keytop trimming (HELP!)

[Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre]

Hi Greg,
             Now here is a way to get them factory perfect every time, with 
perfect notches and corners.

1. Rough down the excess with a 1" belt sander to minimize filing. Leaving 
a slight over hang.
2. Get 1/2" file and grind the sides so that you have a polished surface 
that will not cut. When you file the corners there will be no material 
removed from the adjacent side. File and dress the long sides first. Draw 
filing will give you the smoothest cut.( Note: safety files that have been 
purchased do not have polished sides so be careful)
3. Fit the natural keys into the key frame, and clamp a 48" steel straight 
edge to the two end keys with two small C clamps.  File straight down, 
using you straight edge as a stop fence. Gee a no brainer.
4. Reposition the straight edge about 1/8" back from the previous position 
and file a nice bevel to match the sides.
5. Glue some 600 grit wet and dry to a small maple slat and use as a file 
to polish out any file marks to finish.
6. Warning: unless the keys have been re bushed it's easy the gaps screwed 
up between B/C and E/F A couple of tricks.  A) Use an awl to spring the BR 
forward and out of the BRcup that has formed in the bushing cloth.  B) turn 
the front rail pins so there is minimum side play.

Better yet sell a re bushing job along with the key re covering.

Hope this helps some
Roger

At 04:23 PM 6/10/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Greetings listees,
>         I've been having consistent trouble in my endeavors to replace 
> keytops. I really wish to do a good job at this so if you could share 
> with me what you do I'd greatly appreciate it. I had tried the Peterson 
> Jig using essentially two parallel rails to ride a router on and the key 
> is clamped beneath. The theory is that this will evenly trim the tops 
> down. Not So! After several sets of disasters that I did more than twice 
> the work on making them right, I have finally built Bill Spurlocks jigs 
> to use in conjunction with a rotary planer. This has been the ticket in 
> the planning department as I have never made a set of keys quite so even 
> before.
>         Now I'm at the trimming stage and I am using another of Bill's (I 
> think) jigs where a piloted bit comes up through the center of the jig 
> which is a ever so slightly tapered away from center and covered with 
> denim material to prevent scratches on the keytop. The key is inverted 
> and the pilot bearing rides against the side of the key and trims any 
> overhanging plastic. This is the part I'm having trouble with. It seems 
> that either I'm not holding the key steady enough or there are some 
> imperfections in the key that I'm not seeing, or there's stuff on the 
> table from the last key. I really don't know what it is but I'm not 
> winding up with a straightly trimmed side. Can anyone suggest a different 
> method of a different jig? I've been thinking of a 1" belt sander 
> as  trimmer. Anyone ever use one of those for this purpose? Any and all 
> ideas greatly appreciated. I'm so happy with how the planing went I don't 
> want to ruin this in the trimming stage.
>
>Greg Newell
>mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net

Roger