Finally, the Holee mod, which is likely the fiddliest mod of them all. The Holee mod involves inserting a thin sliver of fabric band-aid into your stabilizer stems. This eliminates stabilizer rattle by ensuring the stabilizer wire fits more tightly inside the stems. It’s hard to explain in text, so watch the video above to learn how to perform this mod. Closing Thoughts The set comes with all the necessary components, including two housing units, a gold-plated steel wire, and two washers. With options in 2U, 6.25U, and 7U, these stabilisers are an ideal match for every keyboard size. Screw-in stabilizers are typically only found on custom-made keyboards and not on pre-built keyboards, which makes them less common, but highly sought after. Gold-plated wire. All stabs come with accompanying screws and washers. Disassembled ready to lube; we recommend Krytox 205g2 or Krytox XHT-BDZ.

We also recommend taking the time to mod your stabilizers to improve them even more. A little bit of lubricant and band-aids goes a long way.The stabilizers are pre-clipped which makes them rest on the PCB in a more stable fashion and improve the typing experience. The V2 revisions of these stabilisers include a new wire hook, to help prevent wire popping during operational use and maintenance.

Plate-mounted stabilizers are the most common mounting style and are typically found on almost all pre-built mechanical keyboards. These stabilizers attach to the metal plate inside the keyboard instead of directly to the printed circuit board (PCB). We highly recommend the screw-in stabilizer type if you plan on building a keyboard. Snap-In Stabilizers The 6.25u size is what you’ll need for a standard spacebar, unless you have a non-standard keyboard layout, in which case you’ll need the 7u size. For the most part you can ignore the 7u size, unless you have a custom keyboard. In this guide, we’ll be focusing primarily on the Cherry stabilizer type when explaining all of the different options available. It’s possible to get Cherry style stabilizers in screw-in, snap-in, or plate-mounted variations. There are a ton of different stabilizers types, styles, sizes, and mods out there, so it can be difficult navigating the world of stabilizers. We’ll go over everything you need to know and give you all the juicy details.

Closing Thoughts

Costar stabilizers are quite difficult to use and have to be hooked into the keycap to fit. Getting the stabilizer bar to insert properly into the keycap can be a frustrating and lengthy process. The band-aid mod requires you to place a small strip of band-aid on the PCB beneath the stabilizer housings. This dampens the stabilizers and gives them a more solid feeling when you bottom out a key. It’s slightly fiddly, but you may as well do it before you install your stabs. As mentioned before, snap-in stabilizers can pop out the PCB when trying to remove the keycaps, where screw-in stabilizers do not have this problem. Different Brands that Make Cherry Style Stabilizers Screw-in stabilizers mount directly into the PCB and are attached with screws. This mounting style is considered the best because the stabilizers are much more secure and will vibrate less.

Screw-in stabilizers are usually a better option than snap-in as they vibrate less and are more secure. The only situation where we would recommend this stabilizer type is if you can’t find a keyboard with screw-in stabilizers. Since snap-in stabilizers mount to the PCB, they tend to vibrate less than plate-mounted, which makes them a better option. The only downside is they are much less common than plate-mounted, and they are typically only found on custom keyboards. There isn’t a good way to modify these stabilizers to improve them, although you could apply a small amount of lubricant to reduce the sound and rattle noises.The band aid modification includes applying band-aids where the stabilizer insert hits the PCB to dampen the sound and create a much nicer acoustic.

Bid farewell to additional clipping with these pre-clipped stabilisers. The screw-in design guarantees a secure fit, saving you precious time and effort, and adding to your keyboard's overall stability. Costar stabilizers: they’re rather old, and only found in vintage mechanical keyboards or newer, very few in between keyboards that no-one wants you to go all DIY on. Costar stabilizers are hard to handle, tune, and install—rumor has it they rattle worse than a snake. The stabilizers attach by clipping/snapping into the metal plate. This style of connection is not the most secure and adds to the overall amount of shaking and rattling.Now that we’ve gone over the three main stabilizer types, let’s take a closer look at the Cherry style stabilizers as they are the most common and the go-to stabilizer if you’re building a keyboard. It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s not that bad. Just be sure to do it before you assemble the stabilizers, as it can be a pain lubing stabs that are already in place. Also, note you’ll have to dismantle your keyboard and unclip these from behind the PCB to remove them, unlike screw-in or plate-mount stabilizers.