I was taught by the "Old timers" that we started with an old clothes iron that we didn't intend to use on clothes any more. You also need a few rags of cotton to drape over(on top) the old keytops to be removed and a putty knife that has been sharpened enough to help scrape/pry the softened keytop up. A little experimenting with the temperature of your iron to warm/heat up the covered tops until they become just pliable enough to pry off. This works wonderfully on both Ivory as well as plastic. You will get the hang of just warming the tops enough to pop off the ivories and yet still be able to use most of them if you don't over do it with the heat. Of coarse the plastic I dont care to do anything but soften to pry off. After a few keys,you start a system of leaving the iron on a few covered keys to heat as you are taking of the previously heated ones off and now...you are a moving machine! Prior to applying the new keytops I use a stationary flat sanding disk to just touch clean the surface of any leftover plastic/glue and clean the wood. Careful you do not want to "over sand" and change the key out of square! Just barely touch to the sanding surface long enough to clean the worst spots. Try this on some old junk keys first from a dead upright. Good luck & God Bess! Gerald Arbeau -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060724/0a2fa514/attachment.html
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