Pulley Keys

[Mark Dierauf]

I had an old Fischer grand where the keys were so bad that the front
line of the ivory overhangs looked ragged when viewed from above. There
was substantial (1/32" or more) side to side play as well as the worst
front to back play that I've ever experienced. The keys needed rebushing
anyway, so I treated the balance holes to a liberal blast of steam from
a tea kettle, say about 10-15 seconds each, followed by a generous
slathering of thinned hide glue and to my amazement the problem
disappeared completely and hasn't returned in the ten years since. The
glue sizing mixture was actually nothing more than the water from the
jacket around my glue pot, where I dip the brush between uses to keep it
clean. It was basically just hot water with a very small amount of glue
in it. Just enough glue so that it would produce a gel when cooled.

- Mark
 
-----Original Message-----
From: David Love [mailto:davidlovepianos@earthlink.net] 
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 8:33 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Pulley Keys

Anybody want to share favorite methods for fixing pulley keys?  


David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net