Saturday, July 27, 2013

Refurbish an E-Piano: Fix and Polish Broken Keys

Initially I wanted to buy new keys and just replace them by myself. But I quickly realized that new keys would cost twice as much as I paid for the whole piano, so I asked several piano restoring professionals how to deal with the problem of these ugly surfaces of the keys.

They all suggested polishing with car polish or something similar! So I went to a DIY store and finally bought a "repair set" for acrylic bath tubs. The set contained sand paper ranging from 400 to 1200. ( I am not sure if you have the same classification of sand paper in the US, for us 1200 is really super fine, it's pretty much the smallest grains you can get). Furthermore, the set contained a polishing paste and a polishing towel.

Additionally, I also bought a "sand towel" with 1500 graining which is the finest sanding available. 

I also bought a fixture for a round plate and a lamb wool towel to put onto the fixture. The whole thing could then be attached to the drilling machine.

In addition, I also bought PTFE paste (teflon / silicone paste) to lubricate the moveing parts of the keys again after I removed them and put them back.

Apart from that, you need a drilling machine, screwdrivers, a loooot of time and a room where you can store all the removed keys and the rest of the piano pieces.


View the original article here

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