Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum other uses for teflon powder?

I bought a jar of teflon powder to lubricate the pedal rods and knuckles. This thing is gonna last me 5 lifetimes. Are there are other uses around the house/garage for this stuff? Seems too useful to waste

Another use for it in the piano is to use it on the keybed of a grand piano to help the action slide more freely when the una corda pedal is depressed.

Apply it where the front and back rails rest. Also, where the glide bolts make contact.

Edit: If you want to get extreme, also use it where the return spring contacts the action.

You can also use teflon powder on the key bushings,
although I have never tried this myself, so not sure
if it's better or worse than protek CLP.

Has anyone tried using teflon powder in a sticky
key hole, instead of graphite powder?

Wouldn't this make a mess when you need to remove the action?

It's great stuff for lubricating the rollers on overhead garage doors.

Yes it can... if you use way too much.

It's a judgment call. If you are working for a serious pianist, you might want to use the Teflon powder, even if a little dust may come out of the piano when you remove the action.

On the other hand, if you are working for someone that has a white carpet, insists that you wear plastic booties over your shoes that they keep reserved for all guests, covers the piano with towels where you might possibly touch it (true story), you might make different choices not only about the Teflon powder, but other things you do there as well.

Edit: BTW, if you Teflon powder the knuckles and key bushings, I guarantee some powder will come off and fall on the keybed anyway. That will probably make more of a mess than if you deliberately Teflon powdered the keybed.

One should be careful when using Teflon as it is associated with cancer. Don't breathe it in or allow it to contact your skin. You should do some research on it.

"...But Teflon could be coming to a sticky end - because the manufacturing process uses a chemical that potentially causes cancer, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants the use of this chemical phased out. The chemical - called perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA - is used to make compounds called fluoropolymers, which are used in turn to make Teflon and other products like oil and water-repellent coatings on carpet, textiles, leather and paper.

It's known that PFOA is widespread in the blood of the general population (though in low concentrations), where it stays for up to 10 years before being eliminated. In laboratory animals, PFOA has been shown cause cancer, liver damage, growth defects, immune-system damage and death. There isn't direct evidence that it's harmful to humans...." ABC Health and Wellbeing (Australia)

There has previously been extensive discussion of the safety of Teflon powder. It is SAFE. There may be hazardous processes in the manufacturing, but the end product is inert.
There are many hazardous processes in a foundry, but cast iron piano frames are safe, unless you drop them on your toe.

Teflon powder is good on sticky drawer runners in old fashioned traditional cabinets etc.

In terms of safety, I used to prefer a little talcum powder to help the action slide smoothly. My thinking was that it was more natural than Teflon, so possibly safer.

Now, the airwaves are flooded with attorneys' ads looking for clients to sue certain manufacturers that used talcum powder in their products, which caused a form of cancer.

Edit: The only dry powder lubricants that are used on pianos are talcum powder, Teflon powder, and graphite powder. (That's all I can think of at the moment.) It seems that the only 100% safe, time tested choice is graphite. But, who want to go back to just graphite powder with all its associated problems?

I placed a sheet of paper between the keys and knuckle to catch excess powder. This helps keep the powder out of the keybed. I have to keep the keybed clean because there's a MIDI recorder, so I don't want loose powder to interfere with the sensors. The knuckle is the only part of the action I've used teflon powder on... for this reason

After the knuckles are powdered, powder will continue to come off with playing. It sounds like you've come up with an interesting solution.

Do you just lay the paper on the keys themselves? Do you use 2 sheets, one forward of the capstans and one behind?

Of course, in your situation, you would want to use a minimum of powder, if any at all.

I place a sheet on the keys, in front of the capstan. I don't worry about powder getting into the rear of the action because it's far from the sensors.

I don't use much powder to begin with so very little would come off when playing.

Its not inert if you put a flame to it, or a soldering iron, or heat your Teflon coated frying pan too high

Ian