I know about the controversies but Rama board look so premium to my eyes, those bezels are something.
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Yeah, i think the U80 is a very premium board and I like mine a lot. But why in the heck is zfrontier selling them?
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Just got my set of GMK WoB in and the keys seem to glide on without any āsnugā resistance on them. Almost like the previous user took them off at an angle repeatedly. Is this normal for WoB? I tested it with my other GMK and it fit snugly.
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They probably had them on switches that had tight, out of spec stems. Over time that can stretch ABS keycap stems or even crack them.
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Mm, I see. What would some of these āout of specā switches be? If I plan to build something with them, I donāt want to crack them with even worse switches.
The most infamous example would be the original v1 Kailh Box switches. Their stems were intentionally made thicker for some OEM partnership but that mold got used for the entire Box line. A few months after they released, people started noticing that their GMK caps were cracked after removal.
As for modern switches with the same issue, I personally havenāt run into any issues but Iāve seen people talking about some of the newer switch brands (canāt remember which off the top of my head) being exceptionally tight. Manufacturers need to hit a thickness tolerance of about Ā±0.05mm in order for āstandardā keycaps to fit right, so I wouldnāt be surprised if some brands are being made to a different spec or just have bigger tolerances.
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Other out of spec fat-boi stems
Aside from the early Kailh BOX switches that @Laughmaster mentioned, some new Kailhs are also excessively thicc. I havenāt broken any caps with them yet, but have seen stress marks on every cap Iāve mounted on them. These would include any recent Kailh switch with the dust-shroud stem; Midnight Pros, Ice Mints, etc. - these are otherwise all quite good switches so I hope they fix this soon 
Aside from the Kailhs, I remember one TTC switch being like that - the newer silent reds. Really tight fit. Itās funny because they have another silent linear for sale alongside those that has a loose fit.
Iām sure there are some others out there that will stress caps, but those old BOX switches are the ones to really avoid. One telltale sign of an early BOX switch (though not totally confirmed to indicate a cap-breaker stem) is if the central āpinā has a hole in it. It looks sort of like a keyhole; circular with a couple wide notches. Early revisions filled-in this hole, and the vast majority of BOX switches out there these days donāt have it. If you see it, though, thatās a sign you should at least be careful. Maybe test them with a cheap cap.
I wouldnāt recommend seeking out fat-stemmed switches for your WoB set, but instead using PTFE tape as a malleable shim material.
2-4 layers of that, just a little strip folded more or less into a square and pushed onto the stems for any loose caps should do the trick. It will hold them on without resisting enough to further damage them. ThockPop sells it at a narrow width perfect for this, or you can just get a super cheap roll of shower-head tape and fold / cut it.
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$88 shipping for meā¦ Honestly a little tempting but Iām not about to drop $600+.
They seem to go for a similar if even lower price on mechmarket
Not sure where youāre located, but you could possibly find the same board there for a bit cheaper.
Out of what Iāve used: U4Ts, Gateron Cap v2, Tecses Carrots (while their counter pack the Purple Pandas were loose), Kailh BOX (retooled were still somewhat tight), JWK Black.
Maybe thatās the spec but key caps fit naturally on most Gateron or Cherry switches I had (also my EV-01s).
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Could also be the previous owner had used them on switches that had baglubed stems. In that case you should be able to remove lube residue with warm soapy water and a toothbrush I guess?
Ooh, good idea. Would an ultrasonic cleaner do the same?
Probably, havenāt tried one of those before though.
I think it depends on the lube; Krytox doesnāt wipe right off with soapy water, but is removable with it as far as I can tell. Iāve given a few lube-y stem sets sonic baths and at very minimum it does help. Most of the time they didnāt come out of the jewelry cleaner totally free of oil, but there was a good bit less of it. Easier to remove with a napkin after that.
Switch & Click recommends alcohol on a q-tip; mixed feelings about that. What the alcohol will accomplish is making the grease easier to move around, potentially onto said q-tip - but there will likely still be some residue left after the first swipe. I think alcohol is safe for POM, but I tend to avoid using it with plastics in general after I learned it can damage and fog acrylic by introducing microscopic surface cracks.
Basically whatever method you use will require some degree of repetition to get the stuff all the way removed; Krytox is designed not to dissolve in alcohol or soapy water - good for it staying in place for a while, less good when you want to actually remove it.
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Alrighty, I cleaned the caps with multiple rounds of ultrasonic baths and it seemed to work to some degree. Some fit better, while others didnāt. Not so sure, but now itās good enough to hold onto switches semi-decently so it should be fine. The seller wonāt accept returns anyway, and for 70 bucks, no biggie.
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I honestly like loose caps, as long as they dont fall off when typing. Makes it so much easier to swap out stuff and do repairs 
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Hopping on the PTFE train. Stuffs good for force break modding as well. Plus, I had to fix my sink last week and just dove into my keyboard bullshit box. Very nice 
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Someone made a post in r/mechanicalkeyboards today with my my photos and my description from one of my Instagram post. No credit, just pretending itās their content. I donāt understand. I get it if it was on Instagram, people farm follows and such, but whatās the motivation on Reddit?
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Karma farming is a thing on reddit. Some people just like the dopamine rush of seeing their numbers go up, some organizations do it in order to create legitimate-looking accounts that they can then use to influence (mostly political) conversations on the site without raising red flags. You can generally spot the latter group by checking for posts with identical titles and no comments from the poster.
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Is it ever.
I got a random chat request this morning, and when I looked at the user account, all their activity was in a karma trading sub that appears to cater purely to karma farming. (This is also how I found out reddit even had a chat feature to begin with; not one real person has used it to contact me, but a handful of bots / farmers have )
Whenever I see a really neat image that was probably professionally made in some default sub, I assume itās a repost by a karma farmer at this point. DID YOU SEE THAT ONE IN A BAZILLION BLUE LOBSTER!?!?! HOW ABOUT THE COSMIC OPAL!?!? Ha. Someone should make a blue lobster keyset.
I wonder what places like reddit and twitter would look like if someone magically Thanos-snapped every single bot and illigitimate account out of existence. Less crowded and a bit more friendly, I imagine.
Iām sure some folks have noticed that Iām weirdly active on this particular forum - itās because I have the impression that essentially all the accounts here are actual real people, and that theyāre all here more or less to talk about keyboards. The occasional user or post outside that is really easy to spot, and the environment here is just generally chill as heck. I quite like that. Iād rather talk keebs with real folks all day than dodge bots and surreptitious influence machines on [insert popular social site].
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