Lubing your keyboard’s switches is definitely a personal preference, though we’re sure that many would call it absolutely necessary. However, people from both camps would probably not suggest is using WD-40 to do so, instead pointing toward Krytox or at least Super Lube. But there are enough people out there who have tried the great water displacer and claim to have experienced no problems that [Sea_Scheme6784] decided to give it a go (so you don’t have to).
Having now collected enough boards to sacrifice one to the lubrication gods, [Sea_Scheme6784] chose a completely stock Logitech G413 SE with brown switches and heavily sprayed every one. Oh yeah, there was no taking them apart first as most lube enthusiasts would advise. No carefully painting it on in the right places with a small brush. Just mad spraying, y’all.
The effects were noticeable immediately — it changed the feel for the better and made the switches way less scratchy. Also the sound is more poppy, despite drowning in not-lubricant. Interesting! [Sea_Scheme6784] says the stabilizers are still rattling away, so that’s no good. Keep an eye on r/mechanicalkeyboards for updates on these shenanigans. We know we will.
Want to know what else you can do to to switches besides lube? Lots of stuff.
Main and thumbnail images via Kinetic Labs
Just pick the right type of WD-40 and all is good. Yes, there is more than one.
But why put sticky icky into your keyboard at all, that’s gross.
It does affect how my old keyboard sounded and a slight bit on how it feels. It’s like a dampener, reducing the pinging noise a spring might make and softening the impact of the stem bottoming out, though not nearly enough to make it feel mushy, especially since only a tiny bit is normally used per switch.
Is it for everyone? Of course not; it’s time consuming and not every keyboard can be easily lubed. But like most hobbies, it’s just preference, be it regarding the end result or the process of doing it. Not everyone will want to grind their own coffee beans or weather their own gunpla kits.
WD-40 does and always has referred to one formulation. There is not more than one kind.
WD-40 has since expanded into a brand which markets several other products. But there is only one product they sell which is labeled as “WD-40”. The others will be labeled as “WD-40 brand Lithium Spray Grease” or similar.
WD-40 won’t ruin a G413, as it’s already ruined by simply existing.
π
If you take apart and lubricate a keyboard and pretend that you need that, you need to check yourself into an inpatient facility immediately. This is not a joke. You need to talk to an old German man wearing tiny round glasses about your relationship with your mother.
Most psychological explanations come with a background explanation, something that explains the hypothesis in terms of existing well-accepted models.
Apropos of nothing, why is needing to lubricate a keyboard evidence for such an extreme intervention?
Checking into a facility is literally putting a person’s life on hold, something that you don’t ever want to do unless the condition is so severe as to degrade the person’s ability to manage their affairs. Something so bad that it can warrant putting the person’s life on hold to fix it.
Can you explain why wanting to lube a keyboard is such a severe symptom?
The inability to recognize hyperbole and properly handle humor is also grounds for institutionalization.
+1
Especially if the hyperbole was so exceptionally well prepared
I suspect the act of lubing a keyboard could be compared to raking the stones in a Zen rock garden.
A form of meditation. Something to do with your hands, while your mind focuses on the present.
There’s nothing clever nor humorous with a bad attempt at trolling …
Nothing clever nor humorous with getting undies in a bunch when someone is being comically extreme in their disagreement about something so minor.
He thinks lubing keys is unnecessary and just said it in a goofy way.
@Anonymouse clearly it got your undies in a bunch. Imagine trying to conflate personally insulting someone with constructive criticism. Nothing to do with humor and everything to do with being a sad troll who can only raise their own self worth by trying to lower others’. Someday you’ll have to grow up or be left behind in adult conversations …
I didnt get it, either. The humor was poorly presented as disdain and arrogance.
“Nothing to do with humor and everything to do with being a sad troll who can only raise their own self worth by trying to lower othersβ.”
– You, someone without an ounce of introspection, who immediately followed this sentence with one trying to raise your own self worth by putting down Anonymous, and who entered this comment chain putting down someone else.
