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Author Topic: Hushing a clicky keyboard  (Read 3232 times)

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Offline o2dazone

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« on: Mon, 02 January 2012, 17:26:57 »
My lady got me a KBC Poker for Christmas, and it's been my desire to use this as my daily driver (at least for a few months). I get most of my typing done at work, but Cherry MX blues inside the hollow KBC Poker case has driven my employees to suicide or attemptive murder. So far I've:

Added 40A O-rings (though they feel a little mushy, so I have some 50A's coming in)
Filled the KBC Poker case with a couple layers of grippy mat material (seems to deaden the pcb vibration)
Ordered some thick double shots (Wyse)

I'm looking at getting clear stems, and that should remove most of the sound altogether, though I'm having a hard time finding some. Mostly I was curious what other people have done to slience their clacky keyboards. Anyone ever use expanding foam or maybe grease the switch itself? Id love to hear about it.
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Offline sordna

  • Posts: 2249
Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 02 January 2012, 17:35:01 »
According to this post the Deoxit F100 lubricant is thick enough to silence the click! Maybe you can give it a try.
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Kinesis Contoured Advantage & Advantage2 LF with Cherry MX Red switches / Extra keys mod / O-ring dampening mod / Dvorak layout. ErgoDox with buzzer and LED mod.
Also: Kinesis Advantage Classic, Kinesis Advantage2, Data911 TG3, Fingerworks Touchstream LP, IBM SSK (Buckling spring), Goldtouch GTU-0077 keyboard

Offline o2dazone

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 02 January 2012, 19:55:40 »
I suppose lubing a switch can open a slew of problems if dust gets in there. I wonder if anyones ever glued the clear "clacker" on the blue stem to the base, so it didnt move. Or is that not where the clacking sound comes from?
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Offline slueth

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 02 January 2012, 19:57:32 »
Whats the point of getting a clicky keyboard if your goal is to make it quiet, might as well get a cherry brown or reds, blacks, clears.
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Offline Findecanor

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 02 January 2012, 20:43:17 »
There are people here who have glued the sliders in their blues to not click. It alters the feel and the point of actuation.

When the switch actuates, the white inner slider gets propelled to the bottom. The click sound comes from that white slider hitting the bottom.

I think that you should get not only "clear" stems but also use the stiffer springs from the clears. They prevent you from bottoming out which is just as noisy as click.
« Last Edit: Mon, 02 January 2012, 20:45:25 by Findecanor »
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Offline NeeGo

  • Posts: 58
Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 02 January 2012, 20:58:19 »
Bring in a Model M; your employees will be begging for you to go back to your KBC keyboard. :smile:
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Offline o2dazone

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 02 January 2012, 23:27:42 »
Quote from: slueth;482075
Whats the point of getting a clicky keyboard if your goal is to make it quiet, might as well get a cherry brown or reds, blacks, clears.

Quote from: o2dazone;482013
My lady got me a KBC Poker for Christmas

I could always trade it. But that wouldn't be nice.



Findecanor: Almost all the sound from bottoming out was absorbed with the O-rings, so it's not so much a keycap issue, just the actual white slider hitting the bottom. I figured gluing it would change the actuation. Does it ruin the switch? Or does it just become a different switch altogether?


NeeGo: It's one of the main reasons I never got an M. I would be using it at work, and I try my best not to be a **** lol
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Offline pitashen

  • Posts: 1200
Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 03 January 2012, 00:54:46 »
guess you could get another mech board for work and keep this one for home use.
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\\\\ DSI Mac Modular Keyboard (Brown) w/ Leo  Blank Keycaps //
\\\\ Leopold 87keys Keyboard (Brown) w/ Black CherryCorp + SP DoubleShots //
\\\\ Filco Majestouch 2 NINJA (Black) w/ White CherryCorp + SP DoublsShots //

Offline o2dazone

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 03 January 2012, 20:20:30 »
So I did an experiment today and glued the white slider to the blue cherry stem. From what I gathered after everything dried and put back together, the blue cherry relies on the white slider to eventually "give" and propel vertically down the stem. With it glued it, it lost a ton of it's tactility. I'm sure everything is very well balanced, and doing something like removing the white slider from sliding, completely changes the stem.

I didn't have the proper viscosity to oil the switch to see if that made a difference in sound. It looks like to remove the clicky-ness of a blue cherry, is to remove the stem altogether.
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Offline TheProfosist

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 04 January 2012, 04:31:19 »
Quote from: o2dazone;482776
So I did an experiment today and glued the white slider to the blue cherry stem. From what I gathered after everything dried and put back together, the blue cherry relies on the white slider to eventually "give" and propel vertically down the stem. With it glued it, it lost a ton of it's tactility. I'm sure everything is very well balanced, and doing something like removing the white slider from sliding, completely changes the stem.

I didn't have the proper viscosity to oil the switch to see if that made a difference in sound. It looks like to remove the clicky-ness of a blue cherry, is to remove the stem altogether.

Yes tht would be the only way besides what i accidentily did with the F100. What kind of stem are you lookijg for and if your not willing to do the mod i am able to do it.
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Offline JustCallMeCrash

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  • Location: NC, USA
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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 04 January 2012, 10:27:55 »
You could always post in the classifieds that you're looking for replacement stems... you won't even need that many.
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline o2dazone

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #11 on: Wed, 04 January 2012, 10:59:54 »
Quote from: TheProfosist;483000
Yes tht would be the only way besides what i accidentily did with the F100. What kind of stem are you lookijg for and if your not willing to do the mod i am able to do it.

