Yeah, Those are SMK Monterey Blue Switches. I've had a 5181 that came with monterey blues, its a cool board. Nice score!
Good to hear! How's the feel in your opinion? Wondering how these stack up to blue alps as well... trying to find my ideal, butter smooth, clickey switch.
They're endgame level. They have a lot more thock than Cherry blues, in feel and sound. They're much more tactile, deeper, and heavier. All the sound comes from a single click action, not the ringy plastic drop that MX switches have. I've never tried blue Alps but they seem to be held in similarly high regard. I wouldn't liken them to MX blues.
Unfortunately, they're not immune to wear. Between the three SMK second gen boards I've used, two have somewhat different wear level and character but they're both great in their own ways. The third and most worn shows its years, a lot. Not totally unpleasant but the switches are pretty scratchy, and some of them don't work anymore. You can clean and refurbish them with a little practice but that's a fair amount of work. As mentioned they aren't the easiest to reassemble.
Another thing to be aware of is the action occurs pretty close to the bottom of the switch and it's hard not to bottom out. It's more noticeable with the plate-mounted Alps SMKs (the blue "Montereys") than the white PCB-mounted Cherry stem ones.
I hope you'll post more about your project! I'm also building
something out of my switches.
