bought a cheap AEK II off eBay to harvest switches/keycaps from. I tried to find an AEK with orange or salmon Alps, but there aren't many out there and they are a lot more expensive. Since I've seen the damped Alps reviewed favorably, including by Chyrosran22, I decided to give them a shot. The board, as expected, was dusty and grimy. But what surprised me was that they aren't cream damped but white damped, i.e. the kind without the slits. Disappointing, but even worse was the terrible scratchy feel of the key press. I took apart a few switches, soaked them in Bottle Bright, and lubed them with dry Teflon lube spray. Now they are smoother, but I still kind of hate the feel. It's hard to describe why, but they just feel sort of cheap and almost linear.
My questions to you all are: is there anything else these switches need to get them back into perfect shape? Or do I just accept that these suck and try to source different switches? If the latter, which switches do you recommend? For reference, I favor light tactile switches such as Topre 45g, KBD T1s, and Aliaz 60s. The quieter the better, since I work in a shared office, but priority is the key feel and clean sound. Thanks in advance!
