How much is excessive keycap changing?

[Texchappy]

So I've fallen prey to the lure of some nice keycaps sets.  I've changed my Kul out twice so far in the month or so that I've had it and have a blue top and modern selectric I'm itchin' to try out.

How often is excessive or too much for changing out keycaps?

Don't want to wear out the stems before New Years! ;-)

[SpAmRaY]

So long as your careful and take your time it shouldn't be an issue.

[ideus]

Cherry stems are reported to be made out of Polyoxymethylene that has high abrasion resistance; thus, they should keep in good shape while changing caps, mainly if caps are made of ABS that is a bit softer than POM, so abrasion between them will not be an issue.

[swimmingbird]

As long as you're not carelessly yanking them off your board I don't think there should be too much of an issue

[Oobly]

The Clear stems in my KBT Pure have seen at least 10 keycap changes and they're no worse for wear than they used to be. It's a little easier to remove caps now than when new, but they still hold very firmly. Same for the Browns in my DIY board. I'm a keycap addict, so my boards see a lot of cap changes.

[pr0ximity]

It's a little easier to remove caps now than when new

The same caps, or new caps? As mentioned earlier, I believe it tends to be that the caps' stems are the ones that widen a bit rather than the stems wearing down.

[jaffers]

I've pulled the caps off my keyswitch tester frequently to get at the innards of them and they are fine. I haven't found an issue at all with the keycap stems or the stems themselves

[Giorgio]

To test some new keycaps, I've used the same red switch. That's about 200 insertions. Didn't notice any big change.

[Giorgio]

Erased

[dthai17]

I change mine just as much and haven't been breaking anything yet.

[ideus]

After a period of a couple of years changing keyboards, key sets, layouts frequently, like three times per week, I have finally settle in just one keyboard, with one key set only. I am very happy now, using the best fit for me, I am getting even more productive. I am waiting for parts to put together another one, that would be similar to the current one, just to have one at home and one at work.

[agong8664]

From my experience, if you remove it properly, like not tearing off keycaps, I don't find problems to the stem.

[Oobly]

It's a little easier to remove caps now than when new

The same caps, or new caps? As mentioned earlier, I believe it tends to be that the caps' stems are the ones that widen a bit rather than the stems wearing down.

Both. I've used the same caps on a few of my boards and they seem to have loosened up a touch only on the first round of on/off. I have no sets that have become "loose", just a little less tight. They all hold fine. I do have some sets that were still overly tight after one round (Keycool POM and Gateron PBT) and I tend to use a separate switch to loosen them up by cycling them on and off a couple times before mounting them on my board. Not really necessary if you're not using Clear stems, though.

The stems do see more "traffic" than the sets since I tend to have a lot more cap sets than boards, but they're holding up well.

[Texchappy]

After a period of a couple of years changing keyboards, key sets, layouts frequently, like three times per week, I have finally settle in just one keyboard, with one key set only. I am very happy now, using the best fit for me, I am getting even more productive. I am waiting for parts to put together another one, that would be similar to the current one, just to have one at home and one at work.

I expect that's where I'll get to - at least to kind of caps but maybe still change out colors periodically within that style.

[sth]

don't worry about it

[KHAANNN]

Depends on the mount type too, if you have PCB-mounts, even 1 removal is too much, switch tops pop off occasionally

Yet with regular plate mounts, if you didn't have issues on the first removal, you are probably safe, I try to avoid keycap removals as it stresses the switch top a bit

+ the KUL's have cherry stabs, so to remove stabilised keys you are likely applying 3x force, the stabs will likely be the first to fail, so remove them slowly, not an issue with Costar's tho

[1swt2gs]

I just buy a new keyboard for each keycap set I own.

Problem solved

Edit : "attempt to buy"