Ivory keytops

[Richard Strang]

Hello, list,
   Once again, I learned a big lesson the very hard way, so I thought I'd
share my grief with you all.
   I worked on an old player upright last night. It was a 1907 variety, but
someone in California had rebuilt it very well. Why? Who knows? But it was
in very good shape, and close to pitch.
   All the ivory keytops, the squares, were coming off. about 15 had been
off for quite some time, but the customer had saved them and gave them to me
to glue back on. I also gave a tug at all the rest that had not come off yet
and found that most of them were loose. I got out my trusty PVC-E glue and
proceeded to glue them all back on.
   My big mistake? The glue paints on very white and pretty, and I took it
for granted that it would dry that way and would hide the finger prints and
other imperfections that were on the top of the keys that had not had a
keytop on for a while. When I started taking the rubber bands off and
reinstalling the keys, I got a big surprise. PVC-E glue dries perfectly
clear, leaving all imperfections glaring through the keytop which were all
very well glued on now. The job looks terrible, even though there are now
keytops installed which I'm sure feel very much better than the key did
without the ivory. Even so, it is very obvious which keys had been bare for
a while. Should have I used another white glue, such as Titebond? I have
always stayed away from the regular white glues for keytops. Anyway, a word
to the wise. Don't do what I did. If you are going to use PVC-E glue for
ivory keytops, make sure the keytop surface is WHITE before gluing. Lesson
learned.

Richard

PS. The player was also rebuilt. All the bellows were new. The entire part
that sits over the keys was in new condition. Much of the rest of the player
mechanism was gone though, so the player will never play again. Anyone need
bellows? Other parts?