How to Lube Mechanical Keyboard Switches: Complete Guide

By MechKeyReview Team • • complete mechanical keyboards guide

Switch lubing tools: Krytox 205g0 lube, small brush, switch opener and disassembled mechanical keyboard switches on a desk

Lubing switches is the single highest-impact modification you can make to a mechanical keyboard. A scratchy, rattly stock switch can become genuinely smooth and quiet in about two minutes of work per switch — the kind of difference that's immediately obvious to anyone who types on it.

The process is not complicated, but the details matter. Use the wrong lube on a tactile switch and you'll destroy the bump. Lube a clicky switch and you'll silence it permanently. Apply too much and keys feel mushy. This guide walks through every decision — tools, lube selection, step-by-step technique, and the mistakes that trip up most beginners.

Whether you're lubing 70 switches for a full build or just freshening up an existing keyboard, you'll find everything you need here.

Watch first: complete overview

Why Lube Switches?

Mechanical switches are mechanical. Two pieces of hard plastic — the stem and the housing — slide against each other thousands of times per day. Out of the factory, that plastic-on-plastic contact produces friction, a scratchy sound on every keystroke, and over time, inconsistent feel as different parts of the switch wear unevenly.

Lube eliminates that friction. A thin, even coat on the contact surfaces turns a scratchy switch into one that feels like it's moving through air. Linears become genuinely smooth. Tactiles develop a cleaner, more defined bump. Silent switches get even quieter. The sound profile shifts from high-pitched plastic scratch to a deeper, more resonant thock — the sound most enthusiasts are chasing.

It's also cheap. A 10ml syringe of Krytox 205g0 costs around $20 and lubes hundreds of switches. That's a fraction of what you'd pay for a "pre-lubed" keyboard from a brand — and their factory lube is almost always inconsistent anyway.

What You Need: Tools & Materials

You don't need much. The core kit is four items, plus the lube itself. The optional items save time on large batches.

Tool Cost Notes
Switch Opener $5–15 Opens the switch housing without damaging the clips. Costs $5–15. A flat-head screwdriver works in a pinch but risks scratching the housing. Get a dedicated opener — it pays for itself in the first batch.
Thin Paint Brush $3–8 Size 00 or 000 (synthetic bristle). This is what you apply the lube with. Too large a brush means too much lube per stroke; too small and you'll be there all day. A $3 art brush from a craft store is exactly what you need.
Lube Station / Switch Holder $10–15 Holds 90–100 switches upside-down so you can work systematically. Not strictly necessary, but a huge quality-of-life improvement when lubing a full keyboard. Around $10–15.
Stem Holder or Tweezers $5–10 You need something to hold the stem while you apply lube to all four sides. Dedicated stem holders keep the stem stable and prevent you from accidentally touching the freshly-lubed surface. Regular tweezers work too.
The Lube $15–25 See the section below. The lube choice depends entirely on your switch type — using the wrong one is the most common beginner mistake.
Optional Switch puller — to remove switches from a hot-swap keyboard without bending pins.
Small container or ziplock bag — for bag-lubing springs (faster than hand-lubing each one).
Paper towels — for cleaning up excess lube and wiping your brush between applications.

Which Lube to Use (and Which to Avoid)

This is the decision that most beginners get wrong. There is no universal "best" lube — the right choice depends on your switch type, and using the wrong viscosity ruins the switch feel.

Lube Type Best for Notes
Krytox 205g0 Thick grease Linear switches The gold standard for linears. Creamy, even coverage. Too thick for tactiles — kills the bump completely.
Tribosys 3203 Thin grease Tactile switches Light enough to preserve tactile feedback. Apply only to housing and stem sides, never the legs.
Tribosys 3204 Medium grease Linears, light tactiles Sits between 3203 and 205g0. Good all-rounder if you want one lube for everything except clicky switches.
Krytox GPL 105 Thin oil Springs only Very thin — not for housing or stem surfaces. Used for bag-lubing springs to eliminate spring ping.
⚠ Never lube clicky switches (Cherry MX Blue, Box White, etc.). The click mechanism depends on controlled friction between the click bar and the stem. Lube destroys that friction and turns clicky switches into scratchy, tactile-less linears. There is no undoing this.

