I finally tried lubing switches with a different grease and it went weird

I was building a 65% board last week and ran out of my usual Krytox 205g0. All I had left was some Super Lube multi-purpose synthetic grease from a hardware store trip. I figured, grease is grease, right? Wrong. I lubed about 30 Gateron Yellow switches with it. The feel was okay at first, but after a day of typing, they got this weird, almost sticky slow return. It wasn't scratchy, just... mushy and sluggish. I had to desolder the whole thing and start over with the proper stuff. Learned that not all greases are made for the tiny springs and stems in these switches. Has anyone else had a bad result from using a non-keyboard specific lubricant?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenixh7420d ago

Ugh, that sounds like a mess. I tried using some basic white lithium grease on a project once and it gummed up everything. Some lubes just don't play nice with small plastic parts.

finley_lopez9820d ago

My old car taught me this lesson with its window motor. Like phoenixh74 found out, the wrong grease just makes things fight themselves. It's a small detail that ruins the whole feel.