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Through trial and error, i have not found a good way of cutting out even straight piano keys. Any suggestions? I am going to make a clavi- type insturment.

A good band saw with decent blade guides, a steady hand, and practice.

No matter what you use, you need to practice.

I have heard of a bowsaw blade with a right angle bend in it, so you can saw straight with the top portion, pull the bend through and saw perpendicular to the start of the cut with the bottom portion. That could saw the sharps.

I have seen on of those saws at an organ building shop in Germany. An amazingly simple and clever solution to a century-old problem - cutting a 90 degree turn in the middle of a plank....

Hello
In order for you to receive some realistic feed back we have to know what tools you have access to and more detail of what your trying to do.
A ruff sketch would help.

currently, i have a miter saw, coping saw, jig saw, and other various saws. I thought i could cut the front of the key before the accidentals as a section and the rest of the key and glue the two together. turns out the bond is very weak.

Typically -- in small shops, at least -- keys are cut out using a band saw of reasonable quality (and precisely adjusted). The ends of the sharps are cut with a thin and very sharp chisel (and a good whack with a suitable hammer).

And, as others have pointed out, a lot of practice. It's best to be experienced and skilled with the use of the tools you're going to use before you start cutting something like keys.

ddf

Ad don't do like a friend, he bored the balance on the plank, cut all his keys but forget to bore the balance rail at the same time than the keys...

He spend 15 days adjusting every key to the key frame and in the end they where not lining well....

Not a good idea to cut and glue the keystick. You want one long integral piece so that there is leverage from finger press to actlion lift without any possibility of losing energy at a glue joint.

How would i make those sharp 90 degree turns? It seems I may need extra space between accidentals and naturals when cutting. Also, how do I know where the balance pin holes on accidentals are placed. They are offset towards the back of the key, but how far back?

You could start by reading all the messages here, but you really need some woodworking and mathematics instruction for this project.

Best thing to do is find a decent working piano and reverse engineer it. Study the geometric relationships of the keys, the grain line on dog legged keys, pin locations ect.... Its pretty self explanatory and if you can't figure it out that way then vague instructions from fellow techs won't help you much either.

I have a study on pianos and other instruments keys, mostly from dimension side. In French..

A friend had to do that job to design a Vortzetser (automat to play keyboards)

I'm not sure I'm picturing this correctly.

In my brain there are two ways to make a two piece key.

One is front to back. Cut a thick section that goes from the front to the sharp, cut a thin section that goes from sharp to fallboard, glue a butt joint. No way that is ever going to work.

Second is side by side. Cut a thin section that goes all the way back. Cut a second thin section that goes from front to the sharp. Glue a lap joint. I don't see any reason this shouldn't work, given decent glue and clamping.

A tad bit OT, but how do i upload pictures into the post?

Now that is ONE frequently asked question. If I could explain it in one sentence I could, but it is a bit more involved. Check the FAQ...

I am going to make a clavi- type insturment.
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Have you designed this insturment yet?
Seems to me that keys would be down the road a bit??

I have made a whole octave-minus-a-note. It can be viewed here along with the way i made the two piece key.

http://funwithblender3d.weebly.com/clavi.html

You can see how the C, E, F, and B keys are smaller than the rest.

This is one easy way to do it. Go to this site....

tinypic.com

Clik the browse button and load the pic from your computer.
Clik the "upload" button.
Copy the "Image Code for Forums and Message boards" field and paste it in your posting. (It will have [IMG] at the start of it).

Or you can go to the Piano area and read the FAQs.