Day 11: Finishing Up the Arcades...Really

I purchased another brad point drill bit set today with a 1/8" bit, so I went ahead and made the final drill cuts on the arcades. I must admit that I was a bit conflicted because the Forstner bits had a small, pointy brad end of their own that left quite the indent when all was said and done. I tested the new bit on a piece of scrap and it definitely looked better than the side effect holes left by the Forstner bits.

Once I completed the brad bit drilling, I needed to trim the entire arcade piece down to the desired final height and depth, which was 1/2" x 1/4". I used the planer to complete this final trim and I am quite pleased with the result.

The final step in this arcade adventure is to glue the arcade strip to the front end of the keyboard.

Yes, that's green painter's tape, a staple of instrument makers everywhere. I clamped the keyboard to the table saw (a table saw is a great gluing board because yellow wood glue just pops right off when it dries) to ensure a nice, flat finished product.

The next step will be completing the keyframe, which includes some pretty accurate rabbet and dado work, as well as key pin placements, etc. This will be exacting work, but someone's gotta do it, right?