Back once again with another Frankenswitch!
This one was found created by someone who commissioned Alexotos to build their e-white Snake from Parallel.
The switches that were sent to Alex use the stem of a recolor of Zakus by Tecsee, but sold by Swagkeys and are called Bubble switches.
Both the Zakus and Bubble switches can be pretty hard to get ahold of, but luckily Geon Blacks are Zaku recolors as well, and a little easier to find (for now…)
Geon Black Linear vs Zaku
Next, they use the tried and true Cherry top Housings, and then use the bottom housing of an SP Star Meteor White.
Seeing as how long-poles are all the rage right now, this Frankenswitch delivers that sweet clack in spades!
I chose to lube the stem rails with 205, bag/box lube the springs with 105, and toss on a Deskeys .3mm film to round it all out. I went with the dual-stage long springs from the Geon switches as they felt the best (to me) and I like how snappy they are.
The stems on the Bubble/Black/Zakus are not too far off from the Kailh Burgundy (Cream) stems I use in my BCP’s and Cthulhu Frankenswitches.
From Left to Right: BCP, Unnammed Frankenswitch, Cthulhu
Bubble/Black/Zaku stem
Kailh Burgundy stem
The real difference is in travel!
You are definitely going to want to use long-pole stabilizers with these switches.
BCP
Cthulhu
Yet Unnamed Frankenswitch
Gratuitous Stem Shots
Front
Back
Side
Fully depressed, these switches still have about another millimeter poking out the top.
A nice, marble-y clack greets you on bottom-out and you have that signature Cherry “pop” up top.
The person that commissioned Alex also asked him to name these switches, but I didn’t see anywhere in his stream where he settled on a name. I am going to call my version “Black Stars” after one of my favorite 90’s/00’s hip-hop duos.
Now we come to the not so fun part and look at the cost of these li’l fellas… Nobody ever said Frankenswitches were cheap. In fact, it’s foolish in today’s market because there are SO MANY SWITCHES out there that you are bound to find one with an almost identical makeup or recipe at half, or even a third of the price…
The only reason I decided to purchase the parts to make these switches was because I had store credit from Divinikey lined up that allowed me to make 18 of these switches for less than half of what it would normally cost, (assuming you have switch film and lube already).
I calculated the cost of making BCPs a while back to be a little over $1/switch, while Cthulhus were about $1.35/switch. These Frankenswitches (with Geon Black stems) are assaulting your wallet to the tune of $1.45/switch!!! These prices are all USD and before taxes and shipping
So, if anyone knows of a good cheap alternative with identical specs, feel free to let me know…
Until then, I will be trying to figure out my favorite 18 letters in the alphabet to drop these switches into on my favorite keyboards