Built first board, stabilizer keys feel wrong, can't figure it out. Help?

[Ode1st]

Hey guys, thanks in advance for reading this! Finally completed my first build last night, but I can tell the stabilizer keys don't look or feel right. Posted this on Reddit as well, but no real response and also downvoted for some reason. Didn't want to bother y'all over here with first-time build issues, but I still can't figure out what's wrong.

Pic 1 of stabilizer keys sitting lower.

Pic 2 of stabilizer keys sitting lower.

Video of the stabilizer keys compared to the other keys. (Sorry about the camera/lighting, I only have a phone to record with.)

Board: KBD67 Lite R2 kit
Switches: Sakurios lubed with Krytox 205g0, filmed with Deskeys, spring swapped
Stabilizers: Durock v2 PCB mount screw-in (lubed with krytox 205g0, used the Deskey stab pads rather than the KBD ones, and did the Holee/Epsilon hybrid mod)
Keycaps: Drop Skylight Slate

I meticulously followed the stabilizer mod I linked above, and everything seemed fine until I put the keycaps on on the stabs. Have to push down noticeably harder to get the keycaps on the stab switches. It's not the Sakurios, since putting a letter key on the switch between the stabs feels normal and the key works well.

The stabilizer keycaps sit a little lower than the rest of the non-stabilizer keys, and they don't seem to travel as far up or spring back as much as the non-stab keys. Maybe spacebar and enter are a little mushy, hard to tell since they aren't traveling all the way up. I put a keycap from my old Corsair on left-shift, and same issue.

Not really sure what to do, super appreciate any help y'all can give! Sorry again for beginner issues.

[Leopard223]

For one, I wouldn't usually bother with Reddit, that community is all about passing trends, colorways, hype, 2025 group buys and boring sound tests.

About the stab, could your stab have issues returning due to the Deskey stab pads you used on them? could the wire possibly have return issues? 
If the stabs can return freely (you can test that with the keycap off) then it could be the keycap, but I doubt it, bet it's due to this awful mods.

About the keycaps, being hard to put on the stabs, that's just bad luck I guess, the size of the Durock stab stems is probably bigger than usual, or the stem on the keycaps tolerance is smaller than usual, it's annoying but it's better than being loose I'd guess

Does putting those keycaps on your old Corsair produce the same issue? if not then the stabs are the issue.

Also, out of curiosity, why get the Unnecessarily-Expensive-V2-Version of the Durock stabs if you're gonna use do one of those awful mods anyway? the KBDfans stabs are pretty decent and doing any of those mods on them would make them no less better than any other after market stabs as far as I see it.

[Ode1st]

Hey thanks for responding! Having to push the keycaps harder on the stabs isn't a big deal to me, but I thought it might be pertinent information for people to figure out the issue. I did the stab mod because it's my first build and didn't really know what good things I should do, but I saw people raving about these three stab mods (Holee, Epsilon, and the hybrid I did) so figured I should do one. Same reason why I got the Durock V2s, watched a bunch of videos and they sounded better than competing stabs (I'm trying to limit typing sounds/rattle during work video calls).

It looked to me like the stabs returned up normally without the keycap on it, and the wires do look normal to me as well, but honestly since it's my first time doing this it's hard for me to have context to compare it to. Since the keycaps are sitting lower and not bouncing back up like the rest of the keys, it must be one or both of those two things being the issue right? The travel and/or the wires. The Drop keycaps do seem to sit at the normal height on my prebuilt Corsair.

From what you're saying, you'd suggest the next things for me to test would be something like taking the keyboard apart and building a stab without the mod (maybe just standard stab lube?) and testing it that way, then if that doesn't work, remove the Deskey stab pad and try without a stab pad entirely?

Again, super appreciate the help!

[Leopard223]

Wait I think I misread your post, you used the Deskey stab pads in their original intent under the stab housing? if so it's not realted to your issue, sorry for the mistake, I was refering to the Holee/Epsilon hybrid mod you did.

The idea of those mods isn't bad, I did them on some boards and they did the job fine, but I just personally just dislike the idea of going out of the way for such a simple target, on top of that people are paying premium for some "premium" stabs and still needing to do those mods, when the same goal can be achieved with cheaper stabs, but I digress.

Well it can be either the keycaps or the stabs, mixing caps with other boards (putting the drop caps on the Corsair board, and putting the Corsair caps on the new board) still gave the same outcome, so assuming you assembled the stabs correctly, it can only be that mod you did on the stabs. 

I'd suggest taking the board apart, and assembling one of the stabs without any of the the Holee/Epsilon hybrid mods, you can keep the Deskey stab pads see if it solves the issues, I wouldn't apply any lube, it's irrelevant to the test and if the issue isn't solved you could just put it back without cleaning it.

[Ode1st]

Hey, thanks again for replying. I did use the Deskey stab pads for their intended purpose rather than for the mod.

So what I did last night was assembled a clean Durock v2 stab (no lube or mod) and used that on the Backspace (with Deskey stab pad). Seemed fine. Slightly sunken compared to the surrounding keys (with both the Drop and Corsair keycaps), but barely noticeable and far less sunken than before (with mod). It felt normal otherwise, pressed fine, bounced back fine, etc. So then I lightly lubed it the way a bunch of tutorials suggested, still seemed good and rattled a little less -- great. So I then unmodded the other ones (left-Shift, Spacebar, Enter), meticulously cleaned them, and assembled them the way I did with Backspace. Everything seemed fine, so I assembled the rest of the board.

As I was putting the keycaps on, I noticed backspace, left shift, and enter sunk slightly more than without the case on it, but still felt good. Spacebar was suddenly mushy again. The weird thing? If I do the upside-down spacebar, it's not mushy anymore. If I put it back to normal, it's mushy.

Edit: Just disassembled again and did some troubleshooting. The silicone pad is restricting the stab wire of the spacebar. Not sure why or really what to do about it. Never heard about that happening on the KBD67 Lite.

Any ideas? As always, thanks for helping!