deskthority

If you want to 3D print then use ASA (if you have a heated chamber and want an option to smooth the surface with acetone) or PETG otherwise.
You can look at some 3D printed samples here:
https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?p=357496#p357496
That was acetone smoothed ABS printed at high speed (120 ...

Yes, heavier flippers will have higher momentum (even in friction less environment).

This higher momentum should displace PCB more (higher amplitude) but more slowly (lower frequency). That would be true if the flipper speed at the PCB impact corresponds to the resonant frequency of the PCB. Which ...

However, if you get two identical trucks - one empty, another one loaded to 80000lbs - go full throttle on both, and brake hard at quarter mile - you'll find that second truck a) takes longer to the quarter mile and b) takes longer to stop.

Ignoring the air resistance and otherwise everything ...

@vvp what you say is logical.
But I'm still not convinced somehow: isn't same force applied for longer time results in more work done?

No. It is time independent BUT it is trajectory (displacement) dependent.
Imagine the limit scenario where you exert constant force on object which is just not ...

Energy pumped into flippers depends only on the force at position r (F(r)) and the tiny position change (dr) over which the force is exerted: E = ∫ F(r) . dr
If two flippers differ in their mass only then the force must be different to result in different energy.
I kinda see heavier flippers ...

Energy pumped into flippers depends only on the force at position r (F(r)) and the tiny position change (dr) over which the force is exerted: E = ∫ F(r) . dr
If two flippers differ in their mass only then the force must be different to result in different energy. Force being different is plausible ...

Green Maned Lion wrote: 13 Feb 2026, 18:41 How could anyone not be an IBM person?

IBM keyboards do not have enough keys
viewtopic.php?p=502674#p502674

Resin casting needs a mold. That is often 3D printed. In such a case, one can just 3D print the keycap itself. FDM/FFF 3D printed keycaps do not look that well but mSLA 3D printers are cheap and provide a good result.

Here is a sample mSLA 3d printed keycap. Resolution 50 µm. No antialiasing, i.e ...

You can pick up some ergonomic keyboards ... as a detour from old keyboards

Looks like Kinesis Advantage but with a PS2 connector instead of USB.
I used Kinesis Advantge for about 12 years. I liked it enough to make my own improved DIY alternative: K84CS

Key Chatter is just a bad connection inside the switch. The simplest solution is to replace the switch. Cleaning it up may help too but I have never tried that.

I use Gateron Browns and Blues for about 10 years now. Two keyboards (my custom K84CS). One with Blue switches the other one with Browns ...

There will one PCB trace (or wire if it is handwired) that connects all the bottom row switches which do not work. That trace does not have correct connection to an MCU pin or there is not a good contact to a pull-up or pull-down on that trace.

Plus, getting the model off the build plate resulted in cracks more than once, so supports are kinda cushioning the model. I mean, I can build supports directly in freecad and save some hassle at printing time, but not sure if this saves effort or increases :)

Yes, it is probable that the part ...

I looked at Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra. I would not go for it. I have seen some bad review of the auto-leveling system. IIRC by FauxHammer. Yes, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y-rDu23t-M&t=300

The claim was along the lines of "it is auto-zeroing (a fake auto-leveling where springs ...

I can confirm that oily environment is bad for rubber domes on TV remotes at least. If it gets there then not only it degrades the contact conductivity but may also soak into the conductive rubber and damage its conductive properties.
This should not be such a big problem for PC rubber dome ...

I sometimes compensate for elephant foots by chamfering the bottom. Sometimes elephant foots do not matter for functionality. In such a case, I do not care.

And elephant foot is often better than uneven surface because of the surface being too close to horizontal and resting on support.

Tiny steps ...

It looks to me that you can modify the flipper model so that it is printable in vertical position without support. Align the two side-tabs and the spring holder to one plane which will be touching the build plate when printing. Print vertically. This way you can also print much more tabs at once ...

It is probably switches with some kind of defect which go wrong. E.g. one of the letters which failed for me was C. It is used less than the average. I think E and T were OK too. I'm sure space bar was OK.

What printer do you have? I have Elegoo Mars4 DLP and I did not notice size differences depending on the position on the plate. There may be some. I did not try to investigate this. I went with DLP because it was claimed to be more resilient to stupid users who do not know how to dial up their ...

Well, if helps you then here is another data point.
Kinesis Advantage, Cherry MX Brown, produced & bought in 2002 in USA. I do not know where the switches were produced. Two switches turned bad in around 2014. Estimated number of presses on them was about 6 million.

I do not have more experience ...

I have some Gateron switches a keyboard of mine. I needed to replace 3 switches on it. The approximate number of presses on each replaced switch was around 3 mil. The other switches on the keyboard are still ok.

@davkol
I'm impressed

Well, if it is a Texan company then it is likely targeted to USA which has almost 2 times higher GDP per capita than Germany. People have more money, keyboards can be even more expensive and still sell.

All types of hot-swap sockets I've seen have been surface-mounted, and I think the process of soldering them can be completely automated on standard equipment.

Well, the switches still need to be inserted to the sockets. But yes, in general, surface mount is cheaper.

But I'm responding because ...

I don't understand why soldered keyboards cost more than ones with hot swap sockets.

You cannot compare products targeted to Germany with products targeted to China (which possibly may also be sold to G7 countries). There is very likely a difference in the level of support / warranty. But one ...

Expensive and not ergonomic.

There is an advantage to soldered switches. The connection between a switch and its receptacle will not fail.

Maybe you can find some indicators to detect formaldehyde to check the hypothesis. E.g. chromotropic acid method, spectrophotometric methods. Hospitals use some formaldehyde detectors to check their sterilization equipment (this is not likely to detect very low concentrations though). Anyway, the ...

I kind of assumed you want to de-smell only the switches.

Big vacuum chambers can be bought. They are pricey though.

Maybe you can make one from a thick walled sewerage pipe. Run your design through some FEM package to check it will not implode. Test safely before actually using.

It is a good ...

Vacuum chamber should help. You can try a higher temperature as well. It should be safe up to around 65 °C.

I liked gaming on Kinesis Advantage. Lots of keys near home position. Some keys on thumb cluster. I defined keys in the game (so that I do not need function keys themselves). Keys can be remapped in the keyboard itself as well but Kinesis Advantage does not support configurations ... therefore not ...