I am still on the filco with blue cherries and have pretty much settled into it as a day to day keyboard.
The filco with white xm switches, while initially very satisfying became a bit too much as the days went by. My fingers would actually get tired as the keys began to feel balky when pressed.
Sadly, I put the keyboard aside and moved on.
I posted awhile back about the problem and wellington suggested silicon grease.
I gave it a go and took some pictures. While I need to plug it in an try it for a week or so my initial impression was/is that the silicon grease improves the action. The key is not as recalcitrant as it once was. The noise is still there though..
Will it replace the bue cherry that I am using now? I don't know yet. We'll see : )
Here are the tools I used. The picture doesn't show the gerber multi-tool though.
the key ring with paper clips worked really well.
I used the straightened paper clip in combination with the mini screwdriver to seperate the top housing.
Here it is without the top assembly, I had already removed the click leaf before I took this picture.
The gerber multi-tool is somewhat magnetic. Here it is lifting the spring out. I had to use a fine needle-nose plier to get the click leaf out.
Thankfully, the white stem would sit on the top of the screw driver. This kept my hands free and clear when I applied the grease. I put a small bead on the face that the click spring rests on. I also put a smear on the sides and back.
This is the best picture I have of the greased stem at rest in the top assembly.
Here is the tricky part. I was able to insert the screw driver into the spring. It fit nicely. I would use this method to set the spring on the tit at the bottom of the assembly. On some keys I had to use the gerber tool as a rest to raise the front edge of the keyboard to allow the spring to stand up.
I have no pictures of that : (
But once the spring is standing up it was easy to put the top assembly back on. After awhile it goes pretty quick.
Not that it matters but I had taken the keyboard apart at one point. Thanks to billm for showing that it could be done. I used a plastic drywall knife. Its about 4 inches across. This tool worked nicely in separating the top and bottom assemblys. The front of the keyboard was kind of difficult as it REALLY IS connected. At one point I thought I was going to break it.
But it finally relented and seperated.