Hey guys!

I wanted to give clean up the inside of my Yamaha CP300. It was easy enough to take apart, and I oiled up every key with a lubricant I have called "Tri-Flow Superior Dry Lubricant (formulated with P.T.F.E)".

The problem is that this lubricant is too runny, and a short while later it seemed to have dried up and the keyboard was back to behaving just as poorly as it had before. If I was playing pop stuff it wouldn't matter, but I'm doing heavy classical on it, and the uneven feeling in the keys is driving me nuts.

I'm willing to put the time in to do the entire thing again, key by key. I need recommendations though for two things. 1) What should I use to clean off all the old grease? (and is that recommended, or should I just leave it or wipe it off with a tissue?) 2) What kind of lubricant should I use? The lubricant that was on it (it seemed to me to only be one kind used throughout; let me know if I'm wrong about that) is a greenish color and is solid enough that it doesn't run, although it can be wiped away easily with a tissue.

I know nothing about lubricants, and I would be very grateful if people here in the know could recommend the proper products so I could get my keyboard back in tip-top shape.

Thanks for the help!!

Have you thought of trying white lithium grease?

I don't know anything about lubricants, so I haven't thought yet of trying anything

I was hoping for suggestions / discussion here, after which I can go and buy whatever I need and lube it up!!

I looked it up, and it said somewhere that white lithium grease is for metal on metal. I think in the keyboard action the areas of friction are plastic on plastic (and a bit of rubber maybe). Would that matter?

Doesn't Yamaha sell it ?

There are part numbers for some (apparently expensive) Yamaha Clavinova keyboard lubricants and suggested generic alternatives in this thread (no idea if they are correct, or appropriate for your instrument!):

http://cvpug.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1949.html

I am not a piano technician, but I don't think the grease is anything but synthetic silicone grease. It would probably be white or clear in color, but could be any color. The parts to lubricate would be the point where the hammers pivot and the sides of each key. There might be a small amount of grease under each key. It should be obvious from studying the mechanism where the grease should go. If you are going to grease all the keys you should remove them and wipe the old grease and replace with new grease. This can be a tedious operation as the keys can be difficult to pop out without damaging anything else. Plastic is used a lot on the keybed so you have to be careful not to break anything. As far as felt goes, buying piano felt from a piano supplier is the way to go. Action felt works good. You will have to cut it to the width and size you need and you will likely need glue to to fasten it. If the manufacturer offers replacement felt, you should definately go that way.

Why not just ask you local Yamaha service tech?
He'll have formal training from Yamaha, and he'll know the right answer.

I was not planning to replace the felt. I'm not worried about breaking anything when removing the keys, as I already went through the entire keyboard and greased it. Only I don't think I used the correct grease so I didn't get the expected results (as I wrote in the OP). I'm very handy and I'm not worried about cracking any of the plastic.

I suppose I could ask Yamaha, but they have a vested interest in getting me to buy their overpriced grease, which is why I decided to ask here instead.

hi Sum Rose,
Here in Brazil the yamaha can not import the lubricant for their instruments (legal stuffs) and i had the same problem. A yamaha technitian told me to use a grease formulated with teflon (these kind of grease is used in food industries to lubricate their machines). The teflon (Polytetrafluoroethylene) is the best way to lubricate your instrument. It works very well on mine.

Best Regards,

Beco

Thanks for that. In my original post, I described the lubricant I used originally. I think it's this one, and it is teflon based: http://www.amazon.com/Tri-flow-tf0021060-6oz-PRICE-CAN/dp/B001C69GO2/

But it didn't seem to work properly for me. Could that be because I didn't do it properly? I guess I'll need to experiment more with it before I come to a conclusion that this grease won't work for this.

Teflon is the lubricant, in that it is a substance that is slippery, but it is carried in a medium that can be anything from heavy grease to a thin oil or other substance. The fact that it contains Teflon only tells you a little about the characteristics of the lubricant you are using, not the whole story.

The Tri Flow that you are describing is a bicycle chain lubricant designed to "flow" into the spaces in between a chains inner surfaces. For that, it needs to be thin, to be sucked by surface tension into the inner surfaces of the chain. The flip side is that it doesn't necessarily remain where it is applied, and for the purposes of using it on a chain, you would want to reapply it more often. What you want is a grease, not an oil. Again, either can contain Teflon, but that doesn't mean they have the same qualities.

Before I go any further, I will give the caveat that I don't have any experience taking DPs apart, repairing them, or greasing them. However, from my experience working on many mechanical things (mostly, but not only bicycles and cars), what I think would work well is a heavy grease that is formulated to work with plastics and rubber, or at least to not attack or dissolve those things. You want something that will remain in place when applied (not flow). Wheel bearing grease or something like that consistency would probably be what you want, or what I would try.

Further, I would be careful before applying random oils and greases I am not familiar with (especially something like a bicycle chain lubricant) to plastic. Many lubricants can attack and degrade plastic and rubber. The inside of a DP is not the place to experiment with that possibility.

My piano had one key that felt a little "rough".
The technician removed the key and moved the lubricant around beneath the front of the key, on the keybed.
The lube is not oil. It's a thick grease.

If you want a "teflon" type lube, I'd look into using Krytox. Not that cheap, but pretty bad ass stuff for lab work where high performance matters.

MOLYKOTE® PG 65 PLASTISLIP
by Dow Corning. It's made for electronic equipment.

Automotive greases thicken and get hard over time.

Hi Sum Rose,

You must use a lubricante for food (white grease based of teflon). It seems the lubricante from the amazon been liquid. The one i used in my keyboard it was more like a viscosity between honey texture and toothpaste.
Do NOT use any other type, you will be in troubles. The grease is used in food industries in the mat parts where the food is transported.
i hope this help you.
Best regards

Beco

Sorry to hijack the thread but i'm having trouble with my clp230 keyboard as well. It feels heavier and uneven, anybody has an idea how much it will cost to fix in a yamaha dealer?
Tkx.

This is all just so confusing that I may end up getting suckered into buying something super expensive from Yamaha.

bman2 says to use MOLYKOTE® PG 65 PLASTISLIP, but it's only available in giant tubs and costs a lot.

Beco says to use white lithium grease, but others say not to!

Gomer says to use Krytox, but it's extremely expensive (far more than what Yamaha likely charges), and definitely overkill.

I'm so confused

I mentioned it once before ... Just call you local Yamaha repair depot and ask the tech what they use.

Smother it in KY .....;)

I called Yamaha, and to my surprise, it wasn't an absolute fortune, and the tech guy on the phone was easy to talk to. They sold me two different lubricants, and the total with shipping was about $30, which isn't too bad. I'll update again once I've got them and tried them out.