62g Gold Spring Review

[SmallFry]

I apologize that this has taken so long, but here goes...
I received my springs early this week, so I decided to try it with the switches I had available to me. The switches I created were all dry and non-stickered.

Stock Switches:

Red- Very scratchy compared to Stock Blacks

Brown- I don't see why people don't like these (stock anyways...); Less scratchy than my Stock Red

Black- Smoothest of the three Stock Switches.

OVERALL: Stock Blacks or Browns would have to be my favorite, mind, I can only judge Blacks (Vintage, at that) since I don't have a Brown board.
SCORE: 2

62g Gold Spring Switches: (Red and Black are the same stem, mind color, so I omitted testing Red)

Red/Black- I like this combination the best weight wise

Brown- Meh, tactile bump disappears a bit more, I like my tactile switches. I imagine that they would be better with Clear stems (Dan's KMAC, for example- omitting lube and stickers...I really really liked typing on his KMAC during the meetup in Chicago)

OVERALL: I liked the switch weight of 62g springs, but it annoyed the hell out of me that the springs are about a millimeter taller, so they bottom out a tiny bit higher than stock/65g springs. I won't be looking for 62g Springs if they are all like that.
SCORE: 3

65g Silver Springs: (I omitted testing Red again)

Red/Black- I really liked this combo, very heavy and quite nice. Tempted myself to change my G80-1800 to the 65g springs, but I am saving them for my Phantom.

Brown- ... Now I see why people don't like Browns... 65g Browns suck. 'Nuff said.

OVERALL: I really like 65g Linear switches (Red/Black). The spring is not taller than the stock spring, thus allowing full bottoming out, like in stock switches.
SCORE: 1

[tp4tissue]

I gave heavy springs a go before. My hands don't got what it takes to hold down the keys.

[Acetrak]

Nice review SmallFry. I received mine too but haven't written my review it, hope you don't mind me doing it here
I reviewed the springs with the switches I have on hand (some of my parts are all over the place, from commissioned projects and what not). These reviews are on switches without lube and stickers. Unfortunately I do not have silver 62g springs to compare these with, which would probably be even more helpful. From what I heard though, gold springs are slightly stiffer than silver.

Stock (60g) Switches:

Red - A little soft for me. Nice for gaming but not for me as a daily-use-switch.

Brown - My first MX switches, I really liked using them when I first got them. But after getting better at typing fast with browns, they feel more like reds except with a small bump. This switch helped me refined my taste for tactile switches.

Blue - My usual switch. I like them but over time I start to find the click slightly annoying. 

OVERALL: MX blue are my favorite out of all the stock switches. I am curious about greens/clears though.
SCORE: 2

62g Gold Spring Switches:

Red - They feel nicer than stock reds to me. The increase in force is noticeable but it is still on the soft side. I think 65g with linear switches might be what I would enjoy. I am considering getting 62g or 65g vintage black switches for my Phantom.

Brown - With a stiffer spring, the feel of the bump became more of a gritty/sandy feel. I think this is because the spring requires more force from my fingers, but this makes the tactile bump less noticeable and more of an annoying feeling. I think browns will feel the best with a soft spring (I've heard great things about lubed and stickered 55g browns).

Blue - The increase stiffness isn't as noticeable for me with blues, it does make the click feel better and more complete though. I can see why some people prefer 62g blues over stock ones. I think lubing these will make them feel even nicer.

OVERALL: Definitely varies depending on which switch you use, but for the most part it seems pretty versatile and can be used for many switches (not brown imo). This makes me look forward to getting a board with 62g clears.
SCORE: 3.5

[SmallFry]

You're getting a Phantom too?

[Acetrak]

Yep

[SmallFry]

Schweet!

[Vintage]

Question. So you noticed a difference between the smoothness of stock blacks and stock reds? I though that the stems of the 2 being that same would mean that the smoothness would be the same. Unless you meant the vintage blacks that are supposed to be smoother than both?

[Acetrak]

The spring can affect the smoothness too. Since black switches have a stiffer spring, the extra force it generates can create a smoother feeling. But it does not mean that one stem is rougher than the other. This is also the reason why SmallFry lumped testing both red and black together when using custom springs.

There is a difference between black and vintage black stems though. Vintage black stems are supposed to be even smoother.

[TheProfosist]

Yes vintage blacks are either a different formula of plastic, or just really worn out.

[Acetrak]

I read somewhere that at one point Cherry did consider making stock Ergo Clears with purple/pink colored stems (identical to clear stems except in color) and using stock 60g (bottom out force) springs. I have never seen one though.

[Vintage]

The spring can affect the smoothness too. Since black switches have a stiffer spring, the extra force it generates can create a smoother feeling. But it does not mean that one stem is rougher than the other. This is also the reason why SmallFry lumped testing both red and black together when using custom springs.

There is a difference between black and vintage black stems though. Vintage black stems are supposed to be even smoother.

Ohh interesting. That was a bit confusing.

I think that the purple MX switch would be very cool.

[SmallFry]

It's almost as if Cherry could consolidate all their products if they switched (<--- lol!) over to 65g springs.

Eliminate the Brown and Clear in favor of 65g Ergo Clears
Eliminate the Red and Black in favor of 65g Linears
Eliminate the Blue and Green in favor of 65g Clickies

What about spacebar switches then?

[TheQsanity]

From the other spring post questioning weight.  It was said 62 gold is like reds plus a little more. And 65 either lighter or heavier than black. I forgot ><.

From this thread op you compared 62 with blacks?

