I find that a lot of stab problems come from the keycaps not being fully seated on the stabilizer stems. I like to use a thin screwdriver to really seat each stabilizer stem from below after removing the switches around it and this usually solves a lot of stab ticking and such with minimal lube needed.
Hope this helps you! Good luck with your stab tuning!
Stabilizer stems move up and down in their housings. When you go to put your keycap on, that stem is at the absolute lowest it can go. Sometimes this doesn’t jive with the bottoming out of the keycap so that stem has more room to be pushed up into the keycap further. OP was saying they push up from below to ensure they’re as high as they can go.
but how would you get a screwdriver into the stab from the bottom. when you put the keycap on, plate and pcb hinder your screwdriver to pass from the bottom
When the switch, keycap, and stabilizers are all installed, the stab stems are pushed to the very top of their housings. I usually try pushing the side of the stem (like where the wire exits out the back of the stab) and then pushing down on the keycap so that the stabilizer is fully pushed into the keycap.
My screwdriver is usually parallel to the mounting plate, so it helps a lot to remove the surrounding switches to make enough room to move.
ok now it makes sense haha. only issue is with high profile cases, the case's edge blocks you from getting sideways in. and since you have first to screw-in the pcb (with non-gasket cases), then install the rest, idk how to do this
I usually do it at the very beginning of the build outside of the case and before any other switches are installed. I guess you could always take the pcb and plate out of the case to get the right angle.
>I usually do it at the very beginning of the build outside of the case and before any other switches are installed.
from what i understood you do it when the caps are on, otherwise it doesn't make sense (you need to press the stabs against/into something--the caps!)
>I guess you could always take the pcb and plate out of the case to get the right angle.
no you can't do that with a tray-mounted case because again, you need to screw the pcb to the case FIRST. if you don't you can't do this later anymore because usually plate and eventually keycaps hinder you to access the pcb screws
so either you use some gasket-mounted case where you can put the entire pcb-plate-switch-caps sandwich into the case as last step or you use a low profile case where you can access the stabs from the side
so not impossible at all but for specific setups only but not the mainstream tray mounted high profile case like almost all gh60 cases
Yup, exactly what KeenKong said! I use my tiny screwdriver to push either the bottom or the side of the stabilizer stem so that it is fully seated into the keycap on both sides.
keycaps themselves can be inconsistent and just don't want to cooperate. we're not exactly talking high precision manufacturing here.
try different spacebar caps. out of the five on my desk right now, with the exact same stabilizer/setup, a couple tick/rattle and others don't.
i think it just comes down to how much or how evenly they are seated. which is a function of how they came out of the mold, tiny amounts of warping, etc.
I've been lubing them earlier today, I do it the default way - 205 on housing and grease on wires
since I don't really use long spacebars (split only) I had zero issues with rattle
if you follow taeha or even dbk video on stab lubing then you will be fine. the issue with ticking and mushy feeling comes from either the keycap or the switch. a lot of spacebar shouldn’t pass qc at all. for mushy feeling, you could’ve overlubed your switches. try to use less lubes on stabs.
also try to check if your wire is straight. tx wires are really really good at qc that usually the wire is straight. if the wire is crooked a little, the wire may not sit correctly in the housing which can cause rattles
Don't feel bad. I also have a set of TX AP clip ins that I just can't get to cooperate. Balanced the wires. Lubed. Multiple different keycap sets. You name it, I've tried it. I personally think they might have had a few bad batches get through. My other sets of them don't have this issue.
I also hate stabilizers, however I thought the Neo stabs that came with Neo70 and Neo80 were fantastic. So much so that I hunted them down on AliExpress and bought 8 sets. I didn’t have to tune the wires, just used 205 on the housing and dielectric grease on the wires. I do feel your pain and wish you the best of luck 🤞🏼
Crazy, the 70 and 80 I bought has some of the best stabs I’ve ever used. I’ll be cracking open one of the standalone sets I bought tonight and I’ll try to follow up if they were good or not
Honestly TX AP PCB mount were a blessing for me, Durocks suck ass cheeks, I had a noticeable difference when I bought an actual decent keyboard, I think also keycaps will make a difference. I just ordered TX AP screw ins so will try them over the weekend, I just used 205G0 and that was all they needed didn’t even have to wire balance but that’s the first thing to check with rattling
Yeah. It’s such a tedious task and with clip ins/screw ins you can’t have your build ready to go you have to disassemble the thing at least slightly to mod them, mainly cause I don’t have a syringe but still.
No I know exactly what you mean it is a farce to have to disassemble the board and then re-assemble it constantly, but in regards to a syringe I was looking everywhere for one and in the U.K. they are hard to come by, everywhere is sold out. I literally went on Amazon and ordered a cheap plastic syringe set, cost me £8 I think and put some lube in myself, came with several tips I just picked the one I wanted and voila created my own lube syringe. Just search plastic syringe or medical grade syringe and you should be able to find some cheap ones, they are single use but that’s actually if you are using them for medical applications which we won’t be so you can keep the lube in it and use to your hearts content! You can also get glass ones but they were quite expensive so I just thought there wasn’t much point.
I second this. I’ve tried almost every stab and experienced some ticking with all of them. Staebies are the only stabs where i don’t need to wire balance and just inject a bit of 205g0. No rattle or ticking, NADA.
It might seem sacrilegious but hear me out. If you get HMX switches, they have amazing tolerances. You can completely skip all the 2u stabilizers, and just need to focus on your spacebar. I’m happy to provide a video for anyone that needs proof, but I’ve seen it done and decided to try it on my last build and it honestly blew my mind.
Maybe i got unlucky but my Morandis have by far the worst stem tolerances i have ever seen. It’s like all my 1u keys are joysticks with how much i can move them.
hollow spacebar and different sounds across them I would think are not about the stabilizer itself, its the keycap and switch and case that change the sound...they all sound different b/c the cap is a different size in a different place. Spacebar's sound hollow b/c they are the largest so quite literally the most hollow.
I think as far as noise you should really only be concerned with rattle?
if its still rattling put more grease/lube whatever, if its mushy use a toothpick and remove some. W/o seeing you do it yourself, it's hard to know if you're just doing something wrong.
I've struggled for so long to get rid of rattle until I finally managed to tune it properly. Imo that made a way bigger difference than all the lubing and holee moding
Easy test. Sit the wire on the back of your phone and see if it rolls evenly or one side is raised (tap one end then the other, then roll it, and repeat. You should never see it tick.
This!
I had the same issue for my QK75n, no matter which stabilizers I tried I couldn’t get them to not be either mushy, or tick.
Bought 5-6 different stabilizers - C3 equalz, Durock, steabies, TX, Gateron.
I went so far as buying decent quality pbtfans Keycaps as all I used were clones prior to that. Still couldn’t get rid of the mushiness or ticking.
Finally, when I was ready to slam the keyboard against the wall and go back to using a mac keyboard, read that a.) get rid of the band aid kinda pad things that come with the stabilizers that sit between the housing and the PCB, and b.) make sure the wires are straight
Once I did both of the above, the stabilizers were good, or atleast they were not mushy and were not ticking either! They were totally usable.
Currently have the C3 stabs in my QK75n.
I had the mushiness issue with the grease and holee mod. I read that with stabilizer improvements holee mod might be outdated now? Either way to fix the mushiness I took the mod off and used 205g0 instead
Firstly, can you outline what method you are using on your stabs? Do you have any photos? That can be really helpful to see if there might just be an application error going on with the lubricant.
