Is it possible to cut off / remove the plates of regular cherry mx keyboards?

[KHAANNN]

I don't see the point of the plates in the first place, they seem like an unnecessary nuisance, they might be preventing horizontal forces from removing the switches, they are also a practical way to mount balancers

I'm sure I can find a way to glue balancers to the PCB with a 3d printed construct, but would my WASD V2 close up without a plate and stay solid? (I guess it's highly unlikely, as the enclosure seems to latch onto the plate)

I'm guessing this question might not be keyboard vendor specific, more or less each plated vendor keyboard has a similar design

I just want to cut off this pingy plate

I would like to hear some input / experience before attempting such a thing, I might buy a barebone keyboard to test it if it's doable

Even if the case becomes unusable, it might be fun to use the PCB in a naked form with some feet added to the bottom

[FrostyToast]

As long as the plate isn't integral to the structure of the keyboard then you can roll with PCB mounted switches and stabilizers.... unless of course the PCB is missing the holes for the PCB mount pins.

[katushkin]

You want to cut it off?

Bearing in mind that if it was even possible, you would have to cut it off around every switch. And even then there would be a gap between the housing and the PCB, and there aren't the plastic pegs on plate mounted switches for them to balance on the PCB, meaning the whole actuation force would basically be forced onto the two points of solder...

All in all, it's a bad idea without de-soldering.

[eyesmiles]

This is one of the more interesting threads I’ve seen lately. I’m picturing a guy dremeling the plate of a WASD v2.

After browsing each thread you’ve put up KHAANNN, it’s understandable that you’re looking for a way to alleviate the ping in your keyboard. Cutting the plate won’t do much in your WASD v2. Not all batches of switches come out of Cherry the same. If you crack open some, you’d see that some are factory lubed, some aren’t. Some batches will have ping and some won’t. You can try minor fixes like they mention over at reddit, such as place some sort of sound absorbing material in the case or adding o-rings, but the ping will still be there and they’re simply bandage fixes. Bottom line is: learn to desolder/solder, buy some Victorinox multi-tool oil, LSD oil, or whatever tickles your fancy and lube the springs in your board. Considering you’d be doing all that might as well lube the switches as well, there’s guides here on how to do so and what to use.

It’s nice to see people thinking differently, but you’re going about it in an odd way. The issue of ping has long since been a topic around here and if you search around, many will say the same thing about desoldering and lubing.

[Oobly]

Sigh... just lube the springs properly with Victorinox oil or thin Krytox.

A plate doesn't cause ping, but it can make it more obvious. Plates are nice, they stiffen up a board and make it solid.

Better to simply buy a PCB mount board than try to remove a plate from a board where the plate mounts to the case and the stabilisers mount to the plate. But you'll probably find most PCB mount boards don't feel so great to type on unless the PCB is thick and has very good support. I find anything larger than 60% not acceptable without a plate. IMHO, YMMV, etc.

[IvanIvanovich]

I am also not a fan of plates, but some boards really need them for a couple reasons, like keeping the PCB in the correct place, or for stabilizers. So in that case as long as the PCB can use PCB mount switch, cutting the plate to remove most of it and just leaving some around the edge for mounting/stabs purposes is really a good compromise. I don't have picture of one I modded (maybe a Chicony or something similar, as it was quite some time ago), but I did exactly like this cutting away most of the plate...

leaving it possible to assemble correctly, and having that nicer PCB mount feeling mostly.

Anyway... sadly for you I am pretty sure that WASD like almost every Costar one does NOT have the PCB mount switch pin holes in the PCB, so you won't be able to do this as without fixing pin it's pretty much impossible to solder all the switch on straight without a plate guide either. What you could do is make a replacement plate out of a softer material, like a light plastic.

[Findecanor]

In many keyboards only the plate is suspended by the case - and the PCB hangs from the switches. If you make such a keyboard PCB-mounted then you would have to find a way to suspend the PCB inside the case.

Also, switches made for plate-mounting don't have mounting pins - most often held on the PCB by only two pins on the same side from the centre. If you remove the plate then those switches are more vulnerable to stresses.

While ping begins in switches and can be amplified by plates, it can also be amplified by PCBs. That means that ping might persist in your keyboard even if you have made it PCB-mounted. My Cherry keyboards with PCB-mounted MX Black are the pingiest in my collection, apart from my IBM Model M.

[KHAANNN]

Thanks a lot for all the insightful replies, that mod is very inspiring Ivan, I might just go ahead and try it myself, I have a feeling that, also nudging the plate in several places, like damaging it by nailing it, might prevent the vibration from retaining

It's pretty much like trying to prevent a bell from not ringing, not an easy thing to do, the reason I don't want to resolder is because I'm very tired and don't have much energy left for keyboard mods at this time, so an external solution was more appealing

As an omitted background information, I've desoldered, modded each switch, also stuffed the case with whatever material I can find, and still experienced the issue, when the switch pings were all (all but 2) eliminated, the remaining unwanted sound was the strong ping of the plate, especially on cherry mx green bottom-out's, the ringing of the plate was unbearable

I've since settled on my red-switched board, abandoning green switches altogether, even the red-switched board is pinging, yet it's more mellow and unobtrusive

Like you guys mentioned too, it's possible to mod the switches one way or another, yet the same doesn't apply for the plates, I'm hoping the steel plates of the infinity keyboards will be ping-free

(I just repeat myself all over the place, but, also the red/blue/brown switches seem ping-free to me, as their springs have high coils, I couldn't get them to ping individually, which is just great)

[hwood34]

Thanks a lot for all the insightful replies, that mod is very inspiring Ivan, I might just go ahead and try it myself, I have a feeling that, also nudging the plate in several places, like damaging it by nailing it, might prevent the vibration from retaining

Well, the pic there is of a board "The Cheat" which was produced with a lot of half plates, but yeah, just goes to show that the mod is pretty easily doable and safe