[sdiy] Old Keyboard keys - repair? & Cleaning old gear

[Tom Wiltshire]

I’ve done pretty well cleaning keyboards by disassembling them completely and then putting the keys in warm soapy water. That’s usually all that’s required cosmetically.

I did once strip a set of bass pedals right down to the metal parts because they’d gone rusty and then I sanded them and resprayed with new black paint.

The contacts themselves get dust and fluff in which needs blowing out or vacuuming out. The busbars get grease and dirt on them which can be cleaned off with a cotton bud (Q tip) dipped in alcohol.

For broken plastic, it depends on the plastic, but I’ve sometimes used polystyrene cement with good results. Alternatively 2-part epoxy is good. Often the crack shows up as a little ridge where the glue squeezes out of the crack when you clamp it together to dry. You can scrape this back to level with a sharp blade like a razor blade or a Stanley knife blade. I’ve also polished up repaired keys to remove scratches with metal polish (“Brasso” in the UK - same product has other names in other parts of Europe. These metal polishes are a very fine abrasive, so they work on plastic too.

HTH,
Tom

==================
       Electric Druid
Synth & Stompbox DIY
==================

> On 17 Mar 2018, at 12:23, sleepy_dog at gmx.de wrote:
> 
> 
> So as one of the hints in my scrap keyboard thread of weeks ago was:
> get (parts of) an old electronic organ.
> I did get a manual. But look at 2 keys of it:
> 
> https://postimg.org/image/tn0gu4c6b/
> https://postimg.org/image/ftc452rar/
> 
> (sorry for bad focus, my cam is roughly as top notch as that keyboard there)
> 
> Is there a semi-decent way of repairing such a key to make it a) playable again without soon cracking again and b) as a bonus, make the crack look less obvious? (some sort of paint that won't rub off easily?)
> 
> 
> While we're at it - Cleaning old stuff -
> 
> While the ebay seller neglected to mention that little issue and it wasn't visible on the foto,
> he agreed to send replacement keys, but
> 
> he actually sent the other manual of the same organ, and its only problem is that it is dirty and smells a little :-D
> Obviously I now have two manuals, one with need of repair.
> Any tips on the cleaning of the crud & ridding it of smell?
> Buy compressor + cheap sand blaster? Too bad I can't put the compressor anywhere, much less operate without inciting a revolt. Maybe some car DIY shop has something like that... *scratches beard*
> 
> Nice weekend to all!
> 
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