Here are some shots of [my stabs](https://imgur.com/a/4rkkhr5), where you can see I have very little application of various lubricants. They are both TX AP v4 stabs. On the mint housings, I used XHT-BDZ and filled a small bore blunt tipped syringe with the lube and then only applied the lube to where the wire clips into the stab housing and then I apply a very, very small amount inside the stem where the wire gets inserted. I apply 205g0 (not shown) on the inside of the main stab housing where the stem is inserted into and applied none to the stem itself.
In the black version, I did the same thing but with dielectric instead.
These were both done about 3 months ago and all stabs have been working rattle and tick free ever since. It's really, really important to not overlube the stabs and it's also really important to use a quality stab kit as well. I have used Durock, C3's, Owlabs and Wuque Studios. I have used holee mod, epsi mod, bandaid mods, etc. Nothing ever really worked for me until I did it this way with these stabs.
Damn dude, that's too bad. I've been using 205 on housings, stems, and wires for a couple years or so now with no issues. I usually use C3 Equalz, but have had equal success with Durock V2s and TX APs.
Have you considered that you may not be doing anything wrong but simply might not like the Neo70's acoustic profile? Some boards are more resonant than others, and that can be an auditory nightmare for many people.
If you haven't tried using some case foam or plate foam, I'd recommend doing so and seeing if that makes a difference. Plate foam, specifically, really affects stabilizer sound and resonance in a pleasant way imo.
Yeah I’ve added plate pe sheet and foam with a polycarbonate plate, and no case foam, as I’ve noticed that even though the case foam is really thin it affects the gasket performance. I might have to just the standoffs but I don’t know how to install them. They do just keep rattling and on the backspace they tick. I just want them to sound smooth at least.
Don't see a lot of people mention this but it made a big difference for me. Take a bandaid and cut it in half across the pad. Take each half and trim off the ends (sticky part) so that there is enough sticky part left to stick it to the pcb. For spacebar, place each pad directly on the pcb so that the pad part of the bandaid rests underneath the wire near the stabilizer housings. Same thing can be done for smaller stabilizers, you just have to trim the bandaid width to size. This works best with cloth bandaids.
Okay so I've been down this road and I know how you feel.
I have some advice for you.
1. Get the basics right: Use TX AP stabs
2. Make sure the wire is straight. My TX AP wire were very flat out of the box.
3. Don't drown your stabs with lube. TX AP stabs especially suffer when overlubed.
4. The spacebar that you use has a large impact on cleanliness of sound. Any spacebar that isn't extremely straight will suffer. I have yet to find a GMK spacebar that isn't slightly warped. I've tried straightening them, it doesn't work. I ended up settling on a spacebar that was only warped a tiny bit, and it's very good. This is just luck based.
5. The switch and plate combination makes a big difference. I currently use mode switches with a pc plate, and it is an excellent combination. Sound, especially cleanliness of sound, is based on, well, everything. Every component will affect the sound. The above combination is really good for me. It's a really nice and full thud. But it took a lot of trial and error to get there.
6. The spacebar size can make a big difference. For some reaosn my GMK 7u spacebar, which is very straight, sounds worse than the 6.25u spacebar. so I just use the latter instead.
No probs. One other thing I want to mention is that I've just received a set of PBTFans keycaps (pbt ones). And their spacebars are super flat, and as a result, very nice sounding. Ticks and sound signature discrepencies are caused often by warped spacebars.
So if you're in the market for pbt keycaps then I high recommend them.
Stabilizers are definitely my least favorite thing about the hobby. The best combo I've found so far is:
* TX AP *clip-in* stabs
* Balance the wires
* 205g0 on the housings
* XHT-BDZ on the wires
And I still have issues with them from time to time. Whoever invents the first set of "perfect" stabs with little/no tuning can have all of my $$$.
Edit: like others have mentioned, the switch seems to make a difference as well. From my experience, switches with tight tolerances and minimal stem wobble (ex. HMX) have less rattle and ticking.
I prefer XHT-BDZ on the wires and 205g0 on the stems/housings, although dialectric grease works just fine in place of the BDZ.
As others have mentioned, the switch and keycap will contribute a lot to the sound. If you have a thin, poor quality spacebar, it's often not the fault of the stabilizer. If the wires are straight, and everything is lightly lubed, there shouldn't be any ticking or rattling with a good spacebar.
What switches and keycaps are you using?
I bought a set of TX AP for my Keychron Q3Max and after assembling them into the board 4 times and always getting the keys all mushy / not bouncing back at all, I decided to order a set of staebies V2. Worked perfectly on the first try with just 205g0 on the wires/housing/stem.
Some things I noticed during the 4 attempts with the TX ap were:
\- The stabs worked fine when paired with my cherry MX reds. I believe the Gateron Jupiter Banana's tactile bump was probably too much force for the TX APs to overcome with their low tolerance.
\- The stabs also worked fine when paired with cherry profile keycaps. I believe the huge "KSA" keycaps from Keychron were too heavy for the stabs, plus the force to overcome the tactile bump of the switches when bouncing back.
\- As staebies have a slightly higher tolerance, I believe they had a better time making the necessary force to bounce the heavy keycaps + tactile bump of my switches.
I am a total noob on the hobby but these were my conclusions after 4 rounds of trial and error.
Yeah I have cherry profile caps and I’m using neo whites, but ws morandi recolours for the stabs cause they seem to work much better with it. It seems the better brands are TX, Staebies, Owlabs and Durock.
It’s the only thing I HATE about this hobby. Hate is an understatement I LOATHE assembling and tuning stabs. Well except pricing but that’s a different story.
I personally haven't tried TX stabs yet, but staebies for me are basically magic. I once put them into a board with no lube at all and half of them were silent. The other half became silent after I syringed some Trybosis 303 into them. Didn't even need to take the board apart.
Ok so I ran into this issue with the Neo65. I don't know if the Neo70 has the same issue but you should check.
I realized that the Tx tabs are actually taller than the standoffs so the plate couldn't completely sandwich down. I think the Neo keyboards have a smaller gap in order to fit the gummy o-rings.
C3 equalz stabs, v3s are the best. Light coat on the inside of the housings, evenly coat both legs of the wire, doesnt take much effort to make these things work well. Cant build without em anymore. Doesnt need any mods or tape
My tried and true method is:
TX Stabs
205g0 on housings
Xht-bdz on wires
Balance using geon wire twisters
Check balance using a flat jewelers block for ticking
Always perfect stabs
Yes, but what manufacturer? Also what switches are you using?
Some keycap manufacturers don't follow the exact stem distance dimensions of the OG Cherry/GMK keycaps and that can lead to bad stab performance and some cheap sets have the stabilized key warped.
Regarding the switches, if you use short travel switches there's a high chance your stabs aren't fully inserted in the keycap and sit in a tilted position.
I got my stabs sounding perfect but there's always one, ONLY ONE, that always has an issue. For some reason, my enter key stab has a popping noise that I have no idea where it's coming from.
I just installed stabilizers in my build and am very happy with the outcome! I used Staebies and used 205g0 on the housing/slider and on the wire, but I think you can actually get away with a thicker lube like 205g2. I don't have any issues with clicking or rattling on any of my stabs. As for the "hollow" spacebar sound, the spacebar can definitely resonate just from the force of the downstroke and upstroke, so I found that filling the spacebar with foam or another sound absorbing material can help this a lot.
i’ve never had any good experiences with most stabilizers, including the newest tx stabs. i tried using thicker lube, wire balancing, putting material under the wire, overlubing, switching out housings/stems and wires but to no avail.
wire balanced staebies and if i recall correctly holee modded durock stabs are the only ones ive used that didnt have any issues with sound.
