Marshall - I'm with Marcel and Terry. However, if you're going to try to sand out the marker (assuming these are plastic keys), start with a fine grit (500 or so) and work from there to increasingly finer grits. If you begin with a more common grit such as 220, or you'll make more work for yourself. The best way, in my opinion, to sand keys is to put the sandpaper (whole sheet) face up on a workbench (use a couple of extra sheets underneath the top sheet to provide a cushioning effect), then hold the key face down and move the key back and forth over the paper. This method is much less likely to have the effect of rounding the edges of the keytop, which will happen if you put the sandpaper on a sanding block and try to sand the keytop holding the block. When I sand keys out this way (and this method works for ivory as well), I go from 500 to 1000, then 1500, 2000 and 2500. After the marker ink is removed with the 500, it just takes a few passes at each grit to sand out the previous sanding marks. Once you've gotten to 2500, you're ready to buff. Have a couple of clean buffing wheels and use the bar polish Schaff sells (the tan one) to give the keys a final polish. Have your grinder set at the lowest speed possible (if you have a variable speed setting), and really go easy or you will melt the plastic (especially at the notches for the sharps). The grits of paper you need are usually available at automotive repair supply stores. When the key has been polished, wipe off any remaining polish with a soft tea towel or old white t-shirt. Good luck with this. Chuck -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100405/1530a912/attachment.htm>
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