deskthority

So I was thinking, swapping stems and springs is fairly easy on a PCB mounted keyboard, you just pop the top part of the switch housing by bending the legs out and vuala.
On a plate mounted KB you cant really do that because the legs have no where to go when you try to bend them to pop open the top.
People usually resort in re-soldering the switches and I find that very too high-risk for my liking.
But what if you could just basically cut certain spots something like that:
and remove the top off. Then basically gut out the switch by fishing out the remaining legs and when you are done with replacing the spring/stem/what have you, just take a new top of a donor switch and done.

Could this work or am I missing something?
Obviously its sort of a destruction method but hey, if it gets the job done...

Any ideas?

I'm afraid it won't work. The problem is not removing the top part, but inserting a new one.

I had tried it by removing the top part cutting it in a slightly different way (using your pic): Cutting was easy (Stanley knife using the plate as a guide) and the top part went off just fine, but inserting a new one failed because there was not enough room between the plate and the lower part of the switch.
No way to push the "hooks" of the new top part into that small slot without bending the whole new top part out of shape

I would be very happy if anybody were to find a workable solution

What about thinning out the ridge on those legs something like that


And maybe use a dremel or something to shave off some of the innards of the mounted housing to allow for easier insertion of the legs? And then if the top part is not secure enough, maybe use a bit of glue... Im talking permanent ...

Ah fuck it.. I think it would be just easier to desolder all of the switches and do a mod on the plate itself like on the phantom keyboard. That will allow to swap the stems as you please...

Can you post pics of a plate mounted vs pcb mounted? i'm considering changing my g80-3000 with blacks to another type maybe ergo clears for start. i assume its like you said in the pcb mounted switches where you only need to open them?

the g80 3000 are all pcb mounted (afaik) and are easily opened without any desoldering.