Unsticking Piano Keys

© 2009 by Tom King (some rights reserved)

A lot of people get completely freaked out over fixing their piano – even when it’s a simple thing like stuck piano keys. Sticky keys can happen because of moisture from a nearby window or outside wall that seeps into the piano case and makes the closely packed hammers swell and stick. I couldn't afford the $300 bucks to fix mine, so I figured out how to do it myself.  If you are at all handy with tools and you work carefully, you shouldn't have much trouble with the job.

Now, I don’t know how to tune a piano and don’t have the equipment to do so. I might could figure it out with an instruction sheet and set of tuning forks, but I’ll leave that for someone with more experience who will tune it for a small fee. The sticky keys problem however, tend to be an expensive repair and being broke is the mother of invention.  If you have broken hammers, you may want to get some help unless you're very good with small woodworking projects like this.

The process is basically a detective job – a task of reverse engineering. I started out figuring out how to open up the top of the case. With an electric drill or screwdriver, the job is pretty straightforward. You shouldn’t have to remove the top lid after you open it. Don’t take off anything you don’t need to. That saves getting things out of alignment later. Look down in the open cover and you can see the strings and hammers. Don’t diddle with the strings or hammers any more than you have to. To unstick the keys you it’s likely you won’t have to.


First remove the keyboard cover – the part of the outside case that covers the area between the keys and the hammers. It didn’t take long for me to remove the cover and lift out the keyboard lid to expose the mechanism.



It was actually a simple matter to remove the keys. Before doing that, I identified which keys were sticking and tagged each of the sticky ones with a tiny Post-It ® note. I thens started working my way from left to right lifting the keys from the frame. The keys sit on top of a rod that acts as a fulcrum. Press down on the ivory part of the key and the other end of it tips the hammer which strikes the string. The keys are balanced so that the weight of the hammer end of the key is heavier than the ivory end and drops back into place of its own weight, restoring the key to its proper height.

DO NOT MIX UP THE KEYS.  Take the keys out and put them back the same way - left to right or right to left, it doesn't matter. Use a sharpie and mark the keys in an inconspicuous way with a number or the key name if you know what it is so that if, heaven forbid, you get them mixed up, you can put them back where they belong. Set aside a large flat table or other work surface for laying out the keyboard. Threaten anyone that comes by with death if they mess with the keys while they are lying loose on your work table.

One by one I set the keys on our pool table side by side in the same order I removed them. Then I took a small vacuum and removed any dust or dirt that had accumulated over the years inside the piano.

Next I cleaned the ivory (actually plastic) covered part of each key with alcohol and a rag to remove any dirt or oil and working from left to right again, began restoring them to their places on the keyboard. When I got to a sticky key I fixed them. Usually there are two or three together where a key has swollen from moisture getting into the cells of the wood. While this may not be the orthodox method, but since I couldn’t find instructions for how to fix sticky piano keys anywhere, I did what seemed logical.

I simply found where the key was rubbing against an adjacent key or the frame it sits in and sanded the contact point down. Just take a small bit of medium sandpaper and sand the sides at the point of contact. Work slowly and sand very carefully so that you only remove the essential amount of surface wood so as to unstick the key. Keep test fitting the key with the two adjacent keys in place on either side. Sand the adjacent key at the contact point as well. It’s best to alternate between the two keys until both keys move freely. Continue down the keyboard reinserting working keys and trimming the sticky ones until they work.


When all keys are clean and in place, simply replace the lid, screw the cover back in place, lower the top lid and put the trophies back on top and call a piano tuner. Your piano should work as good as new now.


WARNING:

Danger Will Robinson! I am not a professional piano guy. I may be revealing secrets that will get me assasinated by the secret guild of piano fixers, I don’t know. By the time you read this I may be dead. If not, I’d like to state for the record that this is just how I did it. I was successful, but that doesn’t mean you will be. If you break something, it’s not my fault and you can’t sue me for it because I’ve hereby warned you that

If you do pull it off successfully, though, drop me a note and let me know. I looked for hours on the Internet trying to find a description of how to do this and couldn’t find anything. Piano guys are a hush-mmouthed lot (unlike banjo players who, if you ask them how to fix your banjo, will rattle on for hours and you can’t shut them up). There are some pictures I didn’t get because I was busy and forgot to take them till it was too late. If I have to fix the piano again, I’ll add them later. The little woman likes the piano by the door which is a horrible source of moisture, but she’d rather it look good where it is than for it to play well, even though she has perfect pitch and hates it if the thing doesn’t play right.


What can you do?  I was born to repair stuff.


Tom King - twayneking@gmail.com
Flint, TX