Broken in switch

[danawanb]

Hello everyone, could someone explain about broken in switch, i mean about using the switches about 4 weeks and then lube them, are this the best way to make smooth switches

Thanks ^_^

[Willtato]

Hi, my current explanation would be that on every switch, the plastics, no matter how smooth they are stock, still have a rough-ish surface.  Using a switch for Ionger without lube essentially allows the surfaces in contact to grind together and smoothen themselves out.  This means that they currently have less friction now rather than before the braking in period, meaning that you should also theoretically get a smoother switch in the end. 

In POM products, the claim is that the little bit of plastic which gets taken off the stem/housing during a period of a lot of actuation can actually reduce friction, which is why some advertise it as self lubricating. 

Adding lube without breaking in would mean that the switch would have so little friction for the surfaces to grind on, that it would take much more time or not even smoothen out the surfaces at all. 

It's also worth mentioning that the differences may not be noticeable with lube.  Yes, you'll probably easily notice the difference without lube, but not with something thick.  If you were to order commission builds, for example, it would be very unlikely for them to break in the switch for you.  Many people also build their high end builds without the pre-lube stage, as is the time pressing all of it really necessary?  It also gets complicated when you have to solder your switches in - then you'll have to either break the switches in before even assembling the keyboard or resolder your switches off the PCB (if the plate doesn't have the slots for opening your switches or PCB without hot-swap).

Sometimes breaking in can be associated with removing the protection layers off things, or a marketing thing salesmen do to make you keep your product, but there is none of that here - only plastic on plastic (and the metal leaf). 

For the record, personally, I don't bother breaking in any switches if they are going to be soldered in.  I bag lube every spring I get, and I don't lube silent tactiles and clickies.

I just love the scratchy sound of silent tactiles.

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[Leslieann]

The whole point of grease and oil is to fill in the holes and provide a smooth surface to slide on, eliminating most (not all) of the need to break them in.
As the lube breaks down (if and when) the plastic will slowly smooth at the same rate anyhow, basically waiting to lube accomplishes little to nothing really.

I NEVER bag lube, there's no way to do it without wasting lube and possibly over lubing.

[Willtato]

Yes, like Leslieann said, it fills in the gaps.

However, I still stand by the bag lubing technique for springs.  Using something like 105, you can decrease the crunch and almost remove ping from springs with supringly little (and also save some time), especially using the same bag.

It's really surprising how much a thin layer on a spring makes such a big difference and made me realise that I was putting more than I needed to in the end. 

I wouldn't bag lube anything else though.

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[treeleaf64]

I would say yes to bag lube if you don't care about  spending money on oil

However if you're like me and you want best value for your money then I'd use dielectric grease for the springs. I use Superlube Multi-Purpose Synthetic Grease with Syncolon (PTFE). It acts as a dielectric.

It works well because it's low viscosity (good for spring) but is grade 2, so you don't need to put a lot of it.

It's also very cheap, you can get a huge canister for 10 bucks. And you can lube everything you've ever wanted to and THEN some

[Leslieann]

I posted this in another thread..

"if there's enough there to coat the spring just by rolling around in a bag, there's enough there to slide down the spring later and pool in the bottom of the switch."

"You cannot get a nice even coat by putting something in liquid, surface tension and capillary action is going to cause it to pick up more than you want, it doesn't matter how little you put in the bag or bowl. A brush breaks the surface tension and has more capillary action so the brush wants to retain the oil more than the spring wants to suck it up."

[danawanb]

Thanks a lot, i will read more post to understand this stuff

[treeleaf64]

Thanks a lot, i will read more post to understand this stuff

Don't worry, I will be here to answer it ^_^ every time you ask