Keyboard: Layout and natural fronts

The key frame, key panel and rack have been sitting around since last autumn, and I really need to complete the keyboard, as I need to know how high it sits in the case before I can cut the nameboard to size and apply moldings to it. So I've temporarily allowed myself to get sidetracked.

The key panel needs to stop a bit short of the rear of the key frame to leave room for the rack, a board standing on end with vertical slits in it that will guide metal pins sticking horizontally out of the back of each key. In front, some space for decorative arcades glued to the front edge of each key must be accounted for. The natural key covers overhang these arcades a bit, and the key fronts need to end short of any case moldings along the front bottom edge. After factoring in all these requirements, I cut the back edge of the panel to its final size at an 8-degree angle.

Next, various layout lines were drawn on the panel: a line showing where the front part of the natural key covers falls, a line showing where the nameboard will be, two lines for the balance pins that extend up from the balance rail through the key levers—the naturals have their pins slightly in front of the accidentals, hence the two lines—and a line showing the front edge of the gap behind the wrestplank.

The natural key covers are in two parts, front and back. I purchased these pre-cut and therefore had to spend some time sorting out the various pieces to try and match grain and colour. Here is one half of the total, properly matched:


Covering the key panel starts with the natural fronts. The gluing setup looks like this:


The ruler is exactly along the first layout line, and the yellow plastic triangle controls the side-to-side placement of the key front:


My natural fronts were made a little narrower than the octave span I'm using, so to make up the correct octave size I need to allow a controlled amount of space between each front. I used a feeler gauge to set a gap of 0.965 mm. By placing the feeler against a previously-glued key front, sliding a new front up to it and butting the plastic triangle against that, the correct placement for the next front is assured:


Here's the panel with all but one front glued on:


I left off the leftmost key front for the time being as I may need to extend the left key edge up a bit, having trimmed the panel to width a bit too closely. Oops! (but nothing that can't be fixed, fortunately).

Next up: the natural backs.