After finding that MMSwitch UPE stem was too wobbly, I tried it with JWICK with same result.
That left just one thing to try: clipping the small tip off the long-pole stem. Retrying the stem in Cherry black housing, wobble was now closer to Cherry black which is not awesome but not bad with film. Sound was interesting.
Not as sharp or loud as Cherry black but louder than what I expected with long-pole tip removed and tone was rounded low-pitch. It was distinct and pleasant enough to consider building a full board to try in-use.
Before that, I’m going to experiment to see if I can flatten the tip with heat so there will be more surface area slapping the switch. Definitely not open flame but maybe ? lol
to soften the tip, I used a soldering iron with aluminum foil wrapped around the tip.
to flatten the tip, I used stem holding pen to press against a cold flat surface.
Initial result was definitely better than cutting off the stem tip so I’m going with this to prepare stems for use in either New Nixies (if it sounds too high-pitched for my taste) or JWICK black.
CAVEAT: stem needs to be pressed vertically straight and amount of force applied needs to be minimal to avoid bending the stem pole (UPE is pretty soft).
UPDATE: I tried 10 JWICK + UPE stem frankenswitches in-use (replacing 10 most frequently used keys) and found the sound of the combo unpleasant.
I couldn’t place where the unpleasantness came from so going to try clipping off the heat-flattened tip in case it’s rubbing against the walls.
Even bad sounding switches can sound decent in the right setting. Like the North Pole switches that I couldn’t stand using because it was unbearably squeaky. I found that it sounds pretty good in a distinct way when placed in a tray-mount acrylic case.
I liked how New Nixies sounded while testing but had time to lube and film only 20 Nixies tonight. How it actually sounds and feels in-use was shockingly good.
Nixies didn’t sound like small-diameter bamboo tubes like I expected. Instead it sounds like pouring out a bag of Go stones, small pebbles on pebbles. It’s a pleasure to type with.
Not sure what material New Nixie’s top housing is made out of but it’s seems to respond to minor differences in each keys really well, making wide variations of sound across keys in a way that’s really pleasant.
I think New Nixie is what I’d call a sing-song switch, best feature of which can only be experienced while in-use.
My local vendor is getting a batch of Zuoce Studio switches in, and I can’t find much on them anywhere - anyone here got any of their linears and can shed some light on them? I’m curious as always…
I have a question for experienced enthusiasts here, does lube run off over time? I mean as running down from the stem/walls, for keyboards that are sitting unused for a while (several months perhaps?).
One word answer is yes. But lube wears off so slowly and always leave behind residue that removing lube is more of a concern than lube wearing off.
But that shouldn’t stop you from relubing your favorite board if they don’t feel the same as you remember. If you feel the difference, it doesn’t really matter if the difference is real or not.
Still enjoying New Nixies. Going with poron film was the right decision. It nipped the edge off sharp New Nixie sound. Compared to recent switches, Nixies sound not just more solid but more playful than regular Cherry blacks. Of course, YMMV.
For my Nixies, I am actually playing around with lubing with two coats of RO-59 on the bottom housing rails and pole guide, 205g0 behind the leaves and on the top housing, and then 105g0 on the swapped out TX 57g long springs. I have these filmed with Deskey films and found that this mellows out the “poppiness” of the switch, without making the switch feel muddled.
One 5ml bottle is good for hundreds of switches, the only downside is the overnight cure time between coats. Two to three coats seems to be the sweet spot…
? lol