key sticks

[alan forsyth]

It is possible that a set of keys has been slotted on to the wrong key 
frame. It happened to me a long time ago that I swapped a set of keys with 
new coverings onto a keyframe from a similar make and model of piano and it 
did not fit. Subsequently I toured the Herrberger Brooks action factory and 
saw how the keyboards were made. The keyframe and keys are made together as 
a set. The keys are made from a single sheet of blockwood, the pattern of 
the keys is traced onto the block, all the mortises and holes drilled and 
the balance and front rail pins driven into the keyframe. This is all done 
before the keyblock is sliced up in to individual keys by a band saw. Only 
one keyframe will fit a specific set of keys.

AF


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent Swafford" <kswafford@earthlink.net>
To: "Submit technical files to ptg.org" <files@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2005 1:46 AM
Subject: key sticks


> I'm sending along 2 pictures of the F1 keystick, B 342631. Note the 7 
> original key leads, and the non-original leather key bushings. But  why 
> I'm writing is the interesting location of the wear in the key  bushing 
> from contact with the front rail pin. The whole set of keys  is similar, 
> and under certain circumstances the front rail pins do  indeed bind on the 
> front of the mortise. (This explains a few things!)
>
> Any ideas out there with regard to what happened? It looks like the 
> mortise is in the wrong place by just over 1/16". Anything else to  watch 
> out for? I know, I know -- watch for  _everything_. But it  probably is 
> just the mortise in the wrong place, right?