Day 37: Slotting Completed and Restoration Project Parts Acquired

Well, I completed the slotting of the guide rail ends of all of the keys. I wish I could say I was pleased with the end result. The keys appear to be a jumbled mess. Several are warped and several more are twisted - for lack of a better term. I'm going to try to repair all of them using the technique suggested by Mr. Miller in his excellent E-book - using a heat gun and some elbow grease. You can see what I mean about the keys in the photo below.

I'll get this figured out, I'm just a little down in the mouth about it at this time. Hey, the worst that can happen is that I start the keyboard over. There certainly are worse things.

On a lighter note, I acquired a car battery charger over the weekend so I can officially start the Stanley Bailey Hand Plane #5 Restoration Project. I've read a few articles on restoring these things and several suggest using electrolysis to create a chemical reaction that uses the hydrogen and oxygen contained in water molecules to knock the oxydation right off the metal. I'm willing to give it a shot, and the 20% off coupon for the charger that was already 50% off at Harbor Freight (I know, I shouldn't buy anything there. I'm safe in this case - tools are another matter entirely) didn't hurt, either.

So, next steps include fixing the keys and shocking the heck out of the hand plane parts.

Until then...