mortising attachment/ mortise repairs

[Mike McCoy]

I had a very bad set of keys recently, many of the sharps had the side 
broken out and no way to rebush them. I tried Web's Wood Rebuilder and 
it worked great. I put a bit of Protec lube on the Spurlock sizing 
cauls, (assuming the rebuilder would stick, but don't know that for 
sure) put the cauls in the holes and built up the missing area with wood 
rebuilder. On some I had to make a dam of sorts with tape. It sets up 
quickly and after a quick pass on the 1" belt sander they were ready to 
bush. Do not fill the key mortice with rebuilder and then put the caul 
in, the hole will be too shallow for the keypins and will need to be 
drilled out. Luckily I figured that out early on.

Mike

MICHAEL MORVAN wrote:
> Ed,
>    I have used a mortising attachment in a drill press, and as Frank 
> stated you can ruin your machine and you can buy a mortising machine 
> for cheap money. You can use Bill Spurlock's mortise sizing cauls as 
> Terry stated, they work great if the mortise is okay, but it sounds 
> like yours are very bad. If you were to use a mortising machine to fix 
> mortises you might consider two things: 1. the smallest chisel I've 
> been able to find is 1/4 inch, this is wider than any factory mortise 
> width and the cloth would have to be super thick, this leads to an 
> unstable mortise, 2. once a mortise is distorted and wood is ripped 
> out, it would be tough to center a cutter to remove wood evenly on 
> both sides, then you would have a spacing nightmare. This topic of 
> mortise repair/replacement is a wonderful reason to bush keys with hot 
> hide glue. Look at the mortise replacement slideshow on my website, it 
> is not terribly difficult to replace a mortise, sometimes its easier 
> than other alternatives, but you'll need some buttons, a router and a 
> table saw. Good luck, let the list know how you made out.
> Michael A. Morvan
> Blackstone Valley Piano
> Dedicated To Advancing The Art Of Keyboard Restoration
> 76 Sutton Street
> Uxbridge, Ma. 01569
> (508) 278-9762
> Keymaestro at verizon.net
> www.pianoandorgankeys.com
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "ed miller" <edmiller3 at hotmail.com>
> To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 9:09 PM
> Subject: mortising attachment for drill press
>
>
>> Has anyone ever used a mortising attachment made to fit on your drill 
>> press?
>>
>> It seems that this might be a possible tool/technique to use for 
>> evening out mortises during rebushing jobs (if the mortises are not 
>> consistent). Maybe you could open the existing mortise just slightly 
>> that all the mortises are exactly the same size.
>>
>> Just curious if anyone has ever used this tool and/or technique.
>>
>> Ed
>>
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