the other thing to remember about these things is that no matter how accurate or precise your measurement device is, it's completely a statistical property that needs to be modeled as a distribution over a large number of samples.
Absolutely. My plan, if HaaTa can get me set up measuring, is to try to measure at least 10 of each type of switch, and ideally more from several different keyboards/batches.
For better comparisons among Cherry MX and among Alps-mount switches, I’d like to pull switches out and put them just in a bare plate clamped down to something, and make sure to use the same type of keycap to test different switches. Then test each switch at least 10-20 times, pressing it at different places on the key top, and different speeds, if possible. I dunno.. we’ll see what’s possible in a few weeks.
After a large amount of data has been collected, we can try to figure out what the best way is to graph it, to avoid measurement noise and effectively demonstrate the properties of the switch, but also show variance from switch to switch and press to press. Maybe I can make some kind of javascript driven interactive graphics on a webpage somewhere.
Even more fun would be to capture a video and audio of the key being pressed, and try to sync those to an animated bar moving across the force graph.
If that works out well, would be nice to add various switch modifications like orings, landing pads, lubricant, replacement springs, etc., and try to show what effect those have.