Jailhouse Mod for Blue Clicky Switches

Jailhouse Mod for Blue Clicky Switches

This is a mod that I made to change my keyboard's Gateron blue switches to, essentially, tactile switches. The keyboard that I bought only came with Gateron blue switches and swapping them out is more effort than it's worth. 

After searching around, I found out that people usually do a “Jailhouse Mod” that requires some sort of spacer that keeps the click jacket in place that prevents it from clicking when pressed down. 

So, I measured out the space above the click jacket and created this design. It's a super fast print due to its size, so you can print out a whole set of them in a matter of minutes. Took 30min for me to print out 87 spacers for my TKL keyboard.

Filament:

PLA / TPU*

* If you do print these in TPU, please leave a comment on if, (and how well), it works. I cannot print TPU with my printer yet, but would love to print these as a rubber type gasket. 

I used PLA and it works great, however, it might make the switch feel “harder” when pressed. I think it's because of the reduced travel distance after modding it.

Printer Settings:

Layer Height:    0.2mm
First Layer Height:    0.2mm
Perimeters:    2 Walls/Layers
Infill:    20% - To fill the gaps of the tabs on the side. 

If you have lots of stringing, then you might want to reduce that first, before printing these in bulk.

Adhesion:    Make sure that your filament adheres perfectly to your print bed. The parts are really small, so it might struggle with adhesion on some printers. Use some glue-stick on the print bed if you have to. A PEI print bed sheet works great, which is what I used. Sticks without any extra adhesion techniques.

*See attached pictures