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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: remedyhalopc on Tue, 26 March 2013, 14:55:10

Title: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: remedyhalopc on Tue, 26 March 2013, 14:55:10
I'm planning on making a HHKB GH60, and instead of buying WASD's (IMO) horrible looking double printed caps, why not cut the stems off the topre caps and replace them with cherry mx stems? I've got tons of caps left over from SP's crap bag to use as donor stems. Could this work?
Title: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: Halverson on Tue, 26 March 2013, 15:06:21
No reason you shouldn't be able to, but I suppose it would be quite the tedious task.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: remedyhalopc on Tue, 26 March 2013, 15:21:08
not to mention getting the stems even on there so the profile is correct.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: AKIMbO on Tue, 26 March 2013, 15:22:32
not to mention getting the stems even on there so the profile is correct.

This will be the hardest part for sure.  Doing an offcenter capslock mode takes around 20 minutes to do properly....and that's with a jig and everything.  So you are looking at a ton of work and frustration.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: guilleguillaume on Wed, 27 March 2013, 02:27:47
It's just a waste of time and won't give you a good result in my opinion.

There are already high quality keycaps for MX switches.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: sth on Wed, 27 March 2013, 03:27:00
yeah... just get PBTs from imsto or something, not worth your time or money (you could probably sell the topre keys you have and have enough to buy MX PBTs with some left over).
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: hasu on Wed, 27 March 2013, 03:50:53
I don't think backslash and backspace MX caps for HHKB layout is available.
Those caps already exists?

EDIT I'm thinking of WASD laser etching service for this.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: L4yercake on Wed, 27 March 2013, 04:36:28
For the first 30seconds I thought he was planning to mod a HHKB to take CherryMX keycaps. Then I re-read...  :'(
Title: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: remedyhalopc on Wed, 27 March 2013, 11:25:38
For the first 30seconds I thought he was planning to mod a HHKB to take CherryMX keycaps. Then I re-read...  :'(

I don't even know how that would work. That'd be a game changer though.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: sth on Wed, 27 March 2013, 16:25:06
For the first 30seconds I thought he was planning to mod a HHKB to take CherryMX keycaps. Then I re-read...  :'(

I don't even know how that would work. That'd be a game changer though.
for  worse not better... no ABS except the spacebar thanks
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Wed, 27 March 2013, 19:48:01
I would also agree to sell the Topre keycaps, then you can probably buy 2 set of nice MX with the money, or a nice set with some rares.
Single unit E profile \| exist on Italian sets at least, and there are some older boards with 1x backspace like the G80-0528, 0879, etc if you are interested in Cherry keys. I forgot the 1x backspace in the GMK mods buy since it is also common on JIS, kinda feel bad might have had some more Japanese interest too.
Title: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: remedyhalopc on Fri, 29 March 2013, 14:36:49
Oh I don't have any topre caps. This was just an idea.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: CommunistWitchDr on Fri, 29 March 2013, 15:27:27
For the first 30seconds I thought he was planning to mod a HHKB to take CherryMX keycaps. Then I re-read...  :'(

I don't even know how that would work. That'd be a game changer though.
for  worse not better... no ABS except the spacebar thanks

With cherry converted to topre you could have no abs at all, not even the spacebar.
Title: Re: replacing topre stems with cherry mx
Post by: sth on Sat, 30 March 2013, 14:45:02
For the first 30seconds I thought he was planning to mod a HHKB to take CherryMX keycaps. Then I re-read...  :'(

I don't even know how that would work. That'd be a game changer though.
for  worse not better... no ABS except the spacebar thanks

With cherry converted to topre you could have no abs at all, not even the spacebar.
find me a yellow PBT spacebar that fits my hhkb then :)