I wish I had some, just to see what the results would have been (I got a tenkey on my g80 dying to be tested on/mutilated lol).

Also, I've been in the market for clear stems. There are already a few people asking for some clears in the classifieds. I've just been camping their threads, but I'm not sure they're having much luck.
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Offline sordna

  • Posts: 2249
Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #12 on: Wed, 04 January 2012, 11:22:09 »
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Kinesis Contoured Advantage & Advantage2 LF with Cherry MX Red switches / Extra keys mod / O-ring dampening mod / Dvorak layout. ErgoDox with buzzer and LED mod.
Also: Kinesis Advantage Classic, Kinesis Advantage2, Data911 TG3, Fingerworks Touchstream LP, IBM SSK (Buckling spring), Goldtouch GTU-0077 keyboard

Offline Anthony Starfield

  • Posts: 2
Why do you not buy a quieter keyboard?
« Reply #13 on: Fri, 06 January 2012, 14:28:24 »
Seriously, I'm genuinely wondering about this. There are 5 types of cherry switches. You have the only one that is designed to be clicky.

Why don't you sell your too noisy keyboard and by a quieter mechanical keyboard? It was a gift, but lots of people exchange gifts. That would be easier and more effective than trying to quiet a keyboard that was intentionally designed to be loud.

I study nutrition and the stone age diet. I get similar reactions when I tell people that cholesterol is not the bad guy that it's made out to be. (It takes 5 minutes to explain this, 10 minutes for a detailed explanation.) And HDL is not good cholesterol. It's a lipoprotein; it's right there in the name, high density lipoprotein. Do you see that?

Most people just don't like to make changes, even when the change is easy to do and clearly beneficial.

Best wishes and please comment. I'd like to know what you decide to do with the keyboard.
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Offline Lanx

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #14 on: Fri, 06 January 2012, 14:59:50 »
I'm sure you know whites make more sound than browns. I'm not talking like, the difference between a dead silent room and a rock concert, but there is def a difference there, if you look for it or just use both switches so often, you can tell the slight difference (as i do).

and making ergo clears would prolly be cheaper and more of a custom mod alternative than buying a new keyboard, heck, ergo clears aren't even sold, and a good old cherry keyboard with white switches should run 20bucks or so on ebay (mine did to harvest whites).
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Offline o2dazone

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #15 on: Sat, 07 January 2012, 02:06:16 »
Quote from: Anthony Starfield;484863
stuff

What Lanx said about price and availability. I could always buy a different keyboard, but as far as I'm aware, there are no "ergo clear" keyboards. Also, I really like to tinker with keyboards themselves, so opening switches and replacing stems seems like a dutiful and fun task. With all that said, I snagged a clear cherry board for $15 shipped. The cord is cut, so it was a steal.


Lanx: listening to samples between cherry browns and cherry clears, I did notice a slight difference. Realistically, I can't hush it completely. But the high pitch "clack" from the blues that resonate for 5 meters won't be there. If the stem swapping doesn't do it, I'm just gonna tell my employees "deal with it". If they can listen to my HHKB, they can listen to o-ring'd ergo clears.
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Offline elbowglue

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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #16 on: Sat, 07 January 2012, 04:07:27 »
Go with browns.  PCB mounted browns are the bomb.

On a side note, I use my ducky clicky alps all the time now and sometimes it's so loud I can't hear someone asking me a question in the next room :) bwahaha!
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My keyboards: Filco Cherry Blue Tenkeyless(daily home), Compaq MX11800 (modded to blacks), Compaq "MX 84u",  Wellington\'s Dampened Endurapro, Pinkalicious Filco Blue Cherry, Chicony KB-5191, Chicony KB-5181, Desko MOS 5023 UP "elbowglue" spos (modded to blues), Siig Minitouch (monterey blue), SMK-88 (blue cherries), Ricercar SPOS
Smallest to biggest keyboards in inches (Length X Height) - Length is most important for a midline mouse position
KBC Poker: 11.6 x 3.9 - HHKB: 11.6 x 4.3 - Siig Minitouch (Geekhack Space Saver): 11.6 x 6 - Deck/Tg3 82: 12 x 6 - Noppoo Choc Mini 12.4 x 5.3 - Compaq "MX 84u": 13.1 x 7.5 - Filco Tenkeyless: 14 x 5.3 - Cherry "ricercar spos" G86-62410EUAGSA: 14 x 7.75 - Topre Realforce 86u: 14.4 x 6.65 - Desko "elbowglue spos" MOS 5023 UP: 14.5 x 8.4 - IBM Model M Spacesaver: 15.3 x 7 - G80-1800: 15.9 x 7.1 - Adesso MKB-125B: 16 x 7.3 - Compaq Mx11800, Cherry G80-11900: 16.25 x 7.5 - Filco Standard: 17.3 x 5.4 - Unicomp Endurapro: 17.9 x 7.1 - Adesso MKB-135B: 18.3 x 6.0 - Cherry G80-3000: 18.5 x 7.6 - IBM Model M, Unicomp Customizer: 19.3 x 8.27

Offline TheProfosist

  • Posts: 3671
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Hushing a clicky keyboard
« Reply #17 on: Sat, 07 January 2012, 04:11:32 »
Ergo Clears + o-rings for the win! Topre for the working man!
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