Hello my friends! I have lots of larger projects on the back-burner, so I decided to start a short-and-sweet style series to address questions posed on Reddit – so, welcome to Reddit Asks! Let’s get right into it.
u/Seareeeal from r/switchmodders asks,
Does anyone have a picture of cream v1 and v2 stems?
I have some others I’ll link below, but I took some fresh ones with this comparison in mind:
Our specimens for today; an original Cream on the left, and a Cream Arc on the right.
I picked the Arc to represent the newer Creams because its different color will make it easier to distinguish; the Arc is identical to a contemporary standard Cream save for the color and spring.
The original Cream on the left can be recognized by its smaller logo in comparison to the newer Arc on the right. Now, let’s look at the stems:
Cream stems; OG on the left, newer on the right.
Both come with modest factory lubing in the form of light clear grease. Both have the same basic shape, but looking closely it’s evident the tooling is completely different.
The newer pole is longer, and has a longer portion after the tapered section. The newer stem has a shorter “forehead” section; the block between the cross mount and pole. The rails are also shaped a bit differently.
Not the best photo, but does show some comparative detail from straight-on. OG on the left, updated on the right.
Now, for some slightly more exact science:
OG Cream stem: 13.41mm according to my calipers.
This is effectively consistent with the last time I measured an original Cream, where I got 13.42; I’d call that within the margin of error, either for manufacturing or my measuring device.
Updated Cream stem, taken from a Cream Arc: 13.48mm according to my calipers.
The same Updated stem shape in another color, this time from a Launch Cream – also showing 13.48mm.
It’s not a big difference, but it’s measurable: aside from the other changes in the tooling, newer Cream stems are 0.07mm longer from top to bottom than the old ones.
I’d gotten a different measurement for an updated Cream stem last time I tried this, so I decided to measure a handful and it turns out my old measurement matching the OG Cream stem was the fluke – Launch and Arc Creams indeed have longer stems than the originals. However while testing this I also discovered something I didn’t expect – some other versions I’d assumed to be the same aren’t after all:
This is a stem from a second-run Nolve, which is ostensibly a Cream re-color.
These feature the new-tooling housing with the bigger logo – but it looks like the stems aren’t the same at all. In fact, that measurement is closer to that of a standard Kailh linear stem – within the margin of error, in fact.
The stem from a new Dream switch, which is ostensibly a standard Cream that’s been actuated 600,000 times at the factory; broken-in from the box.
These Dream versions also appear to have standard Kailh linear stems; reading just 0.01mm shorter than the Nolives, this is both within the margin of error and I’ll also note the above stem is supposed to have gone through more than half a million presses at the factory, so it wouldn’t shock me if it shortened the stem just a tiny bit.
I was definitely surprised to find that Dreams and Nolives *don’t* use the updated Cream stems that standard new Creams, Launch Creams, and Cream Arcs use, but instead appear to use re-colored versions of the standard Kailh linear stem found in Blacks and Reds.
Yeah, science!
If you’d like some further comparison between long-pole stems (featuring the above OG and Retooled Creams as well as Kailh Blacks and Pro Burgundys), check out this thread on KeebTalk.
Recap of measurements including those from the long-pole thread, rounded to nearest 0.01mm when that close to another:
- Kailh Black, Dream, Nolive V2: ~13.31 (I think all these use the same tooling)
- OG Cream: 13.41 (older Chocolate Creams & old V1 Nolives should also have same stem, but it’s certainly possible that they don’t)
- Launch Cream, Cream Arc (Updated Cream): 13.48 (should be same as normal-colored new Creams as well as newer Chocolate Creams)
- Kailh Pro Burgundy: 13.65
- Kailh Speed Navy: 13.69
Thanks for reading, and have a good one!