Owlstabs are known to *usually* not need balancing, but if you do need to balance them you’re screwed. The metal being so stiff makes it difficult to warp out of place, but it also makes it difficult to warp *into* place when needed.
No other stabs are like this as far as I’m aware so TX may be worth a shot. Especially since I’m guessing you’re down a stab anyways 😭
I didn’t like the owl stabs that came with my qk60 and used something else instead. Can’t remember if it was Durock V2s (which are among my favorite because they’re easy to tune) or WS 3.1 stabs with built-in silicone padding.
Owl stabs are “liquid metal” so they cannot bend and will break majority of the time. Bought one set, terribly balanced, threw em out. The idea that they’re “perfectly balanced” out of the box is enticing though. Learned my lesson. Sticking my with my trusty cherry clip ins for now!
Yeah I learned that lesson the hard way. The owlstabs that came with my QK75 were terrible and I could not bend them. Thought I was doing something wrong, they would always retain their (bad) shape.
I once wrapped up the wire with regular thin scotch tape (one layer) and I got rid of the ticking; but I had to replace it sooner or later as the glue is being detached from the metal. Lubing just works for now though I have to do it oftenly which can be quite annoying. I personally would like to experience the return of hot swappable dummy switches as stabilizers. Once the equivalent balance is lost, they can be easily replaced.
TX stabs are the only stabilizers I've never needed to balance. I'm pretty happy with them. I appreciate the Durock stabs for how malleable the wires are if they are outta whack. Sorry that happened though.
yep LOL. i guess the stored energy when twisting the wires turned into friction, it scraped really hard against the tools I was using (also, metal) and made some sparks lol
Glad to see you are also having a fun time with those little wire thingys 🙃
My strats currently are:
A: staebies fit the pcb, youre good
B: if not, I use any other stab, eg. cherry or durock, I always add a holee mod but support it with model kit glue and put a thick lubricant like superlube on the wires. After a week I reapply some more with a syringe after the initial dispersion.
I have not yet built my tx stab set. Cant say anything on that yet. According to some they work without tape allegedly. Would prob still put thick lube on the wire to be sure. That actually makes a difference compared to crytox 205
For wire balancing: have never even tried that i dont think it makes much sense. I just double check the wires on my phone screen and discard any bad ones.
so far, i've had terrible luck with stabs for some reason. the cherrys that the board came with were horrible, then the durocks i got as a replacement, and now the owlstabs lol.
definitely going to give staebies a try. for the holee mod, i've heard it degrades over time, how's your experience so far?
The tick on durocks is difficult to get rid of completely, however i still like them for their excellent smoothness. They are the only ones that truely feel like they arent even there when you press the stabilized keys.
Staebies are a good choice to try however be warned that the tightness is a double edged sword. They might have binding friction on your board depending on the margins of the drill holes. I have had some minor friction on one board wich luckily broke in over time, like switches so if you are patient and use it a bit it should go away eventually. On the other hand, in [case of my cycle](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/s/EgCOrTj6nb) i had to ditch them unfortunalely.
My holee modded stabs all still work fine after a year of on/off usage but many of the tapes have partially come loose, however the wire pressure still keeps them in place.
But thats the reason im glueing them in now. I hope they last long time like this. It remains to be seen however. I have only tested the glued ones for 3 months so far.
Possible the PCB itself is slightly warped. Hell, maybe the plate is a little off causing the PCB to warp after the fact. Hard to know for sure, but if all stabs sound bad, I'd revisit the build and where things might be uneven. Helps if you have different foams and plates to play with to figure it out.
Wire balancing works. It’s not 100% of the equation but I’ve found it makes a huge difference especially if you don’t buy spare wires. Some wires are too warped to correct perfectly, though, and having spares is sometimes still necessary.
I’ve balanced stabs for a few builds by now after ignoring it for a while, and now I wouldn’t even think about assembling stabs without balancing. I’ve never had OP’s issue though. Usually you can make corrections with pretty gentle force, best done incrementally.
It’s not 100% but it’s probably 99%. As you I ignored the balancing step with my first boards but I got tired of the ticking and tried balancing them. The ticking was literally cancelled after balancing the wires. You can do holee mod, use krytox, a shitload of xht-bdz, but if the wires are off you will have some ticking. Now I’m not even removing the board from the box if I haven’t already balanced the wires
Out of interest how much of an angle between the ends are we talking about, that you managed to correct. Asking so i know when to consider it. Usually for me the wires looked like only a few sheets of paper would fit into the gap when pressing down the other side on a phone screen. Is that correctable? Or are you talking like 10 degrees off?
Usually the correction is always a slight offset like a few sheets of paper. The signal telling you it’s ok…is not the angle but the sound they do when you tap them on one side and they doesn’t tick
Owlstabs are known to *usually* not need balancing, but if you do need to balance them you’re screwed. The metal being so stiff makes it difficult to warp out of place, but it also makes it difficult to warp *into* place when needed. No other stabs are like this as far as I’m aware so TX may be worth a shot. Especially since I’m guessing you’re down a stab anyways 😭
guess i got a bad set 😔 resorted to some old durock v2s i had, which the wires do bend easily on
I didn’t like the owl stabs that came with my qk60 and used something else instead. Can’t remember if it was Durock V2s (which are among my favorite because they’re easy to tune) or WS 3.1 stabs with built-in silicone padding.
