Has anyone got any experience with the MM switch stems at all? I’m looking at the Pink (POM) stems at the moment to experiment with.
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Hello and welcome! I’ve tried the P3 stems, and I know some other folks here have used other MM parts. I can tell you some general things about them;
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They are made by JWK, who at this point is generally known for good quality switches that are reliably smooth; this means they are all but guaranteed to work with other components made by JWK - and they make a whole bunch of switches out there.
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They will work fine with the vast majority of other MX-compatible switches and switch components, too, but may not always function properly with parts of other manufacturers outside of JWK - these relatively rare issues can include binding, wobble, or actuation chatter.
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In the MM housings and other JWK switches that share the same dimensions of the bottom housing, those stems will give you 3.7mm of travel, which is a bit shorter than the standard 4mm and will give a different sound than a classic Cherry-spec design thanks to bottoming-out on the slightly longer stem pole.
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In other housings, however, this travel distance may be different - probably longer, but in some cases shorter, as there are many different depths that center tube can be. In some cases, the stem may bottom-out and travel more like a typical Cherry spec one if the tube is deep enough.
As far as I can tell the MM parts have had a positive reception, and I definitely like my P3 stems. If you’re looking for a set of stems to mess around with I think any of the MMs are a solid choice. POM is the tried-and-true stem material, and probably the best bet if you want reliable performance across different housing materials.
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@BigJalen, Geon also has really nice stems that play nice with a lot of housings as well.
I have tried the P3 and LY stems from Wuque’s MM line and found them to be pretty smooth as well.
I believe JWK manufacturers the MM stems and Tecseeis the manu for the Geon stems. Both are established in the switch game and you can’t go wrong with either.
Is there a particular switch you are trying to build, or just looking to customize? There are a vast number of new switches out on the market that can almost guarantee that you can find a budget friendly alternative to Frankenswitches these days.
Either way, welcome to KeebTalk! You are bound to find answers to your keeb questions here 
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I’ve been looking to find a stem to possibly put into some hyperglide browns I recently bought. I love the cherry housing scratch and character but the browns tactility just isn’t quite it for me.
Those Geon stems look good too! I also just spotted the Long John tactile stems from KNC keys which are long pole polished POM and tactile and seem like they would add a nice bottom out sound to the cherry housing maybe?
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I think you’re on the right track.
Even those Geon Baby Blue stems should be greater in tactility than an MX Brown. And I believe that they are long-pole also.
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I can confirm this. Moderately long-poled so won’t shorten key travel too much.
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Something entered my mind when I thought of the phenomenon that occurs with Gazzew’s U4Tx switches - in those switches, their base marketing is a semi-silent that only mutes top-out, but what happens is the bottom-out is also partly dampened by the silicone on the rails hitting before the stem pole stops the travel; that makes the bottom-out quieter than normal despite the long pole context, and there’s a silicone-y feel on it too. You can see how it works in ThereminGoat’s force curve for that switch. So in essence, those switches do bottom-out on both the rails and pole.
Now, I quite like how Haimu silents work, even if the tactile versions aren’t so silent due to the snappier forces. However, they don’t make a semi-silent version of those stems to my knowledge, nor a long-poled one. But that’s where JWK switches come in - the shallow pole well depth causes most non-JWK stems to stop within ~3.7-3.8mm at the pole instead of the rails. So, the Haimu silent stem would be no exception to that - but they also have their own silencing rails, which will come into initial contact between 3.6-3.7mm and can be compressed down to 3.8mm with sufficient force.
This means the Haimu silent stem in a common JWK housing will have those 2 points of contact in a similar manner to what happens in the U4Tx, except with more travel and feeling a bit different from the silicone impacts. The switch isn’t really silent after the matter, but it’s a pretty dampened switch that I quite liked the end result of, after lubing. The top-out, even with JWK’s notoriously thin PC top in this example, is well-tamed by the stem’s top-rail dampening after lubing, good enough that I don’t bother swapping the top for the linear version;
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- Haimu Silent linear/tactile stem of your choice (WS Silent Linear/Dustproof White in this sample)
- JWK (JWICK) linear/tactile housing with a shallow pole well (most JWK+SP-Star switches with the non-SMD bottoms)
3.7mm travel, dampened by the rails and stopped at the pole. Slightly cushioned bottom-out, partly subdued top-out.
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2 years late, but I found that applying Krytox 206g2 to the clickbar’s impact points (the retainer as well as the bar itself) does exactly this. It doesn’t kill the clickiness, but it adjusts the acoustics by muting the highest of the frequencies, so it makes a more “solid”, less “annoying” sound, if that makes sense.
206g2 is the only lube I’ve tried so far for this purpose because it works just as well as I wanted it to, but I think 206g0 may be easier to apply, not sure about the effectiveness/consistency vs g2 though.
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Some findings:
BSUN X housing is good for Geon stems. No top housing squeaks. Decent fit. Not much noise. Looks almost identical to stock when paired with Baby Blue tactile stem.
MMD Vivian housing is not good for Geon stems. Top housing squeaks. Other noises as well.
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Got some CanonKeys Clipper switches in recently. Most folks with hot swap boards probably won’t care much, but clippers are GREAT if you have a solder-only PCB with Mill-Max (or other brands) of single pin sockets.