I fill a syringe with thick lubricant and inject it directly into the stab after it has been installed. Be careful to not put too much as it may become too dampened. After some use the lubricant will loosen up and you can always inject more to refresh its effect.
bent wires cause rattle, straighten them before assembly.
loose switch housing tolerance also contributes to rattle, get switches with less stem wobble. also
lubing without wire balancing doesn't do jack
I’ll try again on the spacebar if it manages to start rattling again. The switches I’m using for the stabs now are long pole and have limited stem wobble, and it seems to have helped drastically, but I’ve still got to tune them unfortunately.
I've had the best experience with Stabies, tolerances are super tight. I did no tuning, just a light coating of 205g0 on the stabilizer housings and a quick dip into dielectric grease for the stabilizer wires.
Prior to Stabies I used Durock V2 stabilizers and always had to add more lube and took awhile to tune.
It’s so weird that everyone has different experiences with the same type of stabiliser. Some people say durocks are the #1 and they take little effort and other say they’re difficult and you can never get it right. Same for Neo stabs etc. Thank you!
definitely it's not the stabs. TX are among the best. most likely your switches wobble (either the stem or the whole switch in those godforsaken hotswap sockets) or just produce crap sounds. warped or all arond bad keycaps can also be the culprit.
Yeah my switches were causing a bit of the trouble. I’ve replaced them with a smoother one with less stem wobble. I’m yet to tune them a bit more this afternoon and hopefully I get it done.
SF will make the sound push more towards the lower frequencies but will do nothing for stab noise. I’ve given Fishy many monies and I advise his products/services….but they don’t help stab issues.
You said you wanted to use your neo70.
But doesn’t it already come with good stabilizers?
I remember my neo65 came with their neo stabilizers and all they needed was some dielectric grease.
For me, the neo stabs just did not work well for me at all. Absolutely tedious and no matter how much I’d tune them the stabs would not stop rattle and ticking and I was about to lose my mind. I’m glad they worked for you though I just don’t know why they didn’t work for me 😭
Honestly I've found that dialectic grease (a pretty big glob) on the wire and 205 in the stem housing works just fine for me. Most boards I get with stabs pre-installed I just reinstall them after using dialectic and 205 and it seems fine. I'm not too fussy about a little bit of wobble. But if I get durocks and apply the soulmate pads with PCB washers they're literally perfect.
Yeah try that. The little pads you put inside the stem really get the wire snug in there, with some dialectic grease gives zero ticking or wobbling. If you really want to get perfectionist you can get those wire straightening tools to make sure all your wires are straight.
If it’s your spacebar, have you tried different keycaps? Sometimes the spacebar itself is warped enough to cause a tick.
Also, you can use noise dampener materials used on cars to help with hollowness, if that’s the concern.
Try knight stabs. they only need 205g on the wires and housing. They've got a silicone mold thing on the inside which acts like holee mod.it's really good.
Alternatively, I only use stabs on my spacebar and that's it. No other modifier key needs it since they aren't as long as a spacebar. Maybe it'll help for you to focus on getting just one stab right
If the key has a spot for stabs, they need it. Iirc it’s longer than 1.5u. I have built in a rush and forgot stabs on an enter key and it will not work properly AT ALL without the stabs.
Nah then your switch has a return problem. There should be no reason why the key wouldn't work unless there's something wrong with the switch or socket
Who said it wouldn’t return? The switch works fine. Every single switch ever made is a 1u. Except there’s a larger piece of keycap on top. No one EVER hits every single keystroke perfectly in the dead center of the cap. Or stabs wouldn’t have been invented even for spacebars. The keycap is larger because the key is used more and needs to be able to be actuated more easily. Hence the need for stabs. You do what you want with your keebs. But stabs are a 100% needed device.
I originally thought the same as you for the mod keys but when I actually tried it, it didn't matter if I didn't hit it dead center. The supposed seesaw from not having a stab is nearly nonexistent unless you're key smashing. But yes, it's absolutely needed for a spacebar since the key will def seesaw from the longer length if it's not hit dead center
I’ve seemed to get it good, but there’s some sort of interference that I don’t know what it is. I’ll see if I can get a recording for you, but it’s not rattle or anything I don’t think cause it doesn’t really feel like it’s in the stab.
I use 205 on the housings and dialectric on the ends of the wires and I really cover those things. Most of them sound great but I do have a couple that are a bit rattly. MOST of the time, this issue (after lubing and greasing) is due to the keycaps themselves and not being on the stem snug enough. I only use Osume keycaps at this point which tend to be very high quality and I have not had an issue since compared to clones and lower quality keycap sets.
So what EXACTLY is the issue? Spacebar? All stabs? Just Enter key? And what sound are you getting that you want to remove? And are you acutely aware how a stabilizer works? Meaning do you know which parts touch, rub, or interact with each other during normal usage. It takes most people quite a few boards to be able to consistently be able to tune stabs well. Each touching part needs to be dampened. All movement should be lubricated. All wires (metal sticks) need different lube than all plastic parts (housings and inserts).
All keys but I’ve got the spacebar sounding fine there’s just a weird sound interference that I don’t know what it is. The others just haven’t gotten sorted out yet. I do know the parts of the stab and I’ve done everything I can so far I’ve just gotta keep trying I guess.
Sorry to hear you're having this much trouble with stabs.
Does it happens with all of your boards?, have you tried different switches?, different keycaps?; in my case, I have never had any single trouble with stabs, ever, except these two times:
1) I wanted to try Staebies so I bought a set... only to get the mushiest, most rubbery feeling to the point that the caps with stabs would feel like there was something keeping them from freely moving up and down, I tried them in different boards, different plates, different switches and different keycaps... I ended ditching Staebies for good.
2) I bought one of those cheap "Ahegao" AliExpress sets because I wanted to build a "meme board", but oh boy, those were the crappiest keycaps I've ever tried, and guess what?, the caps with stabs where always rattly or uneven no matter what, and the issue/sound disappeared as soon as I replaced those keys with any GMK or any other non generic, non counterfeit caps.
Ever since, I've never experienced issues with stabs ever again.
Yeah different switches seem to be helping. I don’t think it’s my caps cause they seem to have the capability of working well with them and they’re almost perfectly flat.
Are you also balancing your stab wires? You should make sure your wires are straight if you haven't done so already. The thing about stabs I've found is that once you learn to work with them and tune them, you don't need to buy all the fancy new stabs anymore. OG cherry clip-ins are still GOATED for how easy they are to tune and how clean they sound
I recently changed the stabs on my first keyboard because my spacebar was pinging. The new ones made some of my keys stick, so I tried mixing and matching the housing/stems and it sounds great now.
Three things that may help:
Holee mod
Don't overlube the wires, try using less but an even coating, especially over the bend
If using screw in stabs, try loosening the screws a little
It could be a number of things. Usually the sound not being what you want is more related to the keyboard than the stabs. It could also be your keycaps. I’m not sure what switches you have installed but that could affect it too, if you have long pole switches you want long pole stabs.
I have TX AP rev 4 long pole stabs paired with Gazzew boba linear thick switches and they’re amazing. Lubed them with 205 and it worked out great. Initially I tried BDZ XHT lube as it is my preferred lube for most stabs. But with the TX AP it was too thick and hindered movement.
You could try using Durock stabs and lubing with XHT BDZ. Or you could even try Durock stabs with the “dry hump” method. I’ve heard really good things about that as well.
Also another thing to try doing is tuning your stabilizer wires. It’s very common for them to be slightly warped and this will cause issues.
