Reply To: Hohner Melodica Professional restoration
New key cushions on, all the key guides in place:
Ended up just using hot glue again; all but 3 or 4 of the originals had broken:
Detail of the airway; really wish I hadn’t removed it; had to seal it really well, including every screw; I couldn’t get the screws on the outside edge to hold properly, despite drilling/filling; not sure what is going on inside there (rotted wood? voids in the wood?). So they are sort of half holding and are surrounded with wax. The seal is tight and I’m not worried about it, but it was fine before so there was no need to mess with it:
Keys back on; was easy to thread the rod through since I had loosened it up beforehand. I used some tri-flow teflon lube in the keys just for fun. I found that it was important to have the key springs slot back in to the worn grooves; if they were skewed it could mess with the key spring force. Many of the pads had either come off during disassembly or reassembly, so I seated and glued them with some wax:
…and had to stop because I need to get some more screws. I’ve gone to the hardware store every day for a week, I swear. Getting close to being able to test it out!