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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: taurussable on Wed, 17 August 2016, 21:44:56

Title: make cherry brown as smooth as topre?
Post by: taurussable on Wed, 17 August 2016, 21:44:56
I have two realforce 86u and a brown switch filco 87, I started to use the filco when I was deep cleaning one realforce after 5 years of use.

the filco has quite a bit more friction than the RF, especially when you press the keys slowly.

I really want to make the filco as smooth as the RF. Is the friction from the plunger rubbing the housing?
Title: Re: make cherry brown as smooth as topre?
Post by: mike52787 on Wed, 17 August 2016, 21:53:36
all cherry switches feel scratchy and ****ty, no solution to that.
Title: Re: make cherry brown as smooth as topre?
Post by: DALExSNAIL on Wed, 17 August 2016, 22:22:47
They're brown for a reason, don't try to dress up ****.
Title: Re: make cherry brown as smooth as topre?
Post by: Tactile on Wed, 17 August 2016, 23:12:11
I really want to make the filco as smooth as the RF. Is the friction from the plunger rubbing the housing?

You're right about that. There's also the friction of the metal leaf rubbing on the "ramp" area of the stem to give the "tactile" feel. You can disassemble the switches & lube them but I don't know how much of an improvement you'll get. You might like the result - but the browns will never feel like be as smooth as your Topre no matter what you do to them.

Tactile Cherry switches are an inherently bad design because they added so many friction points to the original linear switch design just to simulate a "tactile" feel.

Title: Re: make cherry brown as smooth as topre?
Post by: Findecanor on Wed, 17 August 2016, 23:23:24
Cherry MX switches could be lubricated but you would have to open them, and to be able to open the plate-mounted switches in the Filco Majestouch you would have to desolder them from the printed circuit board.
Some people have done this with their Filcos... but it is not for the faint-hearted. If you screw up, you could damage the printed circuit board inside the keyboard.

If do you like the feel of Brown switches, another option might be to get a keyboard with Gateron Brown switches. They are clones of Cherry MX but much smoother from the start. There have been some quality control problems with Gateron switches though.
Title: Re: make cherry brown as smooth as topre?
Post by: potatobot on Thu, 18 August 2016, 04:03:21
buy gateron browns  :p haha!