Schoenhut Toy Piano Repair
In 2023 I lucked out and found a Schoenhut toy piano for $10 at Goodwill. I was getting into electronics at the time and thought - I should make this a player piano! So I started drilling holes in the bottom and experimenting with solenoids and string to see what's possible. I superglued string to the bottom of the keys and when cleaning it off I had a bad idea and decided to use a heat gun to soften the glue...
Disaster
In case you can't see that, let me zoom in...
Yeah... I don't want to put 30 hours into a player piano with a melted key...Design Replacement
I'd experimented with CAD by learning via the internet over the last couple years so knew the general direction I had to go. I'd previously used TinkerCAD for some quick hack-together electronics spacers and mounts and such and FreeCAD to design a replacement latch for a vaccum extension but decided this was the right time to enter the world of Autodesk Fusion (which is also free for hobby-level activities).
TinkerCAD is quick 'n dirty but less powerful (especially if you need to iterate a lot) compared to the others. Thankfully a lot of the concepts are similar between FreeCad and Fusion so over a week or two I came up with a model to replace the key.
3d Print Replacement
I have a BambuLabs A1 Mini 3d Printer and exported an STL from Fusion to print the replacement. Voila!
The Color Doesn't Quite Match
I suppose we'll need to replace all the other keys too! Might as well experiment with some different colors and designs while we're at it.
Nah. I think I'll go all-white for now. Designing the other keys is where using something like FreeCAD or Fusion will shine over something like TinkerCAD. All I had to do was change on of the initial sketches and re-select some of the later shelling to model the other keys. Took about 10 minutes to go from 1 model to all the models. Also thankfully some of the keys are re-used, e.g. the C and F are identical.Finished!
Looks so much better than having a melted key! I'm also excited that I can now mod these keys however I want with inlaid multicolor designs or adaptations to support the eventual player-piano-ness.