Best lube for linear switches?

[Morsher]

Hi. I'm planning on building a fairly budget custom keyboard (60% ofc). I want to know what lube should i get for linear switches? My switches of choice are Gateron Yellows or Blacks. Haven't decided yet. I wanna smoothen them up a little bit and don't wanna lose the feel of the switch and also dampen the sound a little.
I heard about very popular one called Krytox. The most talked about are Krytox GPL 205g0, GPL 205g2 and GPL 105g0. So what do these grades mean and which one is the best for linears? What are your recommendations?

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, Morsher said:

Hi. I'm planning on building a fairly budget custom keyboard (60% ofc). I want to know what lube should i get for linear switches? My switches of choice are Gateron Yellows or Blacks. Haven't decided yet. I wanna smoothen them up a little bit and don't wanna lose the feel of the switch and also dampen the sound a little.
I heard about very popular one called Krytox. The most talked about are Krytox GPL 205g0, GPL 205g2 and GPL 105g0. So what do grades stand for and which one is the best for linears? What are your recommendations?

probably any silicone grease/oil really, maybe something that isn't too liquidy

[b emoji]

4 minutes ago, Morsher said:

I heard about very popular one called Krytox. The most talked about are Krytox GPL 205g0, GPL 205g2 and GPL 105g0. So what do these grades mean and which one is the best for linears? What are your recommendations?

Basically, the 20Xs are greases, and the 10Xs are oils, the higher the end number the higher the viscosity. Krytox is a type of grease/oil and is produced by DuPoint (Original Creator) and Miller which is generally considered as superior to DuPoint and is most well know for their Tribosys 3203/3204 lines of lube, the main vendor for this is SwitchMod (Krelbit). 205G0 is usually preferred for linear, Grade 2 is the standard and has a peanut butter like consistency, Grade 00 is near semi fluid and I would recommend against this as it can actually separate in near room temperature environments. There's also Grade 0s which is basically an oil. 

If you want to dampen your switch sound I would use 205G0 from SwitchMod, or 205G2 + 105 Mix from TX Keyboards. There's also GHv4 which is a mix of 206g0 and 106 at 10:3 ratio which can also work but is a bit more inconsistent and will separate quicker. 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

probably any silicone grease/oil really, maybe something that isn't too liquidy

Don't

[Ramrod126]

Crisco

EDIT: Sorry, wrong forum.

[Streetguru]

14 minutes ago, b emoji said:

Don't

Why not? I just used some left over dialectical grease from a spark plug thing, worked fine lol

[b emoji]

5 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Why not? I just used some left over dialectical grease from a spark plug thing, worked fine lol

Not consistent, sluggish and will probably gum up after a while. You get more variety with Krytox as well 

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, b emoji said:

Not consistent, sluggish and will probably gum up after a while. You get more variety with Krytox as well 

I suppose it depends, but generally silicone grease/oil is very stable long term isn't it? Which is kind of the whole point of having silicone in it?

[b emoji]

5 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

I suppose it depends, but generally silicone grease/oil is very stable long term isn't it? Which is kind of the whole point of having silicone in it?

The advantage Krytox has is that it is consistently smooth with its higher ptfe concentration and is easier to consistently apply, plus since Krytox grades are standardized it's easy to know how viscous, smooth, sound dampening, tactility reducing a certain krytox will be. That's why most of the keyboard community uses Krytox. 

[Morsher]

34 minutes ago, b emoji said:

Basically, the 20Xs are greases, and the 10Xs are oils, the higher the end number the higher the viscosity. Krytox is a type of grease/oil and is produced by DuPoint (Original Creator) and Miller which is generally considered as superior to DuPoint and is most well know for their Tribosys 3203/3204 lines of lube, the main vendor for this is SwitchMod (Krelbit). 205G0 is usually preferred for linear, Grade 2 is the standard and has a peanut butter like consistency, Grade 00 is near semi fluid and I would recommend against this as it can actually separate in near room temperature environments. There's also Grade 0s which is basically an oil. 

If you want to dampen your switch sound I would use 205G0 from SwitchMod, or 205G2 + 105 Mix from TX Keyboards. There's also GHv4 which is a mix of 206g0 and 106 at 10:3 ratio which can also work but is a bit more inconsistent and will separate quicker. 

 

 

Don't

Hmm... Interesting. Okay then. What if i would have chosen Gateron Silent Blacks instead of regular Gaterons and sound wasn't a problem? Then 105g0 would be a good choice for the smootheness?

[b emoji]

2 hours ago, Morsher said:

Hmm... Interesting. Okay then. What if i would have chosen Gateron Silent Blacks instead of regular Gaterons and sound wasn't a problem? Then 105g0 would be a good choice for the smootheness?

Don't get silent gats unless they're healios or silent inks. Regular silent gats are known to be scratchy and inconsistent as well as having a "sticky" issue. I would use a thin coat of 205g0 for any linear mx tbh. 

[geo3]

If you've never lubed before 204 is probably better than 205. It's easy to use too much lube and 205 is thick enough too where to much can make a switch sluggish.

 

And after using side by side I think Tribosys is marginally better than Krytox. 3204 would be the 204 equivalent if you get Tribosys

[Morsher]

17 hours ago, b emoji said:

Don't get silent gats unless they're healios or silent inks. Regular silent gats are known to be scratchy and inconsistent as well as having a "sticky" issue. I would use a thin coat of 205g0 for any linear mx tbh. 

I live in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Ordering them from US web-sites will be relatively expensive to ship. And not everyone ships to Russia. So my options of keycaps are limited.
I'm used to Cherry MX Blacks and i loved them. But i saw many YT videos where Gateron Blacks stood out in many aspects compared to Cherry. And also they're really cheap.

[Morsher]

14 hours ago, geo3 said:

If you've never lubed before 204 is probably better than 205. It's easy to use too much lube and 205 is thick enough too where to much can make a switch sluggish.

 

And after using side by side I think Tribosys is marginally better than Krytox. 3204 would be the 204 equivalent if you get Tribosys

So if i've never lubed before 204 is a safe option then? 204 grade 0 i suppose?

[Morsher]

23 hours ago, b emoji said:

Don't get silent gats unless they're healios or silent inks. Regular silent gats are known to be scratchy and inconsistent as well as having a "sticky" issue. I would use a thin coat of 205g0 for any linear mx tbh. 

Hey what would you say about milky gaterons?

[b emoji]

4 hours ago, Morsher said:

Hey what would you say about milky gaterons?

I would recommend against full milky gats, I would get the black bottom milky top gats, 3204 or 205g0 are fine, if you havent lubed before use 3204. 

 

9 hours ago, Morsher said:

So if i've never lubed before 204 is a safe option then? 204 grade 0 i suppose?

Yeah 204g0 and 3204 are technically the same but tribosys/miller chemical has a better rep than dupoint

 

[Morsher]

2 minutes ago, b emoji said:

I would recommend against full milky gats, I would get the black bottom milky top gats, 3204 or 205g0 are fine, if you havent lubed before use 3204. 

 

Yeah 204g0 and 3204 are technically the same but tribosys/miller chemical has a better rep than dupoint

 

Okay. Thank you.

[geo3]

1 hour ago, Morsher said:

Okay. Thank you.

Black bottom milky top gats can be found here https://novelkeys.xyz/collections/switches/products/gateron-switches 

I thing KBD Fans also has them.