Oh man. The temptation right now - will have to practice some patience before I jump the gun on these hahaha.
I lubed up a few tonight. Stock they feel fast with little to no friction, but are loud and clacky. 3203 added too much resistance which made it feel less smooth though the sound was greatly improved. 3204 had less resistance than 3203, but still felt too sluggish for the nature of this switch. The sound was a touch better than 3203. I know lube usually adds this resistance, but the trade-off is a smoother buttery feel – not so with these switches. Finally I applied a very thin layer of 205g0 which usually gives me the ultimate buttery feel in a linear, but it actually felt as fast and smooth as stock with vastly better acoustics. So with these few sample cases (my batch of lube, and my application technique), it seems the best option for me is a light layer of 205g0. All the springs were lubed as well. Since I enjoy the feel, I wonder if I could get away with lubing the top and bottom housings (with spring) and get similar results in feel.and sound? That’s tomorrow night…along with some mx silent stems.
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Good idea. I’ll try some 205g0. Sounds like a great result.
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Well, I threw in a mx silent stem and lubed with 205g0…it’s the smoothest silent switch that I’ve personally tried. Too bad I really don’t like silent switches, lol.
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I only have silent tactile stems but will try them to see if that weird scraping feel goes away with UHMWPE housing.
After playing with the silent stem switch a bit I noticed that it produces a little squeaking sound when pressed rapidly, lol. I’m assuming this is in lieu of the swishing sound with the UHMWPE stems that your experienced. You can only hear it when it’s up to your ear so it’s not an issue when in normal use.
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I got my UHMWPE stems in last night and was able to do some brief experimentation with them in the Tangerine R2 housings.
The stems in an unlubed housing produces a near frictionless down-stroke which is even noticeably smoother than the stock switch, BUT from a combination of the leaf and the shorter legs of the Invyr stems, there is a tiny gap between pressing the switch and where it contacts the leaf (or a bend on the leaf) which gives it an unstable and undesirable tactility. It also adds a rattly sound when depressing at normal speed – overall unusable.
However, lubing with 205g0 eliminated this feeling entirely and created the smoothest switch that I’ve ever tried, even compared to the Tangies with similar lube (which was previously the smoothest switch I’ve experienced). On top of this, the sound produced is lower pitched and dampened.
There was NO stick-slip phenomenon present when using the stem regardless of lube. As for wobble, there is much more than the stock stem, at least with this batch of Invyr stems.
So overall, I’m incredibly impressed that with lube what the UHMWPE stem Tangerine R2 housing combo produces in terms of smoothness and sound – I can live with the wobble. That being said, I don’t think I want to add the extra cost to the Tangies as they are smooth enough alone with some 205g0, and I have some v1 Zealios housings that are begging for those Invyr stems…but I’m still tempted, lol.
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I think that was what I was trying to describe, that brief moment of tactility on the top of the press with the UHMWPE stems. I just wasn’t able to describe the mechanism. Hopefully there can be some revisions made to decrease the wobble and get rid of that gap. I lubed with 205g0 on mine and still couldn’t get rid of the rattle and weird tactility - might depend on what switch housing/leaf is used though.
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Got mine today and tested some to see which combo to go with. All combos were lubed and filmed:
- 205g0 - nice and thocky. feels and sounds at par or slightly better than Inks. Sound of Cream is still far superior but this is nice.
- 206g00 - felt sluggish and sounded dampened. Some may like it but I didn’t.
- UHMWPE stem lubed with 206g00 - even smoother but lost too much ground in sound.
Like Cream, heavy aluminum case with POM plate brought the best sound out of this switch.
Conclusion: I’m going with 205g0 on stock stem. It’s basically a cheaper Ink alternative without loose leaf. I don’t know if the housing is really UHMWPE or not but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s using a mixture similar to what Ink housing is made out of.
UPDATE: With film, horizontal wobble is not noticeable and there is a slight vertical wobble remaining but less so than Tealios V2.
Horizontal wobble: Tangerine R2 ~= Tealios V2 < UHMWPE+Aliaz.
Vertical wobble: Tangerine R2 < UHMWPE+Aliaz < Tealios V2.
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I think I like them better than inks. They are smoother and I enjoy the spring more – it’s almost between black Inks’ linear feeling spring and Tealios more progressive feeling spring (and the weight is just about perfect for me).
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I agree, wholeheartedly. I only wish they weren’t orange. Ha! I never like seeing a bit of mismatched color sticking out from under a keycap.
Guess they need to go with orange or purple caps.
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Sound (greater is better):
Cream > Tangerine R2 ~= Inks > Tealios V2 ~= UHMWPE+Aliaz
Going to punt on smoothness because it’s more subjective.
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To see if I can make this switch sound better, I replaced the top housing with YOK Panda top. Result was closer to Cream sound, except for the hallmark hollow sound I like so much. I had to remove the film to fit the top but there was no noticeable wobble with Panda top. Kinda neat.
I’m going to try the same with Ink and Tealios later. Panda housing top was too snug for Ink and Tealios stem. Same with Cream top. Tops fit but fits too tightly, adding friction. And sound didn’t improve as much as Tangerine R2.
UPDATE: I’m now building a board of the above C3 Tangerine R2 + Panda top hybrid. Instead of using new Panda housing, I’ve opted to reuse GSUS tops from old Holy Panda switches. A word of warning: Panda/GSUS tops fit very very tightly with C3 Tangerine R2 bottom housing so it’ll be easy to miss a leg not completely latched. Result is worthwhile though. Solid clack.
UPDATE2: Outemu Sky top housing also fits with similar effect on sound but I liked the sound of Panda top more. Pitch was OK-ish but seem to have some reverb. Applying some thick lube to the top could change the sound but didn’t try.
For those who’re into switch look, this is how they look on a board:
UPDATE3: I was wrong. A day after lubing, this switch feels smoother than even Tealios. Feels slippery. Maybe lube needed time to settle. Dang, oops, I meant Tang!
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