The Keyboard Arcades

Arcades, a series of circular arches, are a traditional decoration on the front edge of the natural keys.  The arcades are easily made from one piece of trim attached to the keyboard plank before the keys are sawed apart.  The work starts with a piece of red oak stock purchased from Lowe's, 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inch wide and 4 ft long.  One edge is verified or made straight and a parallel line is drawn 1/2 inch in from the edge.  This line marks what will be the bottom edge of the trim piece and the center-line of the circular holes to be drilled.  Lines perpendicular to the edge are drawn using the keyboard natural keys as a guide to match the spacing of the natural keys.  A series of holes are drilled using 5/8 inch and 3/8 inch Forstner bits.  A final hole is drilled using a 1/8 inch brad point bit to clean up the guide hole left from the Forstner bits.  The picture below shows three finished hole patterns after having been drilled with the final 1/8 inch bit.  The other hole patterns on the left show the small guide holes remaining to be drilled.

The piece is rough cut parallel to the edge slightly more than 1/2 inch in from the edge, just below the centers of the holes.  I chose to use a good hand held jig saw and blue painter's tape as a guide.  With a plane, the rough cut is made straight and parallel to the top edge.  The picture below shows the piece placed along the keyboard's front edge after planing.

The trim is glued to the front edge of the keyboard.  My mentor uses good ol' duct tape to clamp the piece.  My keyboard developed a slight warp after it was made, so several clamps and a spreader piece of scrap oak were used to hold it flat.  Some plastic was placed under the front of the keyboard to keep things from getting stuck to the work surface.  After applying glue to the back of the trim, the piece was clamped to the front edge of the keyboard.  The next picture shows the clamped arrangement.  (Notice at the left of the picture an experiment in using poplar to make the arcades.  The wood was found to be too soft to keep from tearing out when drilled with the Forstner bits.  Where have I heard that would happen?!).