Piano Keys Project

A few years back, I sought after a free upright piano on Craigslist (an old Boyd), and picked it up the next day.  Like an old settler with a buffalo, I wanted to get as much as I could out of this dead carcass, and I imagined at least three projects.

 

Project number one:  make a midi controller station for stage use.  Done, details here.  Project number two I'm going to try this fall.  Using the steel sound board and some custom glass I'd like to make a coffee table.

Project number three was inspired from one of our fine artists at Living Stones.  I had saved the keys for the piano.

 

I found a nice piece of finished plywood at Home Depot in the scrap bin.  Threw two coats of Amber shellac on the front.

 Shortly thereafter, I started putting the keys in what I thought was their correct order.  After an embarrassing amount of time, I realized that they were individually stamped with their corresponding number, but they were so faded and aged that numbering the keys quickly turned into what felt like an hour of archaeology.  Scraping, dusting, and lighting from every angle helped identify 60 of the 85 keys.  Some were easy to spot...

 

Others, not so much. It turned into a real puzzle towards the end.  What in the world is this one?

Next, I clamped down a heavy duty ruler so there would be a common bottom edge and glued them down with liquid nails.

The command to "sing a new song" is found in five places in the Psalms.  With the help of a friends die-cutter, we cut the letters out of vinyl, laid them down to the top of the keys, and then I watered down some craft paint into a washed look.

Finished product hanging in my office pictured below, with some x-mas lights for effect.  I think I'm going to do another one, and may even take custom orders for similar pieces in the future.  You could choose the stain and the lettering.  Email interest to donald AT lsreno.com

Anyway, project two is all done.