[TotalChaos]

Has anyone ever built a cherry switch out of POM and compared it to a the same switch made out of ABS?

Seems like POM would feel smoother.

[jdcarpe]

From the other spring post questioning weight.  It was said 62 gold is like reds plus a little more. And 65 either lighter or heavier than black. I forgot ><.

From this thread op you compared 62 with blacks?

MX Black springs have a bottom-out force rating of about 80cN. So 62 and 65 are lighter than Blacks, but heavier than reds.

[TheQsanity]

Any idea of red's bottom out force?

[dorkvader]

Has anyone ever built a cherry switch out of POM and compared it to a the same switch made out of ABS?

Seems like POM would feel smoother.

THis is a good idea, but unfortunately making a cherry stem out of plastic would be really difficult (and expensive) so I doubt it'll happen.

[jdcarpe]

Any idea of red's bottom out force?

Yes, it's right at 60cN.

[Vintage]

i Think the bottom force for Reds is about 60g.

[laffindude]

I thought Cherry stems are already made of POM.

[TotalChaos]

I read somewhere that all Cherry switches are made out of ABS.  I was really shocked when I read that as I didn't think ABS had the required durability.  But one can mix different additives into the ABS to make it self-destruct more slowly or more quickly.  So I guess they could really be made of ABS.

Making them out of POM would be logical, since POM is naturally slippery.  But the keyboard industry rarely does anything logical when they can get away with doing it some other illogical way.

[TheQsanity]

I dont think it is just keyboard companies lolz

[dorkvader]

I read somewhere that all Cherry switches are made out of ABS.  I was really shocked when I read that as I didn't think ABS had the required durability.  But one can mix different additives into the ABS to make it self-destruct more slowly or more quickly.  So I guess they could really be made of ABS.

Making them out of POM would be logical, since POM is naturally slippery.  But the keyboard industry rarely does anything logical when they can get away with doing it some other illogical way.

I have never been involved in manufacturing, but a large number of very good reasons to choose ABS over POM immediately spring to mind. If (For example) ABS has the required durability (And it looks like it does, plastic on plastic shouldn't have that much wear), there's no justification for the additional cost. Speaking of which, cost is really a big issue for this sort of thing. Cherry needs to provide a product known for its reliability at a reasonable cost. I'm sure their margin is already pretty low. Changing the plastics composition of their keyswitch is an expensive decision. Also, there's only some sort of flimsy hunch that POM would even perform better. Despite the lower friction, it might wear other parts of the switch housing more, decreasing reliability. They'd have to do some extensive testing to get that worked out. Also, lower friction isn't always a good thing: Maybe with POM, clears would feel like browns (or reds). Your tactility comes from that sort of friction. It might be good for linear switches, but having different stem compositions for different keyswitches seems to be an unnecessarily complicated (and expensive) choice.

Ofcourse, I'd love to see this happen, I love comparing different things, and I think the idea has a lot of merit. I don't think that Cherry would agree that it justifies the expense of investigation, but it would be awesome to see.

[limmy]

It is off topic, but the sliders in Cherry MX switch is not ABS. I know this because I have swiped the plastic with acetone and it didn't react. (Acetone swipe will leave a mark on ABS plastic)

The slider of MX switch is most likely POM, since the material was used in other Cherry sliders such as ML.

I heard ABS plastic is cheaper to manufacture than PBT or POM and ABS is very durable in certain way -- e.g. impact. However it has high coef of friction and is not best material to be used where friction is of concern. I personally think the plastics used in Cherry switches enables them to have longer life than Topre or Alps switches, both of which partly use ABS plastic in their switches.

Alps and Topre switches use ABS plastic on the switch housing -- the part that holds sliding parts. However, they too use more slippery material(not ABS) for their sliders. It is not clear which plastic is used for Cherry MX switch housing, but I am certain that it is not ABS plastic.

[TotalChaos]

It is off topic, but the sliders in Cherry MX switch is not ABS. I know this because I have swiped the plastic with acetone and it didn't react. (Acetone swipe will leave a mark on ABS plastic)

Thank you kind sir!
I hereby award you:

Keyboard Science Merit Badge
For chemical bravery above and beyond the call of duty!

It makes perfect sense that it is not ABS.
In my experience, ABS gets brittle and cracks around 18 years of age if it is in a situation where it gets placed under pressure changes or impacts, even mild impacts.  But I figured maybe Cherry mixed their ABS with a secret formula that I don't know about.  Because I have never heard of a Cherry switch getting old and cracking.  Does that ever happen?

The slider of MX switch is most likely POM, since the material was used in other Cherry sliders such as ML.

Makes perfect sense.

I heard ABS plastic is cheaper to manufacture than PBT or POM and ABS is very durable in certain way -- e.g. impact. However it has high coef of friction and is not best material to be used where friction is of concern. I personally think the plastics used in Cherry switches enables them to have longer life than Topre or Alps switches, both of which partly use ABS plastic in their switches.

Alps and Topre switches use ABS plastic on the switch housing

Topre uses ABS.  Very interesting!  Those cheapskates 

-- the part that holds sliding parts. However, they too use more slippery material(not ABS) for their sliders. It is not clear which plastic is used for Cherry MX switch housing, but I am certain that it is not ABS plastic.

Thank you very very much for all this juicy keyboard science! 

[BucklingSpring]

Alps and Topre switches use ABS plastic on the switch housing -- the part that holds sliding parts.

Fun off topic fact - Matias uses polycarbonate for their ALPS which seams to provide extended life spawn. Apparently they're testing MDBF and are already above 40 million cycles (unofficial figure).