I never understand why people may want to have transparent keycaps especially for those boards that have no lighting function. Aha, now I understand. Let's convince Tai Hao some time to create something like this:
The ones I showed Chyros were the "Olivette" Alps set, compared to a set from some NIB Alps rubber dome keyboard with Arabic pad-printed secondary legends. They were from Massdrop, from a drop about 18 months ago or so. The Olivette legends look very blurry to the extent that, like Chyros says, they look lasered or badly dye-subbed in comparison to the crisp and sharp legends on the originals. I'll try to grab some pictures later if I get some time at my desk!
They feel snappy and smooth
I think it's the same one that was used in this thread. E3E did them for me, he own's the cleaner. Everything but the switchplates were done. I would normally not do the slider to preserve the lube but the slider's in the original condition were unrecoverable. The lube I used was Dupont Teflon Silicone lube. I put a very small amt. on a q-tip and put it on the sides of the slider where the factory lube already was.
Well, i'm selling the lot when I get them all back together. All 100+ each of Greens, Blue's, and Yellow's
I just did my first keyboard full of Alps mods (I have de-soldered and re-soldered several boards but never gone into the switches themselves) and I can say with certainty that it is far easier to re-assemble them with the bases soldered down in place than it is trying to hold loose switches in your hands.
Yea it's wayyy easier. I use an old IBM Multistation mounting plate on a set of wood blocks to hold them in place as I put them back together.fohat wrote:I just did my first keyboard full of Alps mods (I have de-soldered and re-soldered several boards but never gone into the switches themselves) and I can say with certainty that it is far easier to re-assemble them with the bases soldered down in place than it is trying to hold loose switches in your hands.
Next time I hope to find a dead Alps PCB and at least set them in place, even if they are not soldered down.
PS - Mr Bishop's tool is a great help!
I don't think it ever happened to me. It also helps if you get an upstroke click and you need to disassemble and assemble it again, It's much quicker to do it with a switch in hand. This is my setup. Nothing wrong with having a stable surfacealh84001 wrote: I have to disagree. When you hold the whole piece, you can just put everything in the top housing and just close it from the top with bottom housing. Contact leaf is usually locked-in in the bottom housing with soldering tin remnants, but obviously as from the post above that is not always the case
Now, when I have switches in the board, I put sliderin the top housing and not on the spring, so every now and then I get a misaligned spring and I have to open the switch and do it all over again. I know the more common method is to put the slider on the spring, and click/tactile leaf around it, but sooner or later, by doing that, I manage to deform the click/tactile leaf by crushing it with top housing.
My $.02.
The 130 key IBM Multistation mounting plate serve's as a great base.
(an r/mk joke) 
Please put this in big bold letters in the wiki somewhere. I've spent altogether too much time trying to find reliable information about cleaning methods and 'lube versus not lube' for Alps switches. If there's any sort of consensus about this, it's critical info for anyone who collects Alps boards.XMIT wrote: I agree. I've used Super Lube 51010 oil in trace amounts along side a clean switch and a clean switch is still best. You're better off spending the money on an ultrasonic cleaner than the time in lubricating these.
With a good thorough cleaning of the sliders and switch tops, and a shot of compressed air in the bottoms and the switch plates, these can feel like new. That's the best combination I've found.
+1Scarpia wrote:Please put this in big bold letters in the wiki somewhere. I've spent altogether too much time trying to find reliable information about cleaning methods and 'lube versus not lube' for Alps switches. If there's any sort of consensus about this, it's critical info for anyone who collects Alps boards.XMIT wrote: I agree. I've used Super Lube 51010 oil in trace amounts along side a clean switch and a clean switch is still best. You're better off spending the money on an ultrasonic cleaner than the time in lubricating these.
With a good thorough cleaning of the sliders and switch tops, and a shot of compressed air in the bottoms and the switch plates, these can feel like new. That's the best combination I've found.
