Keytops

[William R. Monroe]

Hey Joe,

Yes, PVC E.  Me too.  Thanks for the info.  I'd be curious to see a photo of
this little jig if you have one.  If not, I get the idea, and I'm sure I can
come up with something.  What drawbacks do you find with the paper cutter
method?

So you think having two of the oslunds is just overkill and you want to send
one to me, do you?  Ok, Ok, I'll let my wife know to look for the big heavy
package from OR. <G>

Thanks,
William R. Monroe


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
To: "pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 3:54 AM
Subject: Re: Keytops


> William asked: "I'm going to be using (for the first time) pyralin blanks
for a new set of
> keytops instead of molded keytops. I'm curious what those of you who also
> do this find to be the most expedient method of cutting the blanks; i.e.
do
> you cut the blanks into strips before doing anything else? Cut blanks into
> sections and glue the sticks onto a section of blank "gang-style?"
> Suggestions appreciated."
>
> Respectfully,
> William R. Monroe
> William,
> I use pyraline (aka Ivorine) only. I purchase it in the 6" width strips.
I've made a jig out of scrap butcher block material, a piece of angle iron,
spacers and a steel stop underneath the angle iron. I use a soundboard
shimming tool to scribe the pyralin. Then I just snap it off. It goes rather
quickly. I know of two other ways to do this: 1. Use a heavy duty Paper
Cutter. (I'm not real fond of this one, but it does work.<G>) 2. Use Metal
Break with the appropriate stop for correct width. This works very well, but
most of us don't have access to this humongous machine thingee.
> BTW, I make my blanks appox. 15/16" wide. This allows sufficient excess
that will allow minor boo-boos in clamping w/o too much "re-do".<G> YMMV
> Also, I have two 6 space Oslund Clamping jigs. For a while I only had the
one and it was really slow! grrr! And, I use PVC-E so's the job doesn't come
back to bite me in the butt!<G>
> Once, you get used to Pyralin, you'll never use that "moulde" crap again,
IMO.
> Regards,
>
> Joe Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon)
> Captain, Tool Police
> Squares R I