David, We beadblast the heavy gunk out then follow up with a solvent, which would be tricky for you at this point. I figured that you did not cover the keys then try to fix the erosion. Good luck, Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> To: "'Pianotech List'" <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 10:02 PM Subject: RE: Filling fingernail gouges in sides of keys > What did you remove the oils with: scraping? Mineral spirits? > > Unfortunately (or fortunately), hindsight is not applicable here as I > didn't > install the keytops. > > 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 Mike Morvan > Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 4:53 PM > To: Pianotech List > Subject: Re: Filling fingernail gouges in sides of keys > > David, > We do a lot of this work by machining off the eroded area and replacing > it with wood of the same species and grain orientation, and in an ideal > world I believe that this method is the best way to do the restoration, > most > > other procedures are temporary fixes. Plus with this method you can take > up > the slack between the keys and improve the spacing while correcting the > erosion. > But with the circumstances as you have described that is not an option. > You could use Durham's rock hard water putty, it is not solvent-based so > it > will not dissolve the keytop and it is close in color to the keystick. I > have done this a few times in the past and the only problem is that you > need > > to get out all of the oils deposited by fingers over the years or the > stuff > will not stick. Unfortunately you find out that it didn't stick when it is > dry, not when your putting it on, wasting a lot of time. It's also a > bummer > to already have the new keytops on while applying the putty, yikes, > hindsight is always 20/20. Good luck. Mike > > Blackstone Valley piano > Michael A. Morvan > 76 Sutton Street > Uxbridge, Ma 01569 > (508) 278-9762 > www.pianoandorgankeys.com > www.thepianorebuilders.com > > > >
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