Key Bushing Mortises

[Farrell]

Thanks to all for their thoughts on my key bushing mortise dilemma. I took
my router, set it up on a couple blocks, slide the up-side-down key under
router and rout out the area by eye. I'd be curious how someone has made a
jig to center the grinding on the mortise. For this job, the eye method will
be fine.

One thing I have found and had not seen mentioned by anyone when doing
bushings ala Spurlock method: When I have used Bill Spurlock's razor knife,
I find it works OK, but does tend to pull the bushing a bit out of position.
I tried my rotary felt cutter (from Pianotek) and it works awsome. Cuts the
felt right where you want it and does not move it a bit.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Murray Seminuk" <seminukm@cadvision.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: Key Bushing Mortises


> Hi Terry
> Terry I have a jig to router mortises much like the way Yamaha keys are
> done.Straight across the whole keybottom.You only have to remove enough
wood
> to accomodate the compressed cloth .Make sure the mortise is centred  and
> the same width as the cauls that you are using.In doing this the cloth
will
> not have an effect on the touch of the instrument.
>
> Murray
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 10:55 AM
> Subject: Key Bushing Mortises
>
>
> > I am rebushing keys from an older spinet. The mortises on the front rail
> do
> > not have regular little recessed areas on each side of the mortise for
the
> > little flap of bushing cloth that is typically left over the edge (on a
> > plane with the bottom of the key). All other keys I have rebushed or
have
> > had rebushed had a nice little recessed area next to the mortise to
> > accommodate the left over flap. The old bushings from these keys had the
> > little flap, but the flaps were irregular in that some were partly
> submerged
> > in a crude recess, some were not submerged and stuck out below the
bottom
> of
> > the key, etc., i.e. a real mess. My experience with this arrangement is
> that
> > it is difficult to get nice consistent dip with an irregular bottom to
the
> > key.
> >
> > So, what to do. If this were my piano for life, I would rout out or
chisel
> > out the proper recess. This is not my piano, but I do want to have flat
> key
> > bottoms. Can I cut the bushings at the key bottom and not have any
flap -
> > much like many center rail bushings are cut? That would certainly be the
> > easiest solution, assuming I would get proper performance (I don't see
why
> > this would not work - or is it too easy to damage the bushing when
setting
> > the key onto the pin?). If that is not a good idea, can someone suggest
> the
> > easiest method of making the little recess - I prefer not to make a
career
> > out of this set of keys, but I do want to do a decent job. Thanks for
any
> > ideas.
> >
> > Terry Farrell
> >
> >
> >
>
>