I like thin caps and I cannot lie

[oneproduct]

I've been pondering whether or not I wanted to get in on imsto's thick PBT dyesub group buy for quite awhile then I began to wonder if I really even preferred thick key caps over thin ones. It seems to be a universal truth here that thick key caps are better, and I can understand that this may be true in terms of their quality, but how about their feel?

I had key caps of varying thickness lying about:
thick cherry laser infill
thick cherry doubleshot
thin KBC PBT
Filco stock
Poker stock
Leopold stock
WASDkeyboards

Because these key caps had been sitting on boards with different switches, I had never really made too much of a direct comparison before. The only reason I had even thought of this was because I have a Filco brown and I bought a Leopold brown in the classifieds here for my friend and noticed that it felt very different typing on it, which seemed to be attributed to just a minor difference in key cap thickness. In this case, on brown switches, I didn't find that one was superior to the other, but instead that both had an interesting feel.

I then went to try all the different keycaps I had on a PCB mounted red switch keyboard. It turns out that on red switches I vastly prefer thin key caps. This I attribute to the fact that red switches are often loved for their lightness and thin key caps have the least interference with the natural feeling of the switch. Perhaps "cloud of natural boobs" is in order here. :lol:

I've yet to try this same comparison on blue or black switches yet (which I have available) but I was curious to hear what other people think. Do you really like the feeling of thick key caps better, or just the quality? Are you sure it's not just cost justification or blind adherence to a "universal truth"?

-----

Brown: I like both
Red: I prefer thin

[RiGS]

Can't wait to know how would you rate your new blue SP PBT caps.

[oneproduct]

Can't wait to know how would you rate your new blue SP PBT caps.

The blue PBT caps weren't being sold with the white filco ergo clear, I asked about that in a PM. Also, I let DanGWang take the board instead (he was the next highest bidder). I was mostly just interested in trying ergo clear switches but after talking with him he seems to actually want the keyboard as a whole so I decided to be nice. I'll try to just get some clear stems sometime and put them in a PCB mounted board to try them out.

I have some SP ABS spherical keys on order in group buy 4 that I'm curious to try. I also went ahead and bought a set of the thick PBT dyesubs (but a blank set) to try out, but for the moment I really love the default poker keycaps on red.

Here's my opinion.

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?24713-Cherry-Doubleshots-PBT-What-are-the-Dude-s-favorite-keys&p=476736&viewfull=1#post476736

Similar to yours.  It depends on the switch.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

Posting Lego Pic despite good chance Alacrajis will complain about it being offtopic.

As the OP, I declare this relevant to my interests. Bring on the Lego pics.

[Disposable Hero]

I perfer thicker ones..."more cushion for the pushin"...:hat:

[IvanIvanovich]

I am kind of mixed about it. Yes the thinner lighter ones feel 'closer' to the switch, but too thin and they feel like cheap crap too. I think Cherry caps has a good balance. I was using some Leopold blank keys on my Poker reds for a long time, but switched them up to Cherry doubleshots now that I have a complete all Cherry set and while they do make the reds feel a little less 'airy' I like the lower profile a LOT more.
I have some super thick Wyse, and while they are 'quality' they are too heavy on reds and make them feel not so nice, but feel really good on blacks, and especially my ghetto greens board. I do like thinner ones more on blues, so I can feel that satisfying snap more.

[limmy]

I prefer thick, heavy, and dense key caps since the sound from the key caps would have lower frequency compared to thin, light, less dense caps. As in guitar strings, thick and dense strings make lower frequency sound when vibrating. And thick caps have smaller room for the vibration to resonate. Generally, in order of specific gravity, POM>PBT>ABS.

source:
POM(Dupont Derlin) 1.42 http://www.matweb.com/search/datasheet.aspx?matguid=1c7bd162dfc84628892fffc7fb1dbc88&ckck=1
average ABS 1.05http://www.matweb.com/search/DataSheet.aspx?MatGUID=eb7a78f5948d481c9493a67f0d089646
average PBT 1.32 http://www.matweb.com/search/DataSheet.aspx?MatGUID=781bd0e9d0854fd5a919866c39ea3065

Yes, as the op mentioned, the feel of the switch would be changed due to key caps' mass. As with many other things that move, heavier would be less agile. For the same reason, lighter shoes, lighter wheel frame is very popular.

I would sacrifice some of the agility and make my board sound less annoying(high freq sound tend to be annoying to people). And it is my preference.

I heard some where that Filco's intention was to design caps that are light, so that it could preserve mechanical switches feel. Some people like that like you, some people don't care, and some people like me prefer something else.

[whiskerBox]

MOmentum!
(Attachment Link) 38844[/ATTACH]

I actually enjoyed that pic.

Anyways back on topic here I like thin keys as well for my brown boards, but thick keys also have a nice feel to them as well I feel so conflicted.