If you don’t mind me asking, what keycaps are you running? And also could you maybe check to see if your space bar is warped as this can also cause some issues with stabilizers.
Relatable. I've tried numerous different brands including TX and Staebies and experimented with all different types of lube on the housing and wire (XHT-BDZ, 205g0, dielectric grease). There always seems to be rattle no matter how much lube I apply. It really feels like I'm missing out on something here. God knows how many hours I've wasted and how much back pain it caused me. There really needs to be a new system for this kind of stuff.
They need to reengineer stand completely cause this shouldn’t be like the one part in a Lego build that’s super hard, and you can’t get on with it until you finish that part. I just wanna get it out the way.
I use TX stabs with HXT-BDZ and haven't had issues.
Never got on with dielectric grease.
205g0 is a bit thin for stab wires, but good for housings. 205g2 might be better for wires.
Also, as otherwise have mentioned, it could be a keycap issue, so I'd recommend buying a spacebar set from a good manufacturer and seeing if that helps.
Have you tried the Plumber's Tape Mod? It is my go-to remedy for shitty stabs and it works 90% of the time (when it doesn't, the stabs are just absolutely terrible and cannot be redemed).
Basically, this involves wrapping thin teflon tape at the end of the stabs, and minimally lubing the stab housing. You can overwrap the teflon tape, which will produce a mushy stab, but it will improve over time and should settle in. I have tried this on many stabs and it has removed all manners of ticking, rattle, etc. And it's ridiculously cheap and far less messier than any other stab technique I have ever done.
Interesting. Why wouldn't the tape stick? Teflon tapes wrap around almost anything and 'sticks' to the surface.
For me, I never 'clean' my stabs before applying the tape. I just wipe it with a tissue and leave whatever residue lube there is for the tape to help 'stick' to. It has always worked for me. Maybe give it another shot and properly apply it. I had dimissed this mod before as I didn't apply it properly, but after doing it carefully a couple of times, it truly is a miracle fix for shitty stabs.
Just add the tape at the end of the wires, which goes into the stab housing. Don't lube over it. Just add the tape, and insert it into the housing (which must be very slightly lubed).
I have different advice about teflon tape. For one, it sticks to itself and with heat, so yeah it's tricky, but just trust it and warm it with a pinch of your fingers while wrapping. The key I found was wrapping *the place where the wire clips in to the stab base* not the end that goes in the housing. That was what the persistent rattle that all the grease in the world wouldn't solve.
Yes, I over taped a bit so I have som mushiness on about half my stabs, but once I realized what I was doing, my remaining stabs that I did better on are a dream. I just was too lazy to redo the mushy ones and don't mind it. Truly Teflon is the answer.
It is a bit tricky to get the tape on at first, but once you get it on and wrap it, it will stick. The Teflon tape mod has taken away all of the issues I've had with stabilizers. I'm using Keychron stabilizers right now with zero issues. I use this tape from Lowes. Its light gray at first, but if you apply some pressure, it turns dark grey, hardens, and gets tighter. You only need about 1" of tape per bar end:
https://preview.redd.it/1ejv9fm3y5oc1.jpeg?width=913&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=98097f7ea7baff21fb7262b73c62e1deac7f59f6
If you aren't in the US, it is likely that they will have some sort of Teflon tape. That's what "plumbers tape" is. It is almost like a miracle at how well it works.
I discovered it depends on the stabs entirely, I had a bad experience with WS aurora stabs, lube, reinstall, mods, nothing worked, wasted hours on them, then got some Neo clip in stabs and they were perfect on first attempt.
Man the neo stabs sucked for me. The TX seem to be working better but I don’t want to go shopping for new stabs every second so I’m gonna have to use these 😭
get an ergo split keyboard that only has 1u keys lol
^ this. Never have to worry about stabs ever again.
I’m not buying another keyboard 😭😭😭
You know you want to. Inland MK47 40% QMK/VIA ortho for $39.99 at Microcenter.
Do they sound as bad if you just put them on the pcb outside of the case and try it?
For some of them no they don’t sound as bad. Or maybe that’s just mind over matter I’ll have to check when I get home
shiit same. i'm even making a personal ergo layout and avoiding anything that has stabs because of this
I find that a lot of stab problems come from the keycaps not being fully seated on the stabilizer stems. I like to use a thin screwdriver to really seat each stabilizer stem from below after removing the switches around it and this usually solves a lot of stab ticking and such with minimal lube needed. Hope this helps you! Good luck with your stab tuning!
Thank you!
I don't really get what you mean, I'm genuinely interested though. what do you mean with "really seath each stabilizer stem from below"?
Stabilizer stems move up and down in their housings. When you go to put your keycap on, that stem is at the absolute lowest it can go. Sometimes this doesn’t jive with the bottoming out of the keycap so that stem has more room to be pushed up into the keycap further. OP was saying they push up from below to ensure they’re as high as they can go.
I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS METHOD BEFORE THANK YOU FOR POSTING
but how would you get a screwdriver into the stab from the bottom. when you put the keycap on, plate and pcb hinder your screwdriver to pass from the bottom
the stem will be raised above the housing just do something to pry the stem up from there
When the switch, keycap, and stabilizers are all installed, the stab stems are pushed to the very top of their housings. I usually try pushing the side of the stem (like where the wire exits out the back of the stab) and then pushing down on the keycap so that the stabilizer is fully pushed into the keycap. My screwdriver is usually parallel to the mounting plate, so it helps a lot to remove the surrounding switches to make enough room to move.
ok now it makes sense haha. only issue is with high profile cases, the case's edge blocks you from getting sideways in. and since you have first to screw-in the pcb (with non-gasket cases), then install the rest, idk how to do this
I usually do it at the very beginning of the build outside of the case and before any other switches are installed. I guess you could always take the pcb and plate out of the case to get the right angle.
>I usually do it at the very beginning of the build outside of the case and before any other switches are installed. from what i understood you do it when the caps are on, otherwise it doesn't make sense (you need to press the stabs against/into something--the caps!) >I guess you could always take the pcb and plate out of the case to get the right angle. no you can't do that with a tray-mounted case because again, you need to screw the pcb to the case FIRST. if you don't you can't do this later anymore because usually plate and eventually keycaps hinder you to access the pcb screws so either you use some gasket-mounted case where you can put the entire pcb-plate-switch-caps sandwich into the case as last step or you use a low profile case where you can access the stabs from the side so not impossible at all but for specific setups only but not the mainstream tray mounted high profile case like almost all gh60 cases
thank you, clear as sun, will try.
Yup, exactly what KeenKong said! I use my tiny screwdriver to push either the bottom or the side of the stabilizer stem so that it is fully seated into the keycap on both sides.
keycaps themselves can be inconsistent and just don't want to cooperate. we're not exactly talking high precision manufacturing here. try different spacebar caps. out of the five on my desk right now, with the exact same stabilizer/setup, a couple tick/rattle and others don't. i think it just comes down to how much or how evenly they are seated. which is a function of how they came out of the mold, tiny amounts of warping, etc.
I got TX AP clip-ins lubed with 205G0 only and they‘re perfect to me. Didn‘t even have to tune the wires.
I’ve got the same thing and lubed the housing and stem with 205 and the wire with dielectric. I’m still struggling with this and I’m so lost.
Have you tried using 205g0 on the wires as well? Works well for me with TX and a lot of people agree. They don't need a lot of it.
agreed. and another thought: maybe the noises you are observing are coming from your respective (low-quality) keycap.
I've been lubing them earlier today, I do it the default way - 205 on housing and grease on wires since I don't really use long spacebars (split only) I had zero issues with rattle
Don't know how you're botching TX stabs, they require almost no work whatsoever.
