Fun Office-friendly Boards?

[nsmechkb]

Hey DT,

I've seriously fallen for capacitive buckling spring. Unfortunately, this has taken some of the joy out of my office board, the FC660C. I'm sure others have been here before. What are some fun, office-friendly (non-clicky) switches to ease the pain of leaving my buckling spring at home?

Top of my list at the moment is SKCM Orange, but I'm open to all suggestions.

Hope you're all having a great day!

[JP!]

Beamspring with the solenoid turned on should be fun If anyone complains your keyboard counts as a defensive shield or offensive weapon.

[nsmechkb]

Beamspring with the solenoid turned on should be fun If anyone complains your keyboard counts as a defensive shield or offensive weapon.

Hahaha! That sounds like a solid plan. Thanks for the help!

[drevyek]

Alps are a great bet. Orange Alps (like I saw you posting about) are fabulous. I use a 60% of SKCM Alps at work and love it to death.

If it is a bit loud (or you are a Type-S Topre lover), you can silence it even more in a few ways.
1) Slider swap: I use a Orange-Damped Cream hybrid switch, with cream sliders and base, and orange everything else. You lose a bit due to the short switchplate (I don't notice it much at all), but it is very quiet. This can also be done with Matias Quiet sliders, but it doesn't feel as good IMO.
2) Paper mod: If you can hear a slight click in the tactile leaf, the leaf may be a bit loose in the switch. it can be shorn up with a slip of paper to pressure against the leaf. I used a post it, and it works great.
3) ???? Lots still to try with Alps.

If you like small boards, take a look at the M0116: basically a 60% with a numpad. PBT caps, and are usually Salmons or Oranges. The layout is a bit odd, but as a vim user, it is perfect for me, with the arrow keys in a row at the bottom. Only downside is that any of the old Apple boards need converters.

[Hak Foo]

I use a Model M (Unicomp) at work.

This is an effective way to unload the "too many keyboards" situation: I've brought a few spare 1391401s in for co-workers, and now one of them uses a Ducky 1008 (MX blue) and another has a G80-8200 (clears, but main 60% block replaced with Gateron Blues)

[balotz]

I'd second SKCM orange - one of the few non clicky switches that I enjoy typing on.

[kekstee]

2) Paper mod: If you can hear a slight click in the tactile leaf, the leaf may be a bit loose in the switch. it can be shorn up with a slip of paper to pressure against the leaf. I used a post it, and it works great.

Plenty of my SKCM Orange are a bit clicky, that's a cool mod to consider.
But even then they are one of the louder switches imho, based on how they bottom out.
Looking at it from the Cherry side of things my vBlack and ergo Clear boards are still quieter.
(And honestly I prefer typing on them, even though they're not as fun)

[HAL]

A real fun board is the Realforce 87 55g. I use this instead of the IBM SSK at home so I don't wake up my son when I program the night away.

[//gainsborough]

Any non-clicky alps would also be my recommendation! Linear alps are really fun - if you like linear stuff! SKCL green is always a solid switch, but you could always linearize your orange alps for a more unique feeling switch! Or you could go exotic with heavier alps linear switches like SKCL cream or brown, but those ones are a bit rarer.

[XMIT]

fohat and others have looked into silencing buckling spring some with dental floss mods, those help some.

Creamsicle - that is, SKCM Orange with SKCM cream/white damped sliders swapped in - are the nicest quiet tactile Alps switches I know. Matias Quiet Click aren't heinous, and, they're much more widely available.

[XMIT]

...the "too many keyboards" situation...

I don't understand. What does this mean?

[nsmechkb]

Thank you all for the suggestions!

I'm looking for an SKCM Orange board now. If it's too loud, I'll look into the paper mod or swapping in cream/white damped sliders.

[drevyek]

If either of you do decide to do the paper mod, I will say that it is a bit tricky to do properly. The paper has to be not too small, or it will simply deform the leaf. The trick is to put pressure on the flaps of the leaf to make it stop acting like a mini-clicky switch.

Another way of doing it is by using tape, which another user here did (Hypersphere?) to some success if I recall. Same principle, but I prefer using paper for the non-invasiveness of it all.

For the slider swap, it is important to note how Alps silencing worked originally, versus how Matias resurrected it.

Matias simply has bumpers that extend slightly above and below the slider rails, which impact the top and bottom of the switch. This is one way to do silencing, and it results in a very specific feel. I personally don't care for it, but do currently use it in my 60%'s spacebar.

Alps was, as usual, much more complex. They used bumpers of a slightly different material (a bit denser from what I can tell) that don't protrude from the slider at all. In fact, they're a bit recessed into the slider rail. The way that silencing works here is due to the switch casing itself. The bottom (but not the top) has an extended landing bar that impacts against the bumpers to provide silencing on the downstroke. On the upstroke, I have no idea what causes the silencing. It may be the tabs that are on all "pine" Alps, but I don't know (I don't actually own any non-pine Alps, so I couldn't test it myself).

What I ended up doing for my "Creamsicles" is to use SKCM Orange springs (or lighter/similar via Sprit), case-tops, and leaves, but use SKCM Damped Cream case-bottoms, switchplates, and sliders. It works pretty well. They make especially good linears, though (what I used for my modifiers)- the Orange's weighting and the slight tactility from the Cream switchplate makes them the perfect mods.

[Chyros]

Orange or green Alps boards are great to use and have a great sound that's not too loud .

[seebart]

Orange or green Alps boards are great to use and have a great sound that's not too loud .

Quiet yes, great to use if the orange or green Alps are unworn and clean. SKCL green being less prone to dirt.

[andrewjoy]

An F122 is office friendly, at least, at least it was in mine .

Anyway .

AEK1 or AEK2 give it a go, in a mac office like mine it gets all the mac fanboys juices flowing.

[Chyros]

An F122 is office friendly, at least, at least it was in mine .

Anyway .

AEK1 or AEK2 give it a go, in a mac office like mine it gets all the mac fanboys juices flowing.

M-hm, they go all gooey over it. Understandably; an apple product that's actually good!

[Myoth]

the mac fanboys juices flowing.

Unofortunately that's also why every Apple Keyboard from this era is expensive on eBay (or even on here or wherever actually)

[seebart]

Understandably; an apple product that's actually good!