Thursday, January 29, 2009

Cork Palm Key Risers

I put cork palm key risers on my alto today and I like to think I did a pretty professional looking job on it. I used 1/32" sheet cork, contact cement, a razor blade, sand paper, and Sally Hansen's 'Hard as Nails', a clear coat nail polish that protects the surface of the cork.

In order to do this you need to:

1. Apply a layer of contact cement on each of the palm keys and two layers of contact cement to each pre-cut sheet of cork. Using two coats of contact cement on the cork is idea because cork is a poreous material, and in order to have uniform layer of contact cement the first coat is used as a primer.

2. Let the contact cement dry for 15 minutes and then apply the cork to the palm keys.

3. At this point take the razor blade and, using the metal surface of the palm key as your guide, trim the cork to the size of the key.

4. Once the cork is trimmed to size, sand the edge of the cork to remove any excess contact cement that may have oozed out the side.

5. Apply two layers of contact cement to the exposed side of the cork on the palm keys, repeating steps 2 through 4 until the desired palm key height is achieved.

6. Once the desired palm key height is achieved, apply a few coats of clean nail polish in order to seal and protect the surface of the cork.

With a little practice you'll have professional looking cork palm key risers.


Ibert - check
Feld - check

Tomasi - 7
McAllister - 7

Lauba - 13
Albright - 15

Ticks to go: 42
Days until the first audition: 9
Ticks needed per day: 4.67