I use a Realforce 86U at home (variable weighted keys) and love it - it's my favorite keyboard.
My home "office" unfortunately is near where our baby sleeps, and even though the 86U is fairly quiet, it's still louder than most traditional keyboards, so I was thinking of doing a modification on it that will make it even quieter.
I notice that 90% of the sound the keys make comes from the motion of the key springing back up to its unpressed position after being pressed. It's hard to explain, but it's a kind of "looseness" in the plastic keycap as it fits inside the switch cylinder.
My idea was to put a thin piece of tape (a type of tape that has some texture/friction) around the post of the keycap, then reinsert the keycap post into the switch cylinder. I thought it was a brilliant idea, but it didn't work. At all. The key sounded just the same.
Has anyone tried this kind of modification on a Topre switch and had any success?
Short of super-gluing the keycap to the cylinder, I can't think of a way to make the keys less loose and prone to making that plastic sound effect when bouncing back up into position. I actually thought of gluing them (which I think would work since the keycap post sits stationary inside the switch cylinder and they both move down together as one unit). Kind of a drastic and permanent mod though...