So I just did swap blue clicky SMK switches into an M0330 that previously had white tactile switches.
Wow. I never realized how much keycaps could screw up a switch...
Apparently, the double-shot keycaps used on the version of the M0330 keyboard with SMK switches have stems that are an extra .1 mm fatter than usual for Alps keycaps, with the result that they substantially interfere with the SMK switches, which have very tight tolerances.
On a handful of switches, this results in the switch completely sticking at the bottom (the Chicony board has more switches than the Apple board, so I just didn’t use those particular ones), but on all of them, there’s a lot of increased friction between slider and housing.
It’s really too bad, because with almost any other Alps-compatible keycaps, both the SMK blue and the SMK white switches are pretty nice (though the blue ones have noticeably sharper tactility and so are IMO rather nicer).
I wonder how many people got one of these IIGS boards and dismissed it as being tough and frictiony, or set it aside for having some sticking keys.
* * *
If anyone has one of the M0330s made in Japan, with the orange Alps switches, I’d love to trade keycaps: these are some of the nicest ABS double-shots I’ve seen from that era, in that they are basically not yellowed at all, and have full top texture, no shine. I think the keyboard must have mostly sat around in a box or something. The keycaps are nice and thick and work great on Alps switches. [Though there maybe won’t be any particular advantage relative to the dye-subbed PBT caps that came with the Japanese board.]
Alternately, if someone is trying to sell a made-in-Japan M0330 (i.e. 658-4081) for a reasonable price, I’d happily buy it: I can swap the keycaps on the two keyboards, and sell one back to someone else.
* * *
prdlm2009: you should not swap these switches by taking them apart. You should desolder/solder them as whole switches. These things are a real pain to take apart and put back together.
