How thick should the plate mounting plate be?

[Mr Fister]

I am currently planing to build a control panel for a raspberry pi home automation project using Cherry mx blue switches.

The switches will be plate mounted but I wasn't able to find out how thick the plate should be?

So basically what is x?


**** I failed editing the picture

[Mr Fister]

this is right.

[yasuo]

standart thick plate is 1,5mm

[Mr Fister]

Thanks

[strict]

16 gauge (0.0625") plates work very well, but I believe the exact size Cherry calls for is 0.060".

[jacobolus]

You can use a thicker plate than that if you want (e.g. there seem to be lots of people who mount MX switches in substantially thicker acrylic plates), but it won’t be able to clip in to the other side, so the little plastic clips will get a bit bent out of their usual shape. This is fine if you are making a keyboard to keep indefinitely, but may not be ideal if you want to use the switches for something else after.

For instance, though, the typical Ergodox (such as the version MassDrop ships) uses a thick acrylic plate.

If you can get a 1.5mm metal plate, or similar, that’s better.