@somdudewillson another troll joins the chat. Wtf have any of you newly joined trolls ever made, besides trying to sow discord in random HAD comment chains and crap on projects a poster who actually put effort in has made? Yet as soon as a regular long time member of this community calls you out on your bs you get whiny and defensive. Your comment is literally the schoolyard rubber/glue taunt. Learn the difference between calling out childish behavior and hubris/trolling. HAD should really implement stronger anti-trollbot measures, comments around here didn’t used to be so toxic till recently.
If you have a problem with taking things apart and trying to make them better you’re in the wrong place.
Dr Frankenstein I presume?
My DEC VT100 terminal’s keyboard has very sticky keys. Unless pressed directly downwards they jam – not surprising for a 45+ year old unit I suppose. I was planning to carefully use a tiny bit of Dimethicone on the stems. Would you have an alternative suggestion not requiring old German men with glasses? They could be difficult to locate where I am.
First find the reason why it jams. Is it 45+ year accumulation of keyboard icky? Then wash it with Isopropanol. If it is bad design, then either call it a feature or find some old men with glasses from another country. The Swiss, Japanese or Chinese are also said to be well versed in all things small and they will spare you the psychoanalytical side remarks, too. ;-)
Keebin’ : after hours edition.
love it.
<3
I use Mr Sheen furniture polish on everything – cars, motorbikes, motherboards, keyboards.
Usually the keyboard is laying pretty much flat on my desk, and I have this long latex glove that goes all the way up to my armpit. Then I put on a surgical latex glove up to my wrist. Just lube it up. It’s a long process to get your tip up there. But its an intense feeling for the switches, I think for myself too. You go to places that even though it’s physical with your hand, for some reason it’s also more emotional. It’s more psychological too. We both reach the same place, it’s really strange at the same time. And I found with a session like that it’s really exhausting.
i don’t think I would lube switches, though I do know a few that could probably have used it (plastic pistons going through plastic rings banging on a membrane). and i’m only slowly warming up to over-applied WD40 even on my bicycle… (it turns out a WD40 bath every year or so is all it takes to keep a 30 year old rear derailleur working perfectly! even through winter!)
but i’ve had a couple keyboards, including laptop keyboards, where the stabilizers (the thin steel rods that keep the big keys like spacebar level) really really needed it. they squeak and in way that hurts not just my ears but my whole being. and for that, i used tri-flow synthetic grease on a toothpick. night and day difference. one keyboard was so bad i had to do it twice but the second time has lasted years.
I’d take lay it upside down on a towel take the bottom off and the membrane and spray synthetic oil sparingly on the keys where they need it gently shake up and down to distribute the lube and then wipe all the excess off with TP and reassemble. That’s for the dell and other cheap keys many have. Assuming no spills of beverages etc.
Strictly speaking WD40 is not a lubricant, it is an anti-rusting grease designed to stop metal parts rusting in such a way that they end up merging together (nuts rusted on to bolts and such). I would think “superlube” type PTFE grease or oil is the best option here, chemically about as inert as can be so shouldn’t damage plastics of any type, and non-conductive.
The silicon oil sold for servicing gym equipment is probably ideal.
Yeah right.
You intentionally got lube all over your keyboard, we all believe you.
WD-40 is technically not intended to be a lubricant. It contains lubricants to carry it’s pentetrants. The cleaning from the liquid is likely what improves the key feel, however WD-40 pentrants WILL attack a lot of plastics, so your keys may feel great now, but crumble in the future. Much better to use a silicone lubricant. I wouldn’t use it on anything that’s not easily replaceable.
Just go to WD40.com and learn something new today:
WD-40 is not a single product but a company producing various things.
Oh, I said that already in the first comment above?
Well, maybe more of Just readin’ and less of Just sayin’ would help…..
Are you one of those kids with no attention span and/or reading skills?
Pam cooking spray.