On a budget? Superlube 21010 ($8) is a decent substitute for 205g0 on linears. Not as refined, but functional. Avoid generic hardware-store greases, WD-40, cooking oil, or anything not specifically formulated for close-tolerance plastic parts.

Tips and tricks from an experienced builder

Step-by-Step: How to Lube Switches

The process is the same for linear and tactile switches. The only difference is which surfaces you lube on tactile switches (you skip the stem legs).

Disassembled mechanical keyboard switch showing top housing, bottom housing, stem and spring components

The 4 switch components laid out — top housing, bottom housing, stem, spring

01 Step 1: Open the switch

Place the switch in the opener and press down firmly. The clips on the top housing will release cleanly. If it feels like it's about to crack, you're pressing at the wrong angle — there are two clips on the long sides of the switch, not the short sides. Separate the top housing and set it aside. Remove the stem and spring. You now have four components: top housing, bottom housing, stem, spring.
02 Step 2: Lube the bottom housing

This is the most impactful step. The bottom housing has two rails — the channels where the stem legs slide. Apply a thin, even coat of lube to both rails using light brush strokes in one direction. Also lube the inside walls of the housing (where the stem body makes contact). Do not fill the housing with lube. You want a thin film, not a pool. Less is more.
03 Step 3: Lube the stem

Hold the stem with your stem holder or tweezers. Apply lube to all four sides of the stem's cylinder — this is the main body of the stem that slides through the housing. Use single, directional brush strokes. For linear switches: also lube the two legs (the bottom part of the stem that contacts the spring mechanism). For tactile switches: skip the legs. Lubing the legs of a tactile switch eliminates the tactile bump.
04 Step 4: Lube the top housing (optional)

The top housing has a cylindrical cavity that the stem passes through. A very light application of lube here reduces stem wobble and gives a slightly smoother feel. This step has the smallest impact of all — skip it if you're short on time.
05 Step 5: Lube and reassemble

Lube the spring (see the spring section below). Drop the spring into the bottom housing, then place the stem on top — make sure the stem is facing the right direction (the longer bump side goes toward the front of the switch). Snap the top housing back on. You should hear a clean click when both clips engage. That's it. One switch done.

Linear, Tactile and Clicky: What Changes

The technique above applies to all switch types, with one critical exception per type.

How to lube every switch type — full walkthrough

Linear switches (Red, Yellow, Black, Speed Silver)
Lube everything freely. Rails, inside walls, all four stem sides including the legs, top housing. Linears have no bump to protect — more lube means a smoother, more buttery keystroke. Krytox 205g0 or Tribosys 3204 are ideal. The goal is consistent, even coverage on every contact surface.
Tactile switches (Brown, Boba U4, Holy Pandas, Topre)
Skip the stem legs. The tactile bump comes from the interaction between the stem's legs and a small bump inside the housing. Lube those legs and you reduce or eliminate the feedback. Use Tribosys 3203 (thin) and apply it only to the stem body sides and the housing rails. If your tactile switches feel "mushier" after lubing, you lubed the legs — there's no fix other than cleaning and starting over.
Clicky switches (Blue, Green, White, Box Click)
Do not lube. The click mechanism is a bar or jacket that relies on a precise amount of friction to produce the click. Lubing any part of a clicky switch will reduce or silence the click and leave you with a worse-feeling tactile. If a clicky switch feels scratchy, the only sanctioned modification is a very light lube on the spring only.

How to Lube Switch Springs

Springs are the source of a specific, annoying sound: spring ping. It's a metallic resonance you hear on each keystroke, especially on heavier switches. Lubing springs eliminates it entirely. The lube to use is Krytox GPL 105 — a very thin oil. Do not use grease on springs.

