Changing a button on a piano accordion

[Happy girl]

The A button is badly scratched and causes confusion.
Is it possible to exchange this button to a different location for an undamaged one, and if it possible for a layman to do?
Would members please advise the best way forward and if there is a link to a helpful video.
thank you.

 

[Dingo40]

Is it possible to exchange this button to a different location for an undamaged one, and if it possible for a layman to do?

The short answer is yes.
I'll leave the details to someone more experienced than I am.

 

[debra]

The A button is badly scratched and causes confusion.
Is it possible to exchange this button to a different location for an undamaged one, and if it possible for a layman to do?
Would members please advise the best way forward and if there is a link to a helpful video.
thank you.

If with "button" you mean a bass button then yes, this is easy to do. Buttons (on modern accordions) are "press fit". If you can open up the bass compartment by removing the plate under the bass strap, you can hold a piston with pliers from the inside and then gently wiggle the button free, an similarly you can press a button in place by a combination of wiggling and pushing.

 

[Whasanike]

Here's what I would do! I would take off the back panel, and use a low-wattage soldering iron like 25 watts, to heat the metal piston while twisting the button to pull it off. To put a button on, I would have some heavy duty clear rubber cement handy and put a drop of it on the hole in the button. I would also check the button height and hold it in place a half minute.

 

[Happy girl]

Thanks you for the suggestions, all very much appreