How to Lube and Tune Stabilizers

all right i have here with me two exact same keyboards same switches same exact case now tell me would you rather have your keyboard sound like this or like this i think the answer is pretty clear [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello hello i'm teja and in this video i'm going to be teaching you how to lube and tune your stabilizers when building a custom mechanical keyboard this is something that i think is absolutely essential to the process you know what in fact i'm gonna say it this is the most important mod you can do to a keyboard as the quality of your stabilizers will make or break your final build now there are many other methods out there and there's no one true way to tune stabilizers but i'm going to be showing you guys the method that i personally use which is a fairly standard one that predates even myself but with some personal touches i think the introduction of this video showed pretty clearly why you might want to tune your stabs but let's talk briefly about what it is we're exactly trying to achieve it's not too complex we essentially want to eliminate any kind of unwanted rattling noises that are generated by the stabilizers but we want to do so while preserving or perhaps even improving the fluidity of motion of the components with that out of the way here's what you'll need you're going to need your stabilizers of course my current preferred choice being durock screw and stabilizers you're going to need a lubricant now i use crytox 205 grade 0 for everything as i believe it is the best material but i will be providing alternatives at each step throughout the video you'll also want a paint brush i think smaller and thinner paint brushes tend to work well i personally recommend double zero or triple zero size paint brushes a syringe and a flush cutter now these last two items are somewhat optional so i highly encourage you to watch the video in its entirety before deciding to purchase these last two items and as always i will have links to everything down in the description box below first we start off by disassembling the stabilizer hold one of the plastic ends grab the wire and turn it 90 degrees upwards you want to do this to both ends and separate out all the pieces [Music] now this next step only applies to older stabilizers such as older cherry screw-ins or clip-in stabs if you notice that the bottom of the stem of your stabilizer isn't flat you'll need to perform what is called clipping your stabilizers more modern stabilizers from brands such as duroc or c3 already accommodate for this so you can skip to the next time stamp down in the description box below if you notice that your stem is already flat clipping your stabilizers is a mod where two of the four prongs of a stem that have these protrusions i like to call fangs are cut off believed to have been a part of cherry's original design as a means to dampen the impact of the stabilizer against the pcb the enthusiasts have found that these fangs cause the stabilizer to feel a little bit mushy when bottoming out and that there's no real threat of your pcb breaking due to slamming your stabilizers take your flush cutters and remove these two prongs this results in a nice flat edge which should improve the bottom out feel of your stabilizers but make sure to remove the two prongs cleanly in its entirety as this is something that i see a lot of people making a mistake on next we lube the stabilizer housings my preferred lieu of choice for this step is crytox 205 grade 0 but any of the thinner lubes used for normal switch lubing work here as well and i really don't recommend using thicker lube such as dielectric grease here the only component making contact with the stabilizer housings are the stabilizer stems and this plastic on plastic action contributes slightly to the rattling our main goal here is to apply a thin coating of lube to help reduce any potential friction in the up and down movement of the stabilizer stem as well as to dampen a bit of that noise i just take a little bit of lube dab equal amounts on the internal walls of the two largest sides [Music] and whatever remains goes on the back edge then spread the lube evenly across all these surfaces you just want to apply enough lube to see a slight sheen on opaque stabs or a slight cloudiness on translucent stabs at this point we can reinstall the stabilizer stem back into the housings we just lubed on the stem you'll notice there's a side with two holes and opposited a side with one hole you want to match the side with two holes with the open face of the stabilizer housing and then simply insert [Music] once that's done it's time to lube the wires the main culprit of rattly stabilizers is the metal on plastic action of the wire hitting against the insides of the stabilizer stems in my opinion the best remedy for this is to essentially fill the gaps inside the stabilizer stem with a semi-thick lubricant so that the wire still has some freedom to move around but we'll experience some resistance such that it won't hit against the inner plastic as quickly to generate that rattle for this step i recommend you use either crytox 205 grade 0 dielectric grease or super lube using any thinner loose will prove to be not as efficient in restricting the movement of the wire and going with thicker lubes may restrict the wire's ability to move too much to the point it makes your stabilizers feel sluggish now while i would love to say measure out x grams of lube and spread it i can't really recommend that nor do i think it will be valid as the amount of lube required will vary from stabilizer to stabilizer even within the same brand and may even be affected by components such as what keycaps you're using for this step i go purely off visuals and adjust accordingly as needed and as you tune more stabilizers this is something you'll naturally start to get a feel for i simply take a dollop of lube if you're using crytox 205 grade 0 like myself then you can be fairly generous with this step and spread it evenly across one end of the wire [Music] what i'm looking for mainly is to evenly apply just enough of a layer of lube such that it's visible but also until i can barely see the actual wire underneath [Music] when lubing the wire you also want to lube just a tiny bit past the angled bend and this will make sense in a bit at this point you should have lubed just one end of the wire while holding the middle of the wire in one hand pick up one of the assembled stabilizer housings with your other hand such that the stem points downwards and the edge with the gap is facing towards the wire if you remember from not too long ago we had the side with two holes of the stem facing outward simply insert the lubed wire into the topmost hole from this view then turn the stabilizer housing 90 degrees while slotting the wire into place you should feel it click into position remember when i said to lube past the angled bend on the wire this is why as you also want a little bit of lube on the area where the wire bend is held onto by the plastic by this point we've basically lubed all the points of friction now you just need to repeat the process for the other half as well as the remaining stabilizers the one additional thing to keep in mind as you repeat the process is to ensure that after installing both stabilizer housings back onto the wire that they are facing the same direction once you've lubed all your stabilizers it's time to test them install your stabilizers onto your pcb in the appropriate locations then your plate if you're building with one your switches and then the keycaps now at this point everything regarding your stabilized keys should be installed but we haven't done any kind of soldering you don't want to solder until you're 100 happy with the state of your stabilizers you can also install some additional switches if you feel that the plate flops around a little bit too much as you don't want the plate to be hitting against the pcb during this next step for this case it's fine though and we're going to continue from here we're just going to spam the stabilized keys while listening to two things one you want to listen for any kind of residual rattling and two you want to feel for whether the stabilizer feels fine and that it's not too sluggish so let's say after listening to your stabilizer you feel that it could use more lube well one way to add more lube would be to remove the stabilizer and open it back up to brush more lube on but that's a little bit too tedious and time consuming what i like to do is take this syringe that has a super fine tip to save myself the trouble of having to open the stabilizer up again if you pull the stem of the stabilizer it exposes that hole in the back and that's where we'll be sticking the syringe into and injecting lube as needed you do have to kind of finesse the needle tip in there i generally like to have it placed anywhere towards the opening or about midway into the stem and just slowly inject lube as you don't want to over lube on the other hand if you feel like your stabilizer is feeling too sluggish it's probably a sign you over lubed you'll unfortunately have to uninstall the stabilizer and open it back up to wipe off some of the excess lube once you've found the sweet spot of your stabilizer not creating rattle noises while not feeling sluggish then congrats you've successfully lubed and tuned your stabilizer a couple final tips before parting ways one i recommend using the keycaps you'll be using for your final build when testing stabilizers this video didn't cover more advanced stabilizer tuning subjects but differences such as whether you're using abs or pvt keycaps can affect how much lube is required by your stabilizers so it's best to tune your stabilizers with the keycap set you'll most likely end up using and two whether you under or over lube you're going to be playing around with this juggling act for a bit especially if this is your first time trying to tune stabilizers but don't get discouraged building a keyboard isn't about speed running it's something you want to take time with especially when it comes to something so important like stabilizers keep practicing and you'll naturally start to get the hang of it and develop a feel for how much you should be applying hopefully this guide was clear let me know down in the comments below if this method worked for you guys or if you guys have a different method that you guys use i would love to hear about all the other innovative ways that people have come up with but that's it for this video i will catch you guys in the next one and until then see you nerds you

Channel: Taeha Types

Views: 508,227

Rating: 4.9724445 out of 5

Keywords: 타건음, 타건영상, 기계식, 키보드, 커스텀 키보드, 커스텀, 커스텀키보드, 기계식키보드, nathan, kim, taeha, type, types, twitch, tv, custom, mechanical, keyboards, keycaps, typing, sounds, tests, asmr, how to lube stabilizers, tune stabilizers, keyboard mod, how to clip your stabilizers, ultimate guide, beginner's guide, how to tune stabilizers, most important

Id: usNx1_d0HbQ

Length: 11min 59sec (719 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/aLiveFetus]

What about wire balancing? I've seen 3ildcat do this in many of their videos. Has this been depreciated as a stabilizer tuning method?

[u/Alt_4_My_Alt]

wait, we installing heroin into our switches now?

[u/DaoDeer]

Im really excited for your series of tutorials like this. Especially with the wave of mech keyboards that were gifted these holidays they will be my baseline on what I send to my friends.

Thanks for taking the time to do so! Your new set up looks great by the way.

[u/theMilkMulcher]

Le gasp the promised video is finally here

[u/T0rvec]

You know I may never actually go so far as to do this kind of stuff, but i still like watching all of his videos (especially the highlight videos of his builds he does for streams) for some reason. Then again, i did just get a GMMK TKL board (white ver) when i had a perfectly good Corsair K95 Platinum for the sole purpose that it matches my white x black aesthetic I'm going for on my setup...and also ordered a custom coiled aviator style cable even though the cable that the GMMK board came with is perfectly fine as is. Nope, not getting sucked in at all...

[u/RedSnowPwn]

I like this video, straight to the point, points out small details and mentions details that he didn’t cover but might be important.

[u/MfgLmt]

Man, the comments on this post are savage. People are getting down voted to oblivion in here.

[u/hodgEEEEE]

Excellent tutorial dude!

[u/kbsher]

excellent guide!!!