Bag lube (recommended for full keyboards) Put all your springs into a small ziplock bag or airtight container. Add a very small amount of Krytox 105 — start with one drop per 20 springs. Seal the bag and shake vigorously for 30–60 seconds. Open and shake out the springs. They should have a very thin, even film of oil. This method is fast and produces consistent results across a large batch.
Hand lube (slower, more precise) Apply a tiny drop of 105 to the end of each spring. Pinch the spring between your thumb and index finger and twist to spread the oil along the coil. This takes about 5–10 seconds per spring — fine for 10 switches, tedious for 70.

Lubing Without Desoldering

If your keyboard has hot-swap sockets, pull the switches out with a switch puller, lube them on your desk, and push them back in. Clean and simple.

If the switches are soldered in, you have two options. The first is to desolder them — a soldering iron and some desoldering braid or a pump gets each switch out in 30–60 seconds with practice. The second is partial lubing: remove the keycaps, use a switch opener to crack the top housing while the switch is still in the board, and apply lube with a fine brush to the accessible surfaces. You won't be able to lube the bottom housing rails (the most impactful surface), so results are limited.

If you're serious about the mod, the desoldering route is worth it. If that feels like too much, the board-lubing trick still helps with spring ping and some of the housing scratch.

Two methods for lubing without desoldering

Common Mistakes to Avoid

# Mistake What happens / Fix
01 Over-lubing The most frequent mistake. Too much lube makes switches feel mushy, inconsistent, and slow. If you can see the lube pooling in the housing or globbing on the stem, you've used too much. Wipe it down and start again. A thin film is all you need.
02 Lubing tactile switch legs If you lube the legs of a tactile switch, the tactile bump disappears. The fix is to clean the switch with isopropyl alcohol and re-lube correctly. But it's easier to just not lube the legs in the first place.
03 Lubing clicky switches As covered above — the click mechanism requires friction to work. Lube kills it. There is no way to restore a clicky switch after it's been lubed improperly without fully disassembling and cleaning with IPA.
04 Using the wrong lube WD-40 evaporates quickly and leaves a residue. Cooking oil turns rancid inside the switch. Generic hardware grease is too thick and will attract dust. Stick to purpose-made keyboard lubes. The difference in cost is $15–20 and the difference in result is dramatic.
05 Skipping the rails Some beginners lube only the stem and wonder why the switch still feels scratchy. The bottom housing rails — where the stem legs slide — are the highest-friction contact surface in the switch. If you only lube one thing, make it the rails.
06 Inconsistent brush strokes Applying lube in random directions leaves uneven coverage and an inconsistent feel. Always brush in a single direction — one or two strokes per surface is enough. Think of it like painting a very small, very precise wall.

Frequently Asked Questions

Expect 2–4 hours for a 70-switch keyboard as a beginner. Experienced lubers do it in 60–90 minutes. The bottleneck is usually the stem lubing step — it gets faster quickly with practice. Budget extra time for your first batch.

In most cases, yes — modifying the switches voids the manufacturer warranty on the switches themselves. The keyboard warranty is typically unaffected unless you damage something during the process. Check your keyboard manufacturer's specific policy.

Most lubricants last 12–24 months under heavy daily use before you'll notice the feel degrading. If your switches start feeling scratchy again after lubing, it's time for a re-lube. Lighter use extends this significantly.

Factory lube is almost always inconsistently applied — some switches in the same keyboard feel different from others. Cleaning and re-lubing produces a more consistent result. That said, factory pre-lubed switches (e.g., Gateron G Pro) are better than older stock switches and can be used as-is if you don't want to do the mod.

Yes. 70–90% IPA evaporates cleanly without damaging plastic. Dip the disassembled parts in IPA, shake off the excess, and let them air-dry for 15–20 minutes before re-lubing. This is the correct method for removing old lube or fixing an over-lubed switch.

Thick lubes like 205g0 can add a barely perceptible amount of resistance — effectively unmeasurable in grams. The subjective feel is "smoother" rather than "heavier". Thinner lubes like 3203 have essentially no effect on actuation weight.

The housing (especially the rails in the bottom housing) controls the travel-path smoothness. The stem determines how smooth the overall keystroke feels. Both matter. Lubing only one of the two gives you a partial improvement — lube both for the full effect.

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