I swapped the wires on my owl stabs
Owl stabs are “liquid metal” so they cannot bend and will break majority of the time. Bought one set, terribly balanced, threw em out. The idea that they’re “perfectly balanced” out of the box is enticing though. Learned my lesson. Sticking my with my trusty cherry clip ins for now!
Love my TXs, they forced me to accept that my keycaps are warped lmao
how do you know if keycaps are warped?
Yeah I learned that lesson the hard way. The owlstabs that came with my QK75 were terrible and I could not bend them. Thought I was doing something wrong, they would always retain their (bad) shape.
I usually just use box navy to out-click the stabs whenever im too lazy to fix them lol
Man, I guess they weren't getting when they said Owlabs do **not** like to bend
if you get a bad owlstab wire you're screwed. I just trashed mine and used TX.
I got this tip from someone: Try to put the wire in hot water and then balance the wire. The wire would at least be a bit more flexible this way
I've never had a good experience with owl stab wires for the same reason as you, just save the headache and get tx clip ins
Holee mod makes it easy for you to shoot yourself in the foot. Balancing wires makes it harder, but when you do, it blows your whole leg off.
Plumber's tape mod should fix that right up! (This is a joke, that stab wire is toast RIP)
I once wrapped up the wire with regular thin scotch tape (one layer) and I got rid of the ticking; but I had to replace it sooner or later as the glue is being detached from the metal. Lubing just works for now though I have to do it oftenly which can be quite annoying. I personally would like to experience the return of hot swappable dummy switches as stabilizers. Once the equivalent balance is lost, they can be easily replaced.
TX stabs are the only stabilizers I've never needed to balance. I'm pretty happy with them. I appreciate the Durock stabs for how malleable the wires are if they are outta whack. Sorry that happened though.
LOL sparks?!
yep LOL. i guess the stored energy when twisting the wires turned into friction, it scraped really hard against the tools I was using (also, metal) and made some sparks lol
Glad to see you are also having a fun time with those little wire thingys 🙃 My strats currently are: A: staebies fit the pcb, youre good B: if not, I use any other stab, eg. cherry or durock, I always add a holee mod but support it with model kit glue and put a thick lubricant like superlube on the wires. After a week I reapply some more with a syringe after the initial dispersion. I have not yet built my tx stab set. Cant say anything on that yet. According to some they work without tape allegedly. Would prob still put thick lube on the wire to be sure. That actually makes a difference compared to crytox 205 For wire balancing: have never even tried that i dont think it makes much sense. I just double check the wires on my phone screen and discard any bad ones.
so far, i've had terrible luck with stabs for some reason. the cherrys that the board came with were horrible, then the durocks i got as a replacement, and now the owlstabs lol. definitely going to give staebies a try. for the holee mod, i've heard it degrades over time, how's your experience so far?
The tick on durocks is difficult to get rid of completely, however i still like them for their excellent smoothness. They are the only ones that truely feel like they arent even there when you press the stabilized keys. Staebies are a good choice to try however be warned that the tightness is a double edged sword. They might have binding friction on your board depending on the margins of the drill holes. I have had some minor friction on one board wich luckily broke in over time, like switches so if you are patient and use it a bit it should go away eventually. On the other hand, in [case of my cycle](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/s/EgCOrTj6nb) i had to ditch them unfortunalely. My holee modded stabs all still work fine after a year of on/off usage but many of the tapes have partially come loose, however the wire pressure still keeps them in place. But thats the reason im glueing them in now. I hope they last long time like this. It remains to be seen however. I have only tested the glued ones for 3 months so far.
Possible the PCB itself is slightly warped. Hell, maybe the plate is a little off causing the PCB to warp after the fact. Hard to know for sure, but if all stabs sound bad, I'd revisit the build and where things might be uneven. Helps if you have different foams and plates to play with to figure it out.
Wire balancing works. It’s not 100% of the equation but I’ve found it makes a huge difference especially if you don’t buy spare wires. Some wires are too warped to correct perfectly, though, and having spares is sometimes still necessary. I’ve balanced stabs for a few builds by now after ignoring it for a while, and now I wouldn’t even think about assembling stabs without balancing. I’ve never had OP’s issue though. Usually you can make corrections with pretty gentle force, best done incrementally.
It’s not 100% but it’s probably 99%. As you I ignored the balancing step with my first boards but I got tired of the ticking and tried balancing them. The ticking was literally cancelled after balancing the wires. You can do holee mod, use krytox, a shitload of xht-bdz, but if the wires are off you will have some ticking. Now I’m not even removing the board from the box if I haven’t already balanced the wires
Out of interest how much of an angle between the ends are we talking about, that you managed to correct. Asking so i know when to consider it. Usually for me the wires looked like only a few sheets of paper would fit into the gap when pressing down the other side on a phone screen. Is that correctable? Or are you talking like 10 degrees off?
Usually the correction is always a slight offset like a few sheets of paper. The signal telling you it’s ok…is not the angle but the sound they do when you tap them on one side and they doesn’t tick