PCB mount screw in stabs, 6.25u spacebar. I have dielectric grease on the wire ends and in the housings, band aid mod on the plate, and the wire is bent as evenly as I can get it by eye. Left side is silent. Right side rattles on every press, and it sounds like a spring in a tin rather than a click. Second full teardown and relube has changed nothing, so I am clearly treating the wrong problem.
On grease choice, use a thin dielectric in the housings where the stem slides, and something much thicker on the wire ends only, the consistency people use for stabiliser wires rather than switch sliders. Thin grease on the wire ends migrates away within a week or two and the rattle comes back, which is why it seems to work at the bench and fail three days later.
Also do not drown the housing. Excess grease damps it initially, then squeezes out onto the PCB and you are back where you started with a mess to clean.
Swap in a different spacebar keycap before you tear it down a third time. Some spacebar stems, particularly long thin ABS ones, are loose on the stem and the rattle you hear is the cap moving on the switch, not the stabiliser at all. Two minute test.
If the board takes them, plate mount stabs with a tight fitting plate are far more forgiving than PCB mount for a first build. Fewer variables to get wrong.
@blown_cap · 4mo ago · 3 replies
Rattle that survives lubing is nearly always slop, not friction, and one sided rattle narrows it a lot.
Check in this order. Is the right hand stab housing fully clipped into the PCB and the screw actually tight. A stab that is 90 percent seated on one side produces exactly this, a silent left and a rattly right. Second, are the stem feet clipped. Unclipped feet let the stem rock in the housing and no amount of grease stops that. Third, the wire. Lay it on a flat surface and look along it; if it rocks at all it is not flat, and the end that sits proud is the end that rattles.
The holee mod is what fixes wire slop properly: a small piece of thin fabric or bandage material wedged into the stem insert where the wire sits, so there is no free play at all. It is fiddly for ten minutes and it is the difference between quiet and silent.
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@faderpush · 4mo ago
Right hand screw was finger tight and the housing had a visible gap on one side. Reseated it and the rattle is gone before I even redid the wire.
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@node_red_ned · 4mo ago
Clipping the feet is the step everyone skips because it feels destructive. Nail clippers, take the two little legs off flush, it changes the sound immediately.
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