keytop trimming (HELP!)

[David Ilvedson]

I use a 1" belt sander for rough work and hand file to finish...

David I.

On 10 Jun 2002 at 16:23, Greg Newell 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
>