I would remove them and replace them with new lead. Once they start oxidizing they tend to start expanding and soon they will start rubbing on the adjacent keys and/or splitting the keys. Don't' make the customer's problem yours. Replacing the lead is still a lot cheaper than replacing the piano. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Sykes Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 3:25 PM To: Pianotech at Ptg. Org Subject: Decomposing key leads I know that the subject of decomposing key leads has been brought up here before, but a search of the archives brought up no results. New, 2005 or 2006 Hobart M. Cable upright, (OH-09 A). I noticed on the last tuning of this piano that all the key leads are starting to get covered over with that white fluffy powder that indicates decomposition. My first thought was that the owners of this inexpensive piano would never go for key lead replacement. Besides, it's probably too soon in the process to think in that direction. My next thought was to take all the keys out and soft-wire brush the powder off the ends of the leads and then seal them off with some clear spray paint of some kind. Lacquer, Rust-O-Leum, AquaNet, whatever. Anything to hopefully stall the process. And then I realized that the wiser thing to do would be to bring the subject up here first. So, any thoughts? Any suggestions? -- Geoff Sykes -- Los Angeles -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070923/04c4eaa1/attachment.html
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