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Author Topic: button surface repair  (Read 4139 times)

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Chris Ryall

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button surface repair
« on: March 30, 2010, 04:14:52 PM »

Bought a Castagnari max at the weekend. Prev owner has sawn groves into the RH buttons (don't think they are ex factory) presumably to guide his fingers. Any idea as to how to fill these in woulf be appreciated. Or can I just source 3 new buttons somewhere? TIA CHris
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Theo

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2010, 07:18:40 PM »

Replacing the buttons is the way to go.   Are they the screw in type used on two-row boxes?
« Last Edit: March 30, 2010, 07:21:55 PM by Theo »
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Theo Gibb - Gateshead UK

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Chris Ryall

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2010, 07:58:38 AM »

Not opened it up (been really busy) but they are much better fixed than on my Lilly.  Thanks for stopping me wasting time.   Does anyone know a source for Castagnari buttons? Otherwise though I could always write to Sandro, and he also does spot repairs at St Chartier.
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Theo

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2010, 08:34:27 AM »

The buttons on bigger Casganaris are generic parts, apart from the one with the logo.  I have some white pearl with bezel which fit Mory for example, but I thing the Max may use a different type.  Charlie Marshall has a wider variety than I do.
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Theo Gibb - Gateshead UK

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Ga

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2010, 09:27:25 AM »

If you want a quick fix, fill the sawn grooves with bicarbonate of soda (aka baking soda or sodium bicarbonate - ie. NOT "baking powder"), then drop thin superglue onto the powder.  Clean and dry the button, then mix it in situ, with a toothpick or similar - you've got around 5-10 seconds before it firms up.  Try to press the mixed goo into the grooves, and treat the idea like trying to fill a crack in the wall with plaster.  If the mix is still too wet, simply add more powder.  When it dries off, it dries rock hard, and can be filed, machined, and sanded to the smooth surface you want.   It'll never be pretty, but it'll be very solid, very strong, and very long lasting, and will do nicely until you replace the button.   It dries a milky white/very light grey colour.   

Obviously you'd have to find a way of preventing the keyboard becoming filled with sodium bicarb, or dropping superglue onto other parts of the instrument preferably by removing the button and working on it away from the instrument.   If you're nervous, then have a practice on a piece of scrap plastic such as a plastic lid.   

I have dozens of articles around the house fixed by this method - vacuum cleaner flex hook, guitar nut, electrical plugs, switch on my angle grinder, bracket on my music stand.   
In my case, it usually takes longer to find the Bicarb in the kitchen cupboard, than actually doing the repair.....

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Chris Ryall

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2010, 09:38:31 AM »

My last experience with melodeons and glue was using PVA to stop the buttons on my Lilly from spinning off.  Sadly the top came off the glue dispenser and a great gob of the stuff ejaculated onto the stepped wooden keyboard  :o

.. and that is how I learned to strip down keyboards to their elements in only 5 minutes  :Ph
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Theo

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2010, 10:03:32 AM »

My last experience with melodeons and glue was using PVA to stop the buttons on my Lilly from spinning off. 

Superglue is much better, and potentially less messy for this.   its just a variation of the thread locking application that 'Loctite' cyanoacrylate was originally developed for.
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Theo Gibb - Gateshead UK

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Theo

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2010, 04:02:10 PM »

A small spot of superglue on the threads of the screw will stop it working loose in play but it will still unscrew.
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LDbosca

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2010, 04:10:57 PM »

Don't think we had superglue in 1990 when it happened (or it was hard to get). AND HAD IT BEEN SUPERGLUE I'D NEVER HAVE GOT THE DAMN THING APART AND POOR SUZI WOULDN'T HAVE HAD A MELODEON LAST WEEKEND! You see - not all progress .. is progress  ;)

A pallet that came lose on my Hohner Erica that I learned on came off and my dad, being well intentioned but ignorant to best practice, secured it back with araldite...oops...

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2010, 05:37:31 PM »

A pallet that came lose on my Hohner Erica that I learned on came off and my dad, being well intentioned but ignorant to best practice, secured it back with araldite...oops...
That's not so bad. All of us who made one-row melodeons on the EATMT melodeon making course in Stowmarket secured the pallets to the lever arms using quick-set Araldite epoxy resin glue. It was sanctioned by the course tutor Emmanuel Pariselle himself, so although it wouldn't be my first choice, it did work, and it was quick. Eighteen months on (gosh - doesn't time fly?), mine has been fine, touch wood, and I've experienced no problems. If a pallet were ever to come loose, I would just refix it with some more epoxy resin.
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Lars

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2010, 06:53:11 PM »

While playing a gig on a vintage (1920's) box, two pallets came off and started a horrible noise of two notes sounding all the time.

To the rescue came: Stimorol Ocean Mint chewing gum!

The box smelled like mint for two solid weeks!

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LDbosca

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2010, 08:08:00 PM »

A pallet that came lose on my Hohner Erica that I learned on came off and my dad, being well intentioned but ignorant to best practice, secured it back with araldite...oops...
That's not so bad. All of us who made one-row melodeons on the EATMT melodeon making course in Stowmarket secured the pallets to the lever arms using quick-set Araldite epoxy resin glue. It was sanctioned by the course tutor Emmanuel Pariselle himself, so although it wouldn't be my first choice, it did work, and it was quick. Eighteen months on (gosh - doesn't time fly?), mine has been fine, touch wood, and I've experienced no problems. If a pallet were ever to come loose, I would just refix it with some more epoxy resin.

Ah but god forbid I ever needed to take it off...not that I will because I don't play it any more...I've fixed most of the other notes on it with red candle wax, I went through a phase of playing the sh*** out of it and had to fix it while I was out, at least this is less permanent

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Re: button surface repair
« Reply #12 on: April 02, 2010, 12:09:16 PM »

I was told that cyanoacrylate was originally developed for sealing wounds in field hospitals - it is particularly good at sticking skin together.  Doesn't everything seem to be developed in the theatre of war - even the Liliput and Preciosa?  In its early days as a DIY glue it was full strength and we used to re-attach the feathers on our darts with it.  That usually entailed removing the dart from your fingers with a scalpel.

I rather like the idea of Braille marked keys!  For anyone who plays for barn dances, it might preclude that squeaky search for the starting button after the mics are switched on.  Playing Clubs and Castagnaris with the logo button, I know that once I get going, I can't feel that marking, though.

Rob.
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