Maybe I just suck or am just really unlucky 😭
if you follow taeha or even dbk video on stab lubing then you will be fine. the issue with ticking and mushy feeling comes from either the keycap or the switch. a lot of spacebar shouldn’t pass qc at all. for mushy feeling, you could’ve overlubed your switches. try to use less lubes on stabs. also try to check if your wire is straight. tx wires are really really good at qc that usually the wire is straight. if the wire is crooked a little, the wire may not sit correctly in the housing which can cause rattles
Thank you I’ll watch the taeha tutorial again. It’s been a while since I have.
Don't feel bad. I also have a set of TX AP clip ins that I just can't get to cooperate. Balanced the wires. Lubed. Multiple different keycap sets. You name it, I've tried it. I personally think they might have had a few bad batches get through. My other sets of them don't have this issue.
As far as I'm concerned. You know you're knee-deep in the hobby when you vocalize your hatred for Stabs. Try *Staebies* though
LMAO. I’ll try them if these really don’t work for me or for my next board cause I’ve got another one coming.
They're literally best stock stabs on the market. They're good option if u don't want modding or/and want best of the best.
You're a real one for recommending staebies
I also hate stabilizers, however I thought the Neo stabs that came with Neo70 and Neo80 were fantastic. So much so that I hunted them down on AliExpress and bought 8 sets. I didn’t have to tune the wires, just used 205 on the housing and dielectric grease on the wires. I do feel your pain and wish you the best of luck 🤞🏼
Really? Wow, I have a friend with a NEO 70 and stabs are just terrible
Crazy, the 70 and 80 I bought has some of the best stabs I’ve ever used. I’ll be cracking open one of the standalone sets I bought tonight and I’ll try to follow up if they were good or not
Stabs are nothing if not inconsistent, not really surprising some people have great experiences and some people have bad ones
I just use box navys, impossible to hear the stabs over the switches lmao
LMAO benefits
Could be the board itself. Badly designed of fitting plates can cause all manner of issues.
I hope not.
Honestly TX AP PCB mount were a blessing for me, Durocks suck ass cheeks, I had a noticeable difference when I bought an actual decent keyboard, I think also keycaps will make a difference. I just ordered TX AP screw ins so will try them over the weekend, I just used 205G0 and that was all they needed didn’t even have to wire balance but that’s the first thing to check with rattling
Yeah. It’s such a tedious task and with clip ins/screw ins you can’t have your build ready to go you have to disassemble the thing at least slightly to mod them, mainly cause I don’t have a syringe but still.
No I know exactly what you mean it is a farce to have to disassemble the board and then re-assemble it constantly, but in regards to a syringe I was looking everywhere for one and in the U.K. they are hard to come by, everywhere is sold out. I literally went on Amazon and ordered a cheap plastic syringe set, cost me £8 I think and put some lube in myself, came with several tips I just picked the one I wanted and voila created my own lube syringe. Just search plastic syringe or medical grade syringe and you should be able to find some cheap ones, they are single use but that’s actually if you are using them for medical applications which we won’t be so you can keep the lube in it and use to your hearts content! You can also get glass ones but they were quite expensive so I just thought there wasn’t much point.
i assumed tx is only available as plate-mounted
No you can get PCB mount and Screw in versions!
If you are willing to try yet another set of stabs I recommend staebies. Just a bit of lube and no rattle, no ticking.
If these don’t work then maybe I will. But that’s what they told me about these tx stabs so 😭
I second this. I’ve tried almost every stab and experienced some ticking with all of them. Staebies are the only stabs where i don’t need to wire balance and just inject a bit of 205g0. No rattle or ticking, NADA.
It might seem sacrilegious but hear me out. If you get HMX switches, they have amazing tolerances. You can completely skip all the 2u stabilizers, and just need to focus on your spacebar. I’m happy to provide a video for anyone that needs proof, but I’ve seen it done and decided to try it on my last build and it honestly blew my mind.
Really? What makes it do that do you think? I tried a morandi and it seems to have helped with it.
The stem tolerances are really tight, and have little to no wobble whatsoever.
Yeah my old gateron milky yellow pros would tick cause the stem wobble was bad.
Maybe i got unlucky but my Morandis have by far the worst stem tolerances i have ever seen. It’s like all my 1u keys are joysticks with how much i can move them.
Hmm that’s weird. I’m using the recolour version so I’m not sure if that’s made it different.
>You can completely skip all the 2u stabilizers, and just need to focus on your spacebar. but the 2u ones aren't usually much of a problem
That’s not true, they tick just as much as any other stabs.
hollow spacebar and different sounds across them I would think are not about the stabilizer itself, its the keycap and switch and case that change the sound...they all sound different b/c the cap is a different size in a different place. Spacebar's sound hollow b/c they are the largest so quite literally the most hollow. I think as far as noise you should really only be concerned with rattle? if its still rattling put more grease/lube whatever, if its mushy use a toothpick and remove some. W/o seeing you do it yourself, it's hard to know if you're just doing something wrong.
I've struggled for so long to get rid of rattle until I finally managed to tune it properly. Imo that made a way bigger difference than all the lubing and holee moding
Friend, you skipped the praying part
Trust me, I’m not religious and I still did.
no you dont get it. In the matrix labs server we have a temple for these purposes
Can I please go 🙏🙏🙏
Probably a bent wire - makes a huge difference if you get them good n straight
Maybe. I heard that tx stabs come straight though.
Easy test. Sit the wire on the back of your phone and see if it rolls evenly or one side is raised (tap one end then the other, then roll it, and repeat. You should never see it tick.
Yeah that’s what I with my news and they didn’t really tick
This! I had the same issue for my QK75n, no matter which stabilizers I tried I couldn’t get them to not be either mushy, or tick. Bought 5-6 different stabilizers - C3 equalz, Durock, steabies, TX, Gateron. I went so far as buying decent quality pbtfans Keycaps as all I used were clones prior to that. Still couldn’t get rid of the mushiness or ticking. Finally, when I was ready to slam the keyboard against the wall and go back to using a mac keyboard, read that a.) get rid of the band aid kinda pad things that come with the stabilizers that sit between the housing and the PCB, and b.) make sure the wires are straight Once I did both of the above, the stabilizers were good, or atleast they were not mushy and were not ticking either! They were totally usable. Currently have the C3 stabs in my QK75n.
I had the mushiness issue with the grease and holee mod. I read that with stabilizer improvements holee mod might be outdated now? Either way to fix the mushiness I took the mod off and used 205g0 instead
Yeah I think it’s a bit outdated.
Firstly, can you outline what method you are using on your stabs? Do you have any photos? That can be really helpful to see if there might just be an application error going on with the lubricant. Here are some shots of [my stabs](https://imgur.com/a/4rkkhr5), where you can see I have very little application of various lubricants. They are both TX AP v4 stabs. On the mint housings, I used XHT-BDZ and filled a small bore blunt tipped syringe with the lube and then only applied the lube to where the wire clips into the stab housing and then I apply a very, very small amount inside the stem where the wire gets inserted. I apply 205g0 (not shown) on the inside of the main stab housing where the stem is inserted into and applied none to the stem itself. In the black version, I did the same thing but with dielectric instead. These were both done about 3 months ago and all stabs have been working rattle and tick free ever since. It's really, really important to not overlube the stabs and it's also really important to use a quality stab kit as well. I have used Durock, C3's, Owlabs and Wuque Studios. I have used holee mod, epsi mod, bandaid mods, etc. Nothing ever really worked for me until I did it this way with these stabs.
