Mouse Switch Soldering Tutorial 

Definitely my favorite tutorial for swapping switches. The tip about snipping the legs is really helpful. One thing I found useful through experimentation is this: During desoldering, if you can't go from one pad to the other quick enough (the solder solidifies before you get to the next one), just add more solder. Make nice big blobs. This will create large thermal masses that can hold heat for a few seconds. A 2-3mm diameter blob will allow you to basically have all three blobs melted at the same time, even with a point-tip iron. Another tip is once you've removed the switch, if you don't have a solder pump to clear the via, you can heat it from behind, then once the solder is liquid, get really close, remove the iron and give the via a solid blow. Take care not to burn your face/lips and make sure the surface in front of you can handle a bit of molten solder as it'll come flying. This will be more than sufficient to nicely clean the vias and allow you to fully insert the new switch.

I watched so many videos and they skimmed over the soldering part as if it was the easiest thing to do. The tip with sicking the tweesers in the holes helpped me out so much. Thank you, my mouse is working (better than) brand new again!!!

Thanks for the tutorial, really smart to leave middle with solder for later adjustment.

priceless tutorial, the tips of adding more solder to remove the switch saved me from melting another one

Background music level very right at volume level and we can clearly hear your voice instruction! Good Job!

Good tutorial! Also thanks for not making the music overwhelmingly loud.

You helped me do my first Soldering, thx man!

you make it look so easy ents. im just praying i don't destroy my mouse. lol thanks so much for the extremely informative tutorial!

love the GPX design, made this job easier and way less risky, if anything, one can just order a new daughter board without have to replace the whole pcb or do some extensive PCB tracing. sadly all the new mice on the market none of them doing the same. However the plus here is they seem to use much higher quality switch right off the bat so that is nice .

Nice vid.. i have the same hand de-solder pump.. also have a de-soldering station but as i live in a apartment and pack everything i tend to pick this pump instead of the whole station hah .. Will see if i can use this method in the future to replace switches on my new loud "Kensington SlimBlade Pro".. add sum Kailh silent switches to it..

Never soledered before - got a g703, the left click of which drives me crazy, hope I can do the soldering part without making the whole mouse unusable.

thanks for the tutorial, the 3 pins of switch layout have polarity or mean something? maybe the middle pin is the data pin? i don't know, I'm asking bc the pads of sides on my pcb fell off

Thanks for the tutorial

hey ents, how do you put your soldering iron away properly? tip tinner, clean with steel wool, put back in stand? or should I leave the tip tinner on the iron without cleaning it off to prevent oxidation? also, do you recommend a wet sponge to help clean the iron as well? thanks

Great tutorial! What temperature do you put the soldering iron at for this?

What helping hands are those? Yours look pretty stable. I'm looking around to buy one of those but preferably something cheap-ish as I won't use it much and also don't have much money to spend on it. I might just end up not buying one at all since the cheap ones seem to have bad reviews. Was yours moderately priced?

I just bought a soldering kit to attempt this myself. Which soldering tip do you recommend using as a beginner?

Do I need to put lead before desoldering the switches?

you did it so easy

I have a Zowie ec2 divinia. I have Kalih reds for the main 2 switches. How much to ship you the mouse and switchs to be replaced?

I think you need to point out that people should be using appropriate soldering iron tips to use this technique properly. A tip that is too pointed will not be able to transfer heat properly, so that you won't be able to keep the solder molten for all of the three contacts. The knife soldering tip that you're using has a large surface to transfer heat quickly to the solder pads, which enables this technique to work.The same is true if the temperature is too low. An alternative it to just use a desoldering iron, which is essentially a desoldering pump with a heated nozzle. Just place the nozzle over each contact, wait for the solder to melt then release the plunger to suck the solder out. Lastly, I think you didn't comment on it but I like your desoldering pump, it has a silicone tubing for a better seal. The cheap ones that have hard nozzles are a pain to use.

Great video! Literally been doing this myself lately. Just messed with my Model o- and threw in some kalih gm 4.0 reds. I got it working, but it's slightly not flush so the shell doesn't go back together great. I'll try keeping the middle pad with solder to help align, good idea! What are your helping hands? Mine are too flexible... I need different ones.

