Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Project Update: Heat Guns and Steamboxes

I emailed Mr. Miller, author of the eBook most excellent, to inquire about how to fix the key problem. He kindly responded that, yes, I could certainly use the heat gun method to soften up the keys and bend them into the proper positions. He was, as always, very helpful.

Upon further reflection today, I think I'm going to construct a steambox that I will use to steam and clamp each key to straighten them out. I have a plan in my head that involves an old commercial coffee maker, some PVC pipe, a sawhorse-like stand, and several 2x4s. As I work on this mini-project, I'll post my progress up here.

In the end, I believe I'll be able to steam the keys into submission. If not, as Mr. Miller reiterated, I will have to restart the keyboard from scratch. If this is the case, I will simply harvest as much reusable material from the current keys and keyframe and go, as they say, back to the drawing board, only this time armed with three months of experience. Either way, it promises to be another interesting experience, indeed.

Until next time...

UPDATE (9/4/2014): I sat with the keyboard last night for a while and realized it's not the tragedy I thought. Just a few keys need some work - the rest can be balanced (a step I will detail later) so that they all line up properly. This concern is an example of my inexperience with the building process. I'm learning...

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