I’ve been playing with some Omron B3G-S switches, some Alps SKCM switches, some Matias switches, and some Alps-mount SMK switches, and it seems that the springs are close enough to the same diameter that they can be safely swapped between them. The lengths and stiffnesses vary quite a bit from one type of switch to another, so it’s possible to make quite noticeable changes to switch feel. For example, swapping the springs from an SMK (“monterey blue”) switch and a Matias clicky switch gets you a lower-force Matias switch and a higher-force SMK switch.
For folks who didn’t like the original switch weight on any of these switch types, it should be possible to fix.
Do be careful when putting some of these back together though, they can be a little finicky; if you plan to do spring swaps on a whole keyboard, make sure the first few switches still work properly at the end before disassembling the rest. :-)
(Side-note: fans of linear switches may enjoy SMK switches with the click leaves removed.)
I wonder if there’s anywhere we could go to get custom springs of the proper diameter. It would be nice to have 2–3 choices of spring length and 3+ choices of spring stiffness.
