Oh, I see, the milky top housing is some sort of special nylon formulation (listed as “Nylon PA66, milky housing” on the Gateron website). Originally, I thought it was just a typical nylon since some vendors only just called it nylon, without being more specific.
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The better comparison is the Gateron Summertime which is a full-milky housing example with a long pole stem. Contrary to the milky top’s reputation for providing a deeper, flatter-sounding top-out sound, the milky bottom contributes to a higher pitched, brighter sound especially with long pole stems.
The top and bottom housings definitely have their own distinct blends, but in general it’s been assumed that Gateron’s Milky material is a blend of PA66 with fiberglass.
And yes, the PC tops on most switches tend to have a jarring contrast in sound when paired with nylon bottoms, PC is primarily used to offer transparency for RGB backlight and shinethrough, but folks otherwise tend to prefer full nylon or full PC.
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I tried swapping Gateron Pro Glory’s POK stem with NK Cream stem in Cthulhu (NK Cream stem + Gateron Pro Milky top + Gateron Black Ink bottom).
POK stem in Cthulhu sounded mid-pitched, higher than Gateron Cream Soda but lower than Cthulhu. Louder too.
NK Cream stem in Gateron Pro Glory made the switch sound more interesting. In stock form, the switch makes clean and solid sound but kinda boring. NK Cream made it sound more enjoyable to me.
Good combos I think.
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My contribution: a “Cherry Silent Nixie”. Clear top, bottom housing and springs from a new MX Black Clear Top. Stems from a Cherry Silent Black. While the switches were opened, springs lubed with 105g0 and rails / legs lightly with 205g0. Definitely not silent but very muted. Very little sound on strike, an nice soft pop on return. My daily driver is loaded with these and co-workers are happy 
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I’m back to spread the word about a silent tactile franken that single-handedly convinced me to convert my daily to silents, despite not necessarily needing it to be that way. Oh, and it’s completely fine to use its parts stock~
『Grain Gold U4 / GGU4 』, the original “euphoria” silent top-bump tactile with a twist.
credit to butrejp for the recipe idea~
- Any Grain Gold wing-latch (2-prong) housing of your choice, play around with your desired color.
- Any Outemu silent tactile stem of your choice, whether you prefer the top-bump U4/Cream Yellow style or the mid-bump Lemon/Grey.
The result is a U4 (or Lemon) that, while it may be a bit less stiff on the bump, has firmer, less mushy impacts on both down and up strokes, somehow. It retains the short travel of the original U4/Lemon Outemu silent tactiles, with little post-travel remaining. There’s also slightly less leaf noises compared to the Boba leaf.
Spring choice just depends on how you like your tactile feel in general, go long or short as you fancy, the dampers can handle the forces.
My specific part choices ended up being Ajazz AS001/101 housings and Outemu Cream Yellow stems (Outemu Jade Yellow has the same exact stem), pricing for each was 17c and 15c respectively, amounting to a 32c total.
This can also produce a decent leftover tactile switch (the inverse of the parts) if the Grain Gold switch used had a tactile stem, so it can be 2 switches produced at that price too, the leftover being a regular long-pole tactile you can use elsewhere.
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Ahoy! What a great initiative. I’m also a big fan of playing around with different switches and components. I’ve recently been experimenting with combining linear and tactile switches to create a unique typing experience.
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Housing Compatibility:
- HMX Snow Crash (Original version)
- Gazzew Boba LT (likely any Gazzew switch housings)
Top housing + stem can be swapped between these switches.
Stem alone cannot be swapped as they’ll only fit their respective top housing.
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