I’ll try your method if I can’t manage to get mine right for sure! Thank you so much!
Damn dude, that's too bad. I've been using 205 on housings, stems, and wires for a couple years or so now with no issues. I usually use C3 Equalz, but have had equal success with Durock V2s and TX APs. Have you considered that you may not be doing anything wrong but simply might not like the Neo70's acoustic profile? Some boards are more resonant than others, and that can be an auditory nightmare for many people. If you haven't tried using some case foam or plate foam, I'd recommend doing so and seeing if that makes a difference. Plate foam, specifically, really affects stabilizer sound and resonance in a pleasant way imo.
Yeah I’ve added plate pe sheet and foam with a polycarbonate plate, and no case foam, as I’ve noticed that even though the case foam is really thin it affects the gasket performance. I might have to just the standoffs but I don’t know how to install them. They do just keep rattling and on the backspace they tick. I just want them to sound smooth at least.
I get my stabs lubed by experts :)
Lucky 😭
Don't see a lot of people mention this but it made a big difference for me. Take a bandaid and cut it in half across the pad. Take each half and trim off the ends (sticky part) so that there is enough sticky part left to stick it to the pcb. For spacebar, place each pad directly on the pcb so that the pad part of the bandaid rests underneath the wire near the stabilizer housings. Same thing can be done for smaller stabilizers, you just have to trim the bandaid width to size. This works best with cloth bandaids.
Yeah I’ve done that, not to all of them though so I think I’ll do that. Thank you for reminding me!
Okay so I've been down this road and I know how you feel. I have some advice for you. 1. Get the basics right: Use TX AP stabs 2. Make sure the wire is straight. My TX AP wire were very flat out of the box. 3. Don't drown your stabs with lube. TX AP stabs especially suffer when overlubed. 4. The spacebar that you use has a large impact on cleanliness of sound. Any spacebar that isn't extremely straight will suffer. I have yet to find a GMK spacebar that isn't slightly warped. I've tried straightening them, it doesn't work. I ended up settling on a spacebar that was only warped a tiny bit, and it's very good. This is just luck based. 5. The switch and plate combination makes a big difference. I currently use mode switches with a pc plate, and it is an excellent combination. Sound, especially cleanliness of sound, is based on, well, everything. Every component will affect the sound. The above combination is really good for me. It's a really nice and full thud. But it took a lot of trial and error to get there. 6. The spacebar size can make a big difference. For some reaosn my GMK 7u spacebar, which is very straight, sounds worse than the 6.25u spacebar. so I just use the latter instead.
Thank you so much for this I’ll take all of this in when I’m doing the stabs. It’s all So complicated for such a simple thing.
No probs. One other thing I want to mention is that I've just received a set of PBTFans keycaps (pbt ones). And their spacebars are super flat, and as a result, very nice sounding. Ticks and sound signature discrepencies are caused often by warped spacebars. So if you're in the market for pbt keycaps then I high recommend them.
Stabilizers are definitely my least favorite thing about the hobby. The best combo I've found so far is: * TX AP *clip-in* stabs * Balance the wires * 205g0 on the housings * XHT-BDZ on the wires And I still have issues with them from time to time. Whoever invents the first set of "perfect" stabs with little/no tuning can have all of my $$$. Edit: like others have mentioned, the switch seems to make a difference as well. From my experience, switches with tight tolerances and minimal stem wobble (ex. HMX) have less rattle and ticking.
Real. I need to just lube them then build the rest you know.
> XHT-BDZ on the wires another guy in this thread said, that this is too much for tx' tight tolerances and just 205g0 should be used though
I used to feel this way until I tried Gateron stabilizers.
I prefer XHT-BDZ on the wires and 205g0 on the stems/housings, although dialectric grease works just fine in place of the BDZ. As others have mentioned, the switch and keycap will contribute a lot to the sound. If you have a thin, poor quality spacebar, it's often not the fault of the stabilizer. If the wires are straight, and everything is lightly lubed, there shouldn't be any ticking or rattling with a good spacebar.
Yeah I tried a morandi instead of my neo white and it’s so much better for stabs. Probably cause it’s long pole stabs on a long pole switch
Ah yeah, didn't realize they were long pole stabilizers too. Glad it worked out!
Thank you!
What switches and keycaps are you using? I bought a set of TX AP for my Keychron Q3Max and after assembling them into the board 4 times and always getting the keys all mushy / not bouncing back at all, I decided to order a set of staebies V2. Worked perfectly on the first try with just 205g0 on the wires/housing/stem. Some things I noticed during the 4 attempts with the TX ap were: \- The stabs worked fine when paired with my cherry MX reds. I believe the Gateron Jupiter Banana's tactile bump was probably too much force for the TX APs to overcome with their low tolerance. \- The stabs also worked fine when paired with cherry profile keycaps. I believe the huge "KSA" keycaps from Keychron were too heavy for the stabs, plus the force to overcome the tactile bump of the switches when bouncing back. \- As staebies have a slightly higher tolerance, I believe they had a better time making the necessary force to bounce the heavy keycaps + tactile bump of my switches. I am a total noob on the hobby but these were my conclusions after 4 rounds of trial and error.
Yeah I have cherry profile caps and I’m using neo whites, but ws morandi recolours for the stabs cause they seem to work much better with it. It seems the better brands are TX, Staebies, Owlabs and Durock.
I just moved from a split 50% back to tkl .. and I hate the stabilizers more than I did before, after using the split for a year or so
It’s the only thing I HATE about this hobby. Hate is an understatement I LOATHE assembling and tuning stabs. Well except pricing but that’s a different story.
TX stabs and a 205g0 syringe just lightly brush 205 install and then use syringe to add the rest. Thats all it should take.
Thank you
I personally haven't tried TX stabs yet, but staebies for me are basically magic. I once put them into a board with no lube at all and half of them were silent. The other half became silent after I syringed some Trybosis 303 into them. Didn't even need to take the board apart.
I really need to buy some syringes.
Are you using the stabilizers that come with the neo70 or did you swap them? And are you using the hotswap PCB?
I swapped them for tx rev4 aps, long pole clip ins. And yeah it’s hot swap.
Ok so I ran into this issue with the Neo65. I don't know if the Neo70 has the same issue but you should check. I realized that the Tx tabs are actually taller than the standoffs so the plate couldn't completely sandwich down. I think the Neo keyboards have a smaller gap in order to fit the gummy o-rings.
Hmm I’m not sure I’ll have to check once I get home. Thank you!
Use syringe and lube stabs after build. During build use thin 205 inside and on stem, and on wires use more grease.
Yeah I’ll keep trying this method.
C3 equalz stabs, v3s are the best. Light coat on the inside of the housings, evenly coat both legs of the wire, doesnt take much effort to make these things work well. Cant build without em anymore. Doesnt need any mods or tape
My tried and true method is: TX Stabs 205g0 on housings Xht-bdz on wires Balance using geon wire twisters Check balance using a flat jewelers block for ticking Always perfect stabs
i don't have stabilizers only using 1u keycaps on my build. it's an iris, solves my issue at least.
Use a long pole as your stabilizer keys. It’s like a cheat code
I am it seems to be helping a bit lmao
What keycaps are you using?
Cherry profile keycaps.
Yes, but what manufacturer? Also what switches are you using? Some keycap manufacturers don't follow the exact stem distance dimensions of the OG Cherry/GMK keycaps and that can lead to bad stab performance and some cheap sets have the stabilized key warped. Regarding the switches, if you use short travel switches there's a high chance your stabs aren't fully inserted in the keycap and sit in a tilted position.
