Krytox 205 g0 Switch Lubricant

Product Information

Lubricant can not be cleaned with soap and water and is resistant to many solvents. Although the lubricant is chemically stable and non-hazardous please wear gloves and place a protective layer of drop-plastic below any working surface. Spills are difficult to clean, and the lubricant will transfer from an operators hands to any surface they may touch. Please clean up any accidents with a microfiber cloth. DIN 3536: Lubricant for gas valves in indoor installations, gas distribution and gas transportation pipe lines.

If your grease is whitish in colour a good rule of thumb is that you’ve used too much if you can tell that it is white when you apply it to the switch. In thinner applications it should be fairly clear. And after using side by side I think Tribosys is marginally better than Krytox. 3204 would be the 204 equivalent if you get Tribosys Krytox™ fluorinated oils are a series of low molecular weight, fluorine end-capped, homopolymers of hexafluoropropylene epoxide. The polymer chain is completely saturated and contains only carbon, oxygen, and fluorine; hydrogen is not present. Krytox™ Performance Lubricants Applications Yes. Krytox™ oils and greases have been used to lubricate plastic and elastomer components for more than 60 years. For more specific information, please refer to the Krytox™ Lubricants Plastics and Elastomer Compatibility document.Let’s start with why we lube switches. Often a switch will come prelubed from the factory but only with a small amount that is sloppily applied to the stem legs. This may be all fine and well for the uninitiated but if we’re going to take the time to build a custom board we may as well do it right. The Krytox™ GPL 2EX lubricants are formulated using unique anti-rust additives. This grease is similar to Krytox™ GPL 22X series greases, but contains a non-nitrite anti-corrosion additive. Yeah 204g0 and 3204 are technically the same but tribosys/miller chemical has a better rep than dupoint Most of these lubricants are pretty specialized. They were not designed for the keyboard community but we’ve adapted them to our needs. This means they are generally harder to find than your run of the mill Superlube or other household lubricants. This is slowly changing however, with more shops starting to sell moderately portioned lubricants in varying viscosities and even some specialized blends created within our community that are performing quite well!

You’ll notice that I specified just the switch housing and stems. The spring is a whole other matter. Personally I have found that a heavier lubricant is preferable to dampen any spring noises but just about anything can be used.Good questions there. In my experience so far I haven’t had to do any maintenance or reapplication of lubricant. I’ve had one board lubed for about a year and it still feels very good. I don’t know if the feel has changed because it would be a subtle shift over a long period of time but I can still say that they feel lubricated and aren’t in need of further adjustment. In general, one should consider "less is more" when lubing with 205g0. Over application of the grease will cause poor sound and typing feel on switches. Bag lubing is another way of applying the lubricant but one that I only use for the springs. The idea is that you throw whatever you want to lubricate into a bag, make sure it has some air to allow free movement of the parts, and then shake it until the lubricant is evenly dispersed.

For housings that Are smoother (Tealios for example) where the housing is clear and almost like glass, a grease can actually add friction or drag so it’s better to use an oil like Krytox 104 or 105.

The reason, I think, that we’ve adopted some specialized lubricants is due to how precise and small scale these switches are. A small change can make a big impact on the switch properties so we need lubricants that are precise and well measured. The Krytox brand, having a wide range of easily discernable viscosities has become quite popular and therefore used by quite a few in our community. It has so far stood the test of time compared to other brands and so is often recommended. The UKs number 1 shop for mechanical keyboards, custom keyboards, kits, parts and everything else mechanical keyboard related. In time, Krytox GPL 205 grade 0 tends to separate slightly--you'll see a little coat of oil on top of the 205G0 grease. This is why you always want to shake well or mix your Krytox 205 grade 0 on a palette to give it its best integrity. This is absolutely fantastic thank you for putting this together. There’s a lot of knowledge out there from real world testing and trial and error so I’m all for documenting it and have a good resource, especially for those who are just getting into the hobby.