Hey just asking I’ve never done soldering before, if I desolder a mouse switch will that switch still work and could I use that deaoldered switch and solder it onto another mouse? I want to desolder the omron 50m on my g903 and solder the 50m onto my g pro.

how long do these switches last under intense gaming click and click+drag situations?

question: what was that thing you used to clean up the solder after you melted the original solder? (lemme reword it) step 1. clip the original pins step 2. heat up the original solder step 3. put a random tool that isn't in your description and somehow clean up the solder what's that random tool? and also does it matter that I clean up the solder from the original mouse? or can I just clip the pins and heat up the switches until they come out and procceed?

im looking to buy the switch replacements service what switches are the most simlar to the stock ones?

hello ents. this is a noob question but what will it take to break/lift a pad. ive seen a good amount of posts from r/mousereview and related subs about clearly inexperienced people that havent soldered much before (im in the same boat) and i would like to ask the steps to take in order to avoid it and what goes wrong when it does happen. maybe its easy and im paranoid. thank you very much

Are you using lead-free solder? Amazing video :)

quick question, i tried desoldering my left mouse switch, but my solder iron wasnt hot enough so i had to kinda press harder and longer so i gets hotter and use the pointy tip to scratch off the solder lomg story short i managed to change my switch and now it wont detect any click, i know my switch is not broken cos i tried putting the pin on my right switch pin and it worked issit possible my pcb is broken now cos it stayed in contact with the hot solder iron for too long?

yo got question, is it fine if I put the temperature at 350C or 400C instead of 375C because my soldering iron doesn't has 375C option

You made it looks easy, I messed up with my mouse. 😂 +1 sub😊

Is it safe to use 375c during soldering job? I usually use around 310c cause I’m scared of damaging the pcb with too much heat.

took me 4 hours to replace just ONE switch. somehow they dont want to come out ... ended up ripping that switch out of my mouse and hammering the solder away so the new switch fits in ... soldered it together and now shes working again ... but without specialized tools ( got just a cheap soldering iron and not all his gear ) its just painful :D

What solder do you use? Also I have a problem where the solder doesn't stick to the soldering iron or the pin and pad. After I solder something it looks bad and dirty. I have a random soldering iron and solder. Any help or tips?

what should i do if the metal ring where i put my switch is missing ?

Do I really need a solder remover since I don't have one laying around rn, planning to change my mouse switch soon..

TTC gold v2 vs kailh gm 8.0 in terms of feel?

Hey, I have a question evne though this video is kinda old lol. So i followed your instructions and for some reason when putting the mouse back together none of the switches nor the scroll wheel work. The mouse turns on and the sensor works however the switches dont register clicks and the scroll wheel doesnt do anything either. I know the PCB isnt burned i checked before desoldering, I kept the temperature at 350 - 325 at all times. There is some flux residue from the solder on the edges of some of the pins. I made sure the shape of the solder around the pins are good too. Any tips?

I just desoldier old switch and put new switch, mouse is working but switch don't. Is it possible I broke pins? I don't understand what is wrong..

I'm having trouble with mine i replaced 1 switch already perfect no problems then on the other one I currently can't get the solder off the squared one no matter how many times I heat it up and add lead solder I ordered a flux pen and a wick to try a different method

I know it's kind of unrelated to the video, but my ultralight 2's left-click felt really stiff and hollow after paracording. I tried it without the cord, adding foam at the bottom (pcb) and even tried taping the switch(cuz I thought it happened due to switch wobble). Please help! I think the only way that explains this is that my switch got damaged during the process.

what type of solder should i use for this im new to soldering

hey man, is there a way to re wire the contact points on the pcb? i think i burned 1 side of my g9x logitech

My 3rd pin is not soldered which is the NC terminal, now, is it okay to not soldered that pin? because I'm planning to switch my side buttons switches that have only 2 holes which is a box-type switch.

Hey I wanna send a gpx out never done stuff like that but how would I send it out? And what can I pay with?

GM 8 what you can say about this switches?)

can i solder in new switches without a soldering pump?

Do i need flux?

Yo ents where can i dm you besides twitter? Had some questions

Did you used low melting solder?

Damm bought a solder from aliexpress that "goes" as high as 500C but couldn't melt anything at all. Dozens of minutes to desolder a single switch, soldering process was also hard, too slow and ultimately would melt the plastic surrounding of the switches... had 5 replacements but managed to break 4 of them lol

what solder do u use? 60%-40% or lead free?

Thank man! I destroyed several mouse boards before just by desoldering the mouse switches. These are really pain in the ass to replace without proper tools and techniques.

did you ever soldered a switch out and re-used it?

i have a double cliking g pro would replacing switches be a good potential fix or should i be looking at buying a replacment pcb for the switches?

My solder no have option heatC Only 40W that ist ok or not

How hard is swap switch to g604??

whered u get such a big bag of 8.0s

does this work on the wired mouse?

Do you use leaded or lead-free solder?

Do you need flux, or is it unnecessary?

So i had this idea, what if i used (for example) Gateron Yellows (Mechanical Keyboard Switch) as a Switch but it only has 3 Pins and the old Mouse im gonna mod with this has 3 Pin Mouse Switches, what should i do, and with pins/sockets/pads are for what ?

i need tutorial how to swap side button of G Pro

Isn't that copper wools? Not steel wools, it would eat the solder tip so fast.

make a mod to make it hot swappable please please please

i killt my pcb :( after the 3 swap i got a doubel klick problem @ kahli gm 4.0 ! after 2 years