Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Best alternative for PVC-E glue?

Hi, I have an used Kawai CA65, its white keys were scratched pretty hard, therefore I want to replace their keytop, I can order those keytop fairly easy on aliex, but I can find the adhesive nowhere near me, pvc-e glue must be ordered on amazon, ebay and something similar, their shipping cost is high and wait time is so long for such small bottle. So I'd to ask if there are any good alternative adhesive, I know that pvc-e glue is easy to work with and really strong, but can't find one :(, can I use some common glue like PVA/ATM or anything that is easier to find. Thanks in advance

Look for Evacon-R adhesive.

I believe that's EVA-glue right, kinda hard to find here, how about PVA or PVAc ? Thanks very much

The closest glue that you'll find at local hardware stores is "Weldbond". It is a thick white glue with similar properties.

Have you considered sanding the keys and polishing them? That will not repair chips, of course, but if they are just scratched, that may be an alternative.

+1 on sanding and polishing. Replacing all keytops is not a small job.

I agree with the above. Hoang, don't do this! You will not get close to the keytop quality that your piano came with. New keytops will not just fit perfectly onto your keys. You'll have to trim them and tidy them up and you need proper equipment to do that properly or else you'll end up with very ugly/non-uniform key edges and non-parallel gaps. The scratches on your keys can be much improved with some careful sanding and polishing.

A few days isn't that long to wait for the right glue. That said, I'm going to join the pile-on advising you to reconsider. I've seen way too many pianos with horrible "new" sets of keytops. The keytops usually haven't been filed or notched properly, so they click against each other on the sides, and sometimes jam against the sharps. The DIY-er usually hasn't taken the time to plane down the exposed wood and dried glue under the old keytops, so the new ones aren't level, are too high relative to the sharps, and don't adhere properly so they start popping off one by one. I took some pictures of myself doing some of these "extra" steps that most people skip and put them on my blog at http://www.willeypianotuning.com/2014/11/02/replacing-piano-key-tops/ Different people have different ways of doing some of these steps, but this will give you an idea of some of the machinery and labor involved in doing the job right.

I had not realised when I read and replied to the O.P. that a DIY job by a non piano technician was contemplated. I have to add my warning note to the others, I think. It's a MUCH trickier job than people realise. Lots of potential for disaster.

In the cosmetics department of a drugstore, look for the four sided abrasive/polishing block used to buff out fingernails. It will be a lot of hand work, but this may be all you need to buff out the scratches and polish the key tops.

The OP has been quiet since May, so it is entirely possible that he has already messed up his keys, ... or he has decided to polish them and found out that isn't as easy as it sounds either.