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MT3 and Spacebars for Corsair keyboards

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As I learned the lazy way (buying an MT3 kit and putting it on my old keyboard), some Corsair keyboards have 6.5u spacebars and none of the MT3 kits come with or have kits containing that size spacebar. So I went looking for alternatives to fill the space with something nicer than the original spacebar that would hopefully complement my MT3 keycaps a bit better. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any keycap profile pictures that obviously showed me the differences between spacebars for the usual suspects - Cherry, OEM, SA, MT3, etc. But I did find that I could order 6.5u spacebar kits in fun colours and SA profile from kprepublic. So I went ahead and did that and got a variety of colours for funsies and in the hope that one of them would be a nice complement to my kit. So here are some pictures (apologies for the terrible quality) showing the original Corsair spacebar (which I believe is OEM profile), the MT3 spacebar, an MT3 R4 key and an SA spacebar. I have oriented the MT3 keys sloping in the same direction in these photos for consistency in presentation, rather than opposed as the spacebar is intended to be installed. Observations:
  • The MT3 spacebar and R4 key are different:
  • The R4 key is concave and the spacebar is convex
  • The R4 key is slightly taller than the spacebar on both edges
  • The vertical faces of the OEM and MT3 (I think) profiles are not symmetric, whereas the SA profile is mirrored across the Z axis
  • The SA profile is higher, even at its lowest point, than the highest point on the MT3 spacebar (though it is roughly even with the highest point on the MT3 R4 key)
  • The high edge of the OEM spacebar is only slightly lower than the high edge of the MT3 spacebar, but the low edge is significantly lower
  • That may actually be a minor advantage when resting the thumbs
  • The vertical face of the OEM spacebar on the low edge is much closer to plumb than the same face on the MT3 spacebar
  • However, because it appears that the MT3 profile is not symmetric, installing the MT3 spacebar sloping towards the user would put this face out of line with the rest of R4 anyways
In terms of the keycaps I have specifically, the original spacebar is by far the crappiest in terms of material quality and the Drop MT3 spacebar is the best, being made of the thickest material. The SA spacebars are between them in material thickness and don't flex despite not having reinforcing bars in the mould. I like the colours I got in the SA bars and have a couple that work well with the kit (not including backup black). I'm going to try typing with the SA spacebar for a bit and see how it works, but I'm not anticipating good results. The switches on my keyboard are MX Browns and with the higher spacebar I actuate the switch just resting my thumbs on the spacebar. However, the same thing happens with the OEM spacebar if I deliberately relax my thumbs on it too, so I think that I might naturally suspend my thumbs when I am actually actively typing. Minor update: I've been typing with the SA spacebar and haven't encountered any difficulties or discomfort so for now I think I'm happy to leave it! If that doesn't work, I'll probably grab some spraypaint and spruce up the original OEM spacebar into a complementary colour as its profile is much closer to the MT3 spacebar than the SA. And if I get really desperate, I may try chopping slices out of the 7u MT3 bar and welding it back together with ABS solvent cement... However, this suggests that if you're looking for a 6.5u spacebar to go with an MT3 keycap kit, OEM profile might be a good choice (assuming Cherry would be too low, ignoring DCX because I'm not sure you can even get 6.5u spacebars in that profile, and noting that I haven't bothered comparing any other profiles - let me know if you find 6.5u spacebars in others!). Pictures: OEM - MT3 spacebar - MT3 R4 - SA SA - MT3 spacebar - OEM - MT3 R4 OEM - MT3 spacebar - SA - MT3 R4
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YuanYu
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Sep 23, 2022
Matt3o (creator of the MT3 profile) has released the STLs for R5 space bars, including the 6.5 u, if you can get someone to 3D print one for you. MT3 Row 5 Spacebar STLs, all of them! (matt3o.com) Personally I found R5 to be more comfortable than R4 as space bars.
Standard spacebar size is 6.25. I feel like they would only use something like 6.5u to keep people from using 3rd party keycaps. oof. I'd recommend getting a 6.5u from somewhere like Etsy. 6.5 is non-standard. even spacebar kits don't include that size normally. https://www.etsy.com/market/6.5u_spacebar It's pricey but at least you get a spacebar - and probably something really cool too.
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