How to lube switches and tune stabilisers

For stabilisers, almost always. They come unlubed from most makers, they're only a handful of parts per board, and the difference in sound is large. If you do one job from this guide, do this one.

For switches, it depends on the switch. A lot of current switches are lubed at the factory, including Gateron Milky Yellow Pro, Gateron Oil King and Cherry's MX2A range, and they're already smooth enough that hand-lubing is a small gain for a lot of work. The switches that change most are dry ones like NovelKeys Cream, which is sold unlubed and is known for feeling rough until it's either lubed or worn in.

Bear in mind the scale of the job. A 65% board has 66 to 68 switches, a full-size over 100, and each one has to be opened, lubed and closed by hand. Most people manage it over an evening or two, not in a lunch break.

You also need to get the switches out. On a hot-swap board you pull them with a switch puller. On a soldered board you have to desolder every one first, which is a much bigger job (see hot-swap or soldered PCB).

The basics are a switch opener, a fine brush, tweezers and the lube itself. A switch opener holds the switch and presses in the latches so the top housing lifts off. Gateron's lever-style opener does all four latches at once but only fits MX-style switches, not low-profile ones^[3]. If you'd rather buy one kit, Wooting's ://blank toolkit has an opener, a switch puller, tweezers and two brushes, though no lube^[4].

For lube, Krytox GPL 205 grade 0 (usually written 205g0) is the standard grease for linear switches and stabiliser housings. Mechboards sells it in 5 ml pots and reckons one pot does about 500 switches^[1]. Tactile switches are usually lubed with something thinner, or more sparingly, so the bump survives. Stabiliser wires want a thicker grease than switches do^[7].

• Krytox GPL 205 Grade 0: the usual switch and stabiliser grease; 5 ml goes a long way
• Wooting ://blank Switch Toolkit: opener, puller, tweezers and brushes in one box
• Gateron Switch Opener: opens MX-style switches in one press
• Keychron 2-in-1 Switch and Keycap Puller: keycap puller and switch puller for hot-swap boards

The method is the same for most MX-style switches: open the switch, lift out the stem and spring, brush a thin layer onto the stem's sliding faces and the rails inside the bottom housing, lube the spring lightly, then put it back together^[6]. Some people lube springs in bulk by shaking them in a small bag with a few drops of thin oil, which is quicker than brushing each one.

Keep lube off the metal contact leaf in the bottom housing. That's the part that registers the key press, and grease on it can cause missed or unreliable presses.

Linears take the most lube and show the most improvement. Tactiles need a lighter touch, and you should avoid the legs on the stem that make the bump; lube there flattens the bump into something closer to a linear. Clicky switches are best left alone: lubing them tends to muffle or kill the click, which defeats the point^[6].

Do five switches first, put them on the board next to unlubed ones and compare. If they feel slow or mushy, you're using too much. It's far easier to adjust after five switches than after seventy.

Films are thin plastic gaskets that sit between the top and bottom housing while the switch is open. They take up slack between the two halves, which cuts wobble and rattle. They're a cheap add-on if you're opening switches anyway. They don't fit low-profile or box-style switches^[2], and tight-tolerance switches such as the Oil King often don't need them.

• Deskeys Switch Films V2: 0.3 mm, 120 in a pack, for MX-style switches

Stabilisers come apart into a housing, a stem and a wire for each key. Brush a thin layer of grease on the stems and inside the housings, then put a heavier coat on the ends of the wire where it sits in the stems, since that's where most rattle comes from^[7].

Before lubing, check the wire is level by laying it on a flat surface. A wire that rocks will make one side of the key tick however much grease you add. Once fitted, make sure both housings sit flat and tighten the screws until they're secure but not crushed. If one side still ticks, the cause is usually a wire that isn't level or a housing that isn't seated, not too little lube^[5].

Test each long key with a switch and keycap fitted. Press it in the middle and at both ends, and listen. Do the stabilisers before the switches go in, since on most boards you can't reach them afterwards without stripping it down.

If you're buying new stabilisers, buy them unassembled and lube them as you put them together. Durock's V2 screw-ins arrive that way. Count the 2u stabilisers in the kit: Mechboards sells a cut-down Durock kit with only three, which is enough for a 60% ISO board but not an ANSI one^[8]. TX stabilisers come in separate versions for 1.2 mm and 1.6 mm PCBs, so check your PCB's thickness first^[9].

• Durock V2 Screw-in Stabilisers: a common choice for PCB screw-in mounts; arrives disassembled and unlubed
• TX Keyboards TX AP Screw-in Stabilisers: pricier, with stems designed to cut wire rattle; pick the right PCB thickness
• Durock Plate-Mount Stabilisers: for plates with plate-mount stabiliser cutouts

Too much lube. This is the big one. Over-lubed switches feel sluggish, return slowly and lose their character, and over-lubed stabilisers move slowly and can stick^[5]. You want a thin film you can barely see, not a coating.

Lubing a factory-lubed switch again. It's easy to stack lube on lube and end up with the problem above. If you do want to touch up factory-lubed switches, use very little.

Mixing up parts. Work on one switch at a time, and keep stabiliser parts in separate piles per key. Springs from different switch types look identical and aren't.

Expecting it to fix the wrong thing. Lube makes switches smoother and quieter. It won't turn a light switch heavy, a clacky board thocky, or a tactile switch into a different tactile. For those, change the switch, or see what makes a keyboard sound thocky or clacky for the other parts that shape the sound.