How to make a piano keyboard

Step 12 Gluing the buttons and sharps

I made short moldings for the buttons out of cottonwood, and drilled and mortised them like the fronts of the keys. I sawed them out for each key a little oversize, and first glued on the buttons for the naturals, and then the sharps, using an aluminum straight edge clamped to the assembled keyboard and keyframe. I heated the buttons in in sequence on an upside down travel iron so I had a little time to adjust the keys so the back spacing worked out before the glue set.

I planed down the keys that were wider than the ebony sharps, and made the spaces on both sides even, and then glued the sharps on the same way as the buttons. They're just far enough back from the ivories so they don't interfere when they're pushed down

I left my keys with the original surface, but this is probably a good stage to surface the natural keys with progressively finer sandpaper and a block, for example by clamping in place on the keyframe with the sharps removed.