[pianotech] Safe-T-Planer

[David Love]

I've had to remove ivory that was glued down with CA glue and other
substances when replacing with plastic and Joe is right that it's easy to
damage the wood underneath.  However, since the tops of the keys will be
planed down some to accommodate the added thickness of plastic, you can sand
off the old ivory carefully on a belt sander until you just remove it.  Then
when you plane the key tops down (I use a router jib set up for this) then
the planing of the keytop will remove any unevenness that results from the
use of the belt sander.  You usually have an adequate margin of error.  

 

So the procedure would be to first remove the old ivory by the traditional
steaming method or similar process.  Whatever doesn't come off that has been
glued down with something impenetrable you use a belt sander and carefully
take it down to the wood where the router jig set up will clean it up.  

 

David Love

www.davidlovepianos.com

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of chrisstor at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 6:42 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Safe-T-Planer

 

"...In the past I've used the Safe-T-Planer for this job, but
I've quit that, since I've not been happy with the inconsitency of the keys
coming out Square..."

 

Joe Garrett

 

.....At the end of the email you said you were no longer using the
Sate-T-Planer
to plane the top of the keytops.  Just wondering, how are you doing it now?

David Weiss....

 

Joe, 

 

I second David's question.  I use the Safe-T-Planer with good results and
haven't had the out-of-square problem you've cited.  Can you expand a little
bit on the out-of-square results you get with the Safe-T-Planer?  What
might've caused it?  What's your alternate method for planing down keytops
now?

 

When I'm using the rotary planer, I'm careful to square the drill press
table to the chuck, and lock everything down firmly.  
As I'm planing the keys, I check my thickness with calipers for each of the
first few notes, and then one note per octave thereafter.  I've never had an
out-of-square issue that I noticed, but then maybe I'm not looking hard
enough.  I acknowlege that I have to do some minor squaring and spacing of
keys when the whole set is finished, but I just figured that was part of the
deal in putting on new keytops.

If you have the time to write, I'd like to hear about your experiences.
Thanks.

 

Chris S.

Belmont, MA

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