Normal hot swap sockets usually have two metal leaves, which grips the flat pins of most MX switches well. However SIP sockets tend to have a hexagonal pattern to their contacts, which means they don’t have the best grip on the switch legs. As a result, I will frequently pull off the switches when removing keycaps. Even more annoying is when the whole plate pulls off from the PCB. But such was the price I was willing to pay to swap switches without desoldering.
Clippers obviously help by anchoring the switches to the board. Extremely well. Getting one out is honestly a right pain and usually damages the plastic. So rather than using clippers on the entire keyboard, I did some Frankenswitching.
The first I’m calling a Mint Clipper. I used a Haimu Mint top, spring, and stem, with the bottom from a clipper. Since they’re both Haimu switches, everything seemed to fit. There’s not much noticeable difference between the frankenswitched vs the Mints, so I only needed five to keep the plate glued to the PCB.
Based on the success of those, I tried a second variation, though it didn’t go quite as well. The Bolsa Supply Zaku II was the target this time, and I quickly found out that the Zaku2’s top doesn’t fit on the clipper. So, I used the top from the Haimu Mint (as it was close to the same color and material of the Zaku2 vs the polycarbonate top of the clipper). The final stack up is: top from Haimu Mint, stem and spring from Zaku2, and bottom from the clipper. Not as good of a match as the Mint Clipper, but close enough for my tastes.
Will try a few other FrankenClippers when I get the chance.
I am sure I’m not the first person to think of this, of course, but hopefully the compatibility info will help others.
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I’m interested in making a batch of these.
I have bunch of Boba housings and looks like I can get the WS Heavy Tactiles pretty cheap but the TTC Hey’s are expensive (especially to just use the top)! Have you found any other tops that work for this? I guess just using Boba tops could work but I know from experience that the non-clear tops have issues with other stems – I think I have some clear tops still, I’ll have to investigate.
Anyways, just was curious if you’ve tried any other tops with these since you first built them back in October.
Reminds me, there’s a followup I forgot to write about that recipe - the TTC top adds a bit of pretravel to the stroke, but you can easily use Outemu Cream nylon tops (MODE switches work for this too), it’ll be cheaper and have basically 0 pretravel. The Gazzew RGB clear-tops will work, but I’m not a fan of the top-out sound with those, which is why I swap the top for at least an Outemu Cream one.
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Meanwhile here’s another one where I stumbled upon the concept by accident, and came up with one of the best clickjacket frankens I’ve ever tried, hear this one out if you fancy a clicky (and another TTC shill of mine);
-Main things-
- JWICK T1 housing
- TTC Brother (Gold Blue) stem
- 0.5mm or 1mm magnet disc, to be placed inside the pole well
-Bonus things-
- Condenser-compatible top and bottom housings, for a boost to the lighting of lock-key keycaps with LED windows
- ~20mm long spring to boost tactility
-The result-
- Pairing a pretty solid clickjacket with a tactile notorious for leaf ping but offering a stiff feel, the leaf ping turns into a mere sweetener of the click, which itself is enhanced by the stiffer leaf, providing a pretty tactile click event, especially with a long spring of your desired weighting. I could compare the click to that of a ballpen. The magnet is recommended to provide a solid bottom-out to follow up, since this specific stem has a fairly short but wide pole, originally meant to be used with a silicone pad from the original TTC switch.
Here’s my specific recipe that I made with the intent of being a specialized lock-key switch, to be paired with keycaps that have window slots for the LEDs;
It uses an old TTC-Razer top housing which so happens to be compatible with JWK bottom housings & their respective leafs, as well as a condenser. The spring is a Kelowna 20mm 81g, meant to offer enough resistance to mitigate accidental triggers of the caps lock key, while still being quite tactile.
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Thanks! I ordered a bunch of both (WS Heavies and Outemu Creams)!
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Got in the WS Heavies but not the Outemu creams (couldn’t find a domestic shipper) and I made a switch with the Heavy tactile stem, Boba housing and Outemu clear top. Feels really nice! Very much looking forward to building a set of these when the creams come in.
Thanks @Aquaphobic for your write-up on these, got me to try a new switch which is something I haven’t done in a while (been putting Bobias in everything).
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the WS (Haimu) tactile stems have a nice pairing with Boba leafs indeed, do wait for the outemu cream tops before you install these though, they’ll improve the top-out sound over the outemu clear tops.
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Milky Baby Kangaroo, made by mixing two Gateron switches, Baby Kangaroo and Milky Yellow Pro. Any Gateron milky top should fit. Sounds more rounded to my ears and looks better as well. Leftover combo is pretty good too, clackier yellow.
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How would you say this “Milky Baby Kangaroo” compares to the Gateron Quinn? I’m guessing that it might be fairly similar? I love the Quinns, by the way.
Across various switches that I’ve tested, I’m starting to see a trend that I tend to prefer nylon upper housings compared to PC upper housings, especially when paired with a nylon bottom housing. I think I prefer consistency between the downstroke and upstroke sound profile.
I don’t have Quinn but I think nylon top would sound different. Milky, to me, sounds more rounded than nylon, like a bit of froth on top which helps smooth Bay Kangaroo’s raw clacks.
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