keytop trimming (HELP!)

[Leslie W Bartlett]

If you're going to the convention, GO TO MERLE SANFORD'S CLASS ON IVORY.
The key-work for plastic and ivory is about the same, and Merle does a
marvelous job of presenting the hows of that. She did the program for the
local chapter, the first she ever did, and it was immediately apparent
that her program was national quality. Her work is masterful, and she's
skilled at describing it.
les bartlett
houston

On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 16:23:59 -0400 Greg Newell <gnewell@ameritech.net>
writes:
> 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
> 


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