Now that the solenoids are mounted to the action, it's time to actually attach them to the keys.

Sounds simple? Well it really isn't... we have to attach the solenoids to the keys so there isn't any play between the keys and the solenoid. Any play will result in noise from metal clinking on metal, as well as inconsistency between keys in terms of how them feel when manually played. Remember, we want to reduce our impact on the action as much as possible.

I devised a good way of attaching the keys. Look at the pictures; they will describe how I did this better than I can with words.





White Keys:

First, you drill two holes in each key: one up around halfway into the key, and another from the left side of the key around halfway into the key. These two holes result in an internal L shape inside the key. See above image.

Now you can bend pieces of wire into an L to attach to the keys. Just bend an L and stick it in! Note that you may have to widen the holes to get the wire in place.

Next you cut a short piece of wire (around 1/2") for each solenoid and insert it through the clevis as a pin. Then wrap it around to make an L, and you now have a pin in that solenoid's clevis.

Now put the key back on the key frame, and line it up so the wire is where it should be (going straight down to the solenoid with the pin through it). Mark where the wire coming down from the solenoid passes by the pin. Bend the wire just slightly below that point so it points out from the front of the keyboard.

Now place it so the wire is in the solenoid's clevis and its bend is directly under the "pin" we made with the piece of wire. Pull the key off again. While holding the solenoid plunger so it points around 30º back from straight down, bend the solenoid wire down over the front of the loop of wire we made that goes through the solenoid's clevis.

Pull the solenoid forward so it faces straight down. If you pull it too far, though, you will create play in this mechanism. This is something we want to avoid. If you don't pull it far enough, the solenoid plunger will have too much friction inside the solenoid and that key will get stuck. We also want to avoid this. So you need to bend the solenoid plunger such that it is in this sweet spot.

Black Keys

The process is essentially the same for the black keys, except the piece of wire is longer and attaches to the popsicle stick different than to the white keys. Look at the photos above to see how it is attached to the popsicle sticks. They are very self-explanatory.

One thing to point out for the black keys is that you can adjust how tight the solenoid plunger fits by bending the key pulling wire forward or back. This is nice because you can do this without taking the plunger out, unlike the white keys.