In the meantime, I made these swedging pliers today out of an old set of side-cutters that never really cut all that well. Swedging is the process of fitting a hinge tube to its corresponding rod by carefully squishing the tube to reduce its diameter. The idea is to make it so that the tube moves freely on the rod, but with no slop in the hinge. That way the keys can move smoothly up and down without having any wiggle back and forth. It also ensures the mechanism will be as quiet as possible. Over time, the repeated movement of the keys wears out the soft metal of their hinge tubes, reintroducing slop into the equation. However, keys that are swedged properly can go a long time before any slop is noticeable.
They'll be very helpful when I do key fitting tomorrow. I made them especially to get to the short hinge tubes on the upper and lower stack keys where it's difficult to get access.
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