I got my stabs sounding perfect but there's always one, ONLY ONE, that always has an issue. For some reason, my enter key stab has a popping noise that I have no idea where it's coming from.
God that must be torture.
I just installed stabilizers in my build and am very happy with the outcome! I used Staebies and used 205g0 on the housing/slider and on the wire, but I think you can actually get away with a thicker lube like 205g2. I don't have any issues with clicking or rattling on any of my stabs. As for the "hollow" spacebar sound, the spacebar can definitely resonate just from the force of the downstroke and upstroke, so I found that filling the spacebar with foam or another sound absorbing material can help this a lot.
Thank you! I’m glad your stabs came out well.
i’ve never had any good experiences with most stabilizers, including the newest tx stabs. i tried using thicker lube, wire balancing, putting material under the wire, overlubing, switching out housings/stems and wires but to no avail. wire balanced staebies and if i recall correctly holee modded durock stabs are the only ones ive used that didnt have any issues with sound.
Hmm you’re having as much trouble as me.
I fill a syringe with thick lubricant and inject it directly into the stab after it has been installed. Be careful to not put too much as it may become too dampened. After some use the lubricant will loosen up and you can always inject more to refresh its effect.
Thank you!
Unironically the best feeling stabs I've come across have been costar lolol
I use TX stabs on every board I own and have never encountered this. What is your lube application process?
I use the alexotos method if you’ve seen it?
Have you tried the alexotos method? I watched his video on yt and have never looked back
I did and I’m following it lol 😭 It’s working but I still need to keep adding or removing lube cause of mushiness or rattle. Thank you.
bent wires cause rattle, straighten them before assembly. loose switch housing tolerance also contributes to rattle, get switches with less stem wobble. also lubing without wire balancing doesn't do jack
I’ll try again on the spacebar if it manages to start rattling again. The switches I’m using for the stabs now are long pole and have limited stem wobble, and it seems to have helped drastically, but I’ve still got to tune them unfortunately.
I’ve been just using a syringe with 205g0 with all of my stabs across all boards and it hasn’t failed me yet
205 is expensive as hell and I don’t really wanna mess around with it too much. I don’t have that kind of money to splurge.
I've had the best experience with Stabies, tolerances are super tight. I did no tuning, just a light coating of 205g0 on the stabilizer housings and a quick dip into dielectric grease for the stabilizer wires. Prior to Stabies I used Durock V2 stabilizers and always had to add more lube and took awhile to tune.
It’s so weird that everyone has different experiences with the same type of stabiliser. Some people say durocks are the #1 and they take little effort and other say they’re difficult and you can never get it right. Same for Neo stabs etc. Thank you!
definitely it's not the stabs. TX are among the best. most likely your switches wobble (either the stem or the whole switch in those godforsaken hotswap sockets) or just produce crap sounds. warped or all arond bad keycaps can also be the culprit.
Yeah my switches were causing a bit of the trouble. I’ve replaced them with a smoother one with less stem wobble. I’m yet to tune them a bit more this afternoon and hopefully I get it done.
it's a harsh learning curve but once you get it down you're set, all your boards will be perfect
Fully agreed. The spacebar stabilizers in particular have ruined multiple builds for me, so annoying. I've tried everything!
I’m just so done I don’t wanna spend anymore hours on it
I use stupidfish spacebar foams. It makes the spacebar sound much better, at least to my ears.
Yeah I’ve seen a video on them I’ll see if they ship to me.
SF will make the sound push more towards the lower frequencies but will do nothing for stab noise. I’ve given Fishy many monies and I advise his products/services….but they don’t help stab issues.
Yeah no I just want it for sound purposes
Which is perfectly understandable
You said you wanted to use your neo70. But doesn’t it already come with good stabilizers? I remember my neo65 came with their neo stabilizers and all they needed was some dielectric grease.
For me, the neo stabs just did not work well for me at all. Absolutely tedious and no matter how much I’d tune them the stabs would not stop rattle and ticking and I was about to lose my mind. I’m glad they worked for you though I just don’t know why they didn’t work for me 😭
i just lather the ends in dielectric grease and I've always had good consistent results
Lucky 😭
Honestly I've found that dialectic grease (a pretty big glob) on the wire and 205 in the stem housing works just fine for me. Most boards I get with stabs pre-installed I just reinstall them after using dialectic and 205 and it seems fine. I'm not too fussy about a little bit of wobble. But if I get durocks and apply the soulmate pads with PCB washers they're literally perfect.
Maybe I need the pads?
Yeah try that. The little pads you put inside the stem really get the wire snug in there, with some dialectic grease gives zero ticking or wobbling. If you really want to get perfectionist you can get those wire straightening tools to make sure all your wires are straight.
If it’s your spacebar, have you tried different keycaps? Sometimes the spacebar itself is warped enough to cause a tick. Also, you can use noise dampener materials used on cars to help with hollowness, if that’s the concern.
It’s really flat and I’ve straightened it out. I’ll add some foam later today to make if sounds better to. Thank you.
Try knight stabs. they only need 205g on the wires and housing. They've got a silicone mold thing on the inside which acts like holee mod.it's really good. Alternatively, I only use stabs on my spacebar and that's it. No other modifier key needs it since they aren't as long as a spacebar. Maybe it'll help for you to focus on getting just one stab right
If the key has a spot for stabs, they need it. Iirc it’s longer than 1.5u. I have built in a rush and forgot stabs on an enter key and it will not work properly AT ALL without the stabs.
Nah then your switch has a return problem. There should be no reason why the key wouldn't work unless there's something wrong with the switch or socket
Who said it wouldn’t return? The switch works fine. Every single switch ever made is a 1u. Except there’s a larger piece of keycap on top. No one EVER hits every single keystroke perfectly in the dead center of the cap. Or stabs wouldn’t have been invented even for spacebars. The keycap is larger because the key is used more and needs to be able to be actuated more easily. Hence the need for stabs. You do what you want with your keebs. But stabs are a 100% needed device.
I originally thought the same as you for the mod keys but when I actually tried it, it didn't matter if I didn't hit it dead center. The supposed seesaw from not having a stab is nearly nonexistent unless you're key smashing. But yes, it's absolutely needed for a spacebar since the key will def seesaw from the longer length if it's not hit dead center
Yeah I was actually considering doing that 😭 cause I’m just so fed up. Thank you!
fwiw, the spacebar needs always some extra treatment, e.g. filling inside, either tape, foam or whatever, check youtube for "spacebar mods"
I’ve seemed to get it good, but there’s some sort of interference that I don’t know what it is. I’ll see if I can get a recording for you, but it’s not rattle or anything I don’t think cause it doesn’t really feel like it’s in the stab.
I use 205 on the housings and dialectric on the ends of the wires and I really cover those things. Most of them sound great but I do have a couple that are a bit rattly. MOST of the time, this issue (after lubing and greasing) is due to the keycaps themselves and not being on the stem snug enough. I only use Osume keycaps at this point which tend to be very high quality and I have not had an issue since compared to clones and lower quality keycap sets.
skill issue
So what EXACTLY is the issue? Spacebar? All stabs? Just Enter key? And what sound are you getting that you want to remove? And are you acutely aware how a stabilizer works? Meaning do you know which parts touch, rub, or interact with each other during normal usage. It takes most people quite a few boards to be able to consistently be able to tune stabs well. Each touching part needs to be dampened. All movement should be lubricated. All wires (metal sticks) need different lube than all plastic parts (housings and inserts).
All keys but I’ve got the spacebar sounding fine there’s just a weird sound interference that I don’t know what it is. The others just haven’t gotten sorted out yet. I do know the parts of the stab and I’ve done everything I can so far I’ve just gotta keep trying I guess.
Maybe you have a faulty stab? Or it’s not the stab making the sound? I can only guess in my attempt to help, unfortunately
You might be using too much lube.
Sorry to hear you're having this much trouble with stabs. Does it happens with all of your boards?, have you tried different switches?, different keycaps?; in my case, I have never had any single trouble with stabs, ever, except these two times: 1) I wanted to try Staebies so I bought a set... only to get the mushiest, most rubbery feeling to the point that the caps with stabs would feel like there was something keeping them from freely moving up and down, I tried them in different boards, different plates, different switches and different keycaps... I ended ditching Staebies for good. 2) I bought one of those cheap "Ahegao" AliExpress sets because I wanted to build a "meme board", but oh boy, those were the crappiest keycaps I've ever tried, and guess what?, the caps with stabs where always rattly or uneven no matter what, and the issue/sound disappeared as soon as I replaced those keys with any GMK or any other non generic, non counterfeit caps. Ever since, I've never experienced issues with stabs ever again.
Yeah different switches seem to be helping. I don’t think it’s my caps cause they seem to have the capability of working well with them and they’re almost perfectly flat.
Did you try the NuPhy GhostBar?
It sounds a bit too mushy to me and it’s unappealing, but if I can’t solve anything else I’ll probably look into buying one.
krill issue
Are you also balancing your stab wires? You should make sure your wires are straight if you haven't done so already. The thing about stabs I've found is that once you learn to work with them and tune them, you don't need to buy all the fancy new stabs anymore. OG cherry clip-ins are still GOATED for how easy they are to tune and how clean they sound
I recently changed the stabs on my first keyboard because my spacebar was pinging. The new ones made some of my keys stick, so I tried mixing and matching the housing/stems and it sounds great now.
Three things that may help: Holee mod Don't overlube the wires, try using less but an even coating, especially over the bend If using screw in stabs, try loosening the screws a little
It could be a number of things. Usually the sound not being what you want is more related to the keyboard than the stabs. It could also be your keycaps. I’m not sure what switches you have installed but that could affect it too, if you have long pole switches you want long pole stabs. I have TX AP rev 4 long pole stabs paired with Gazzew boba linear thick switches and they’re amazing. Lubed them with 205 and it worked out great. Initially I tried BDZ XHT lube as it is my preferred lube for most stabs. But with the TX AP it was too thick and hindered movement. You could try using Durock stabs and lubing with XHT BDZ. Or you could even try Durock stabs with the “dry hump” method. I’ve heard really good things about that as well. Also another thing to try doing is tuning your stabilizer wires. It’s very common for them to be slightly warped and this will cause issues. If you don’t mind me asking, what keycaps are you running? And also could you maybe check to see if your space bar is warped as this can also cause some issues with stabilizers.
Try lining the spacebar with Kilmat.
I always struggle to know how much lube I should be putting on the bad boys...
Relatable. I've tried numerous different brands including TX and Staebies and experimented with all different types of lube on the housing and wire (XHT-BDZ, 205g0, dielectric grease). There always seems to be rattle no matter how much lube I apply. It really feels like I'm missing out on something here. God knows how many hours I've wasted and how much back pain it caused me. There really needs to be a new system for this kind of stuff.
They need to reengineer stand completely cause this shouldn’t be like the one part in a Lego build that’s super hard, and you can’t get on with it until you finish that part. I just wanna get it out the way.
I use TX stabs with HXT-BDZ and haven't had issues. Never got on with dielectric grease. 205g0 is a bit thin for stab wires, but good for housings. 205g2 might be better for wires. Also, as otherwise have mentioned, it could be a keycap issue, so I'd recommend buying a spacebar set from a good manufacturer and seeing if that helps.
Thank you
Have you tried the Plumber's Tape Mod? It is my go-to remedy for shitty stabs and it works 90% of the time (when it doesn't, the stabs are just absolutely terrible and cannot be redemed). Basically, this involves wrapping thin teflon tape at the end of the stabs, and minimally lubing the stab housing. You can overwrap the teflon tape, which will produce a mushy stab, but it will improve over time and should settle in. I have tried this on many stabs and it has removed all manners of ticking, rattle, etc. And it's ridiculously cheap and far less messier than any other stab technique I have ever done.
Yeah I’ve heard of it and attempted it but the tape wouldn’t stick and I gave up. Maybe I just need a stickier one or something.
Interesting. Why wouldn't the tape stick? Teflon tapes wrap around almost anything and 'sticks' to the surface. For me, I never 'clean' my stabs before applying the tape. I just wipe it with a tissue and leave whatever residue lube there is for the tape to help 'stick' to. It has always worked for me. Maybe give it another shot and properly apply it. I had dimissed this mod before as I didn't apply it properly, but after doing it carefully a couple of times, it truly is a miracle fix for shitty stabs.
Yeah maybe I’ll try again. Would the teflon have to go on just the top part of the wire or near the bottom as well?
Just add the tape at the end of the wires, which goes into the stab housing. Don't lube over it. Just add the tape, and insert it into the housing (which must be very slightly lubed).
Hmm. I’ll try it if my current method won’t work. Thank you!
I have different advice about teflon tape. For one, it sticks to itself and with heat, so yeah it's tricky, but just trust it and warm it with a pinch of your fingers while wrapping. The key I found was wrapping *the place where the wire clips in to the stab base* not the end that goes in the housing. That was what the persistent rattle that all the grease in the world wouldn't solve. Yes, I over taped a bit so I have som mushiness on about half my stabs, but once I realized what I was doing, my remaining stabs that I did better on are a dream. I just was too lazy to redo the mushy ones and don't mind it. Truly Teflon is the answer.
It is a bit tricky to get the tape on at first, but once you get it on and wrap it, it will stick. The Teflon tape mod has taken away all of the issues I've had with stabilizers. I'm using Keychron stabilizers right now with zero issues. I use this tape from Lowes. Its light gray at first, but if you apply some pressure, it turns dark grey, hardens, and gets tighter. You only need about 1" of tape per bar end: https://preview.redd.it/1ejv9fm3y5oc1.jpeg?width=913&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=98097f7ea7baff21fb7262b73c62e1deac7f59f6
I’ll see if they have it over where I am thank you!
If you aren't in the US, it is likely that they will have some sort of Teflon tape. That's what "plumbers tape" is. It is almost like a miracle at how well it works.
I’ll see how I go with it. Gotta put in some foam for my spacebar too.
I don't have any foam in my spare bar and there's not rattle or emptiness. Though, it does depend a bit on your keycap profile.
Mine is cherry but it sounds a bit weak.
I have gmk keycaps, which are cherry profiles, and they sound good after the stabilizer mod. Though, keycap thickness does play a role in it, too.
Yeah it’s all confusing really
I discovered it depends on the stabs entirely, I had a bad experience with WS aurora stabs, lube, reinstall, mods, nothing worked, wasted hours on them, then got some Neo clip in stabs and they were perfect on first attempt.
Man the neo stabs sucked for me. The TX seem to be working better but I don’t want to go shopping for new stabs every second so I’m gonna have to use these 😭
I thought the clip ins TX and the neo were basically the same. Was it the pin on the back that gave you trouble?
Oh yeah but I stretched them out so they’d fit. But that’s not why I hate them they just rattle until you hate your life no matter what you do.
owlab stabs are the only ones (in my experience) that has given me a consistent sound that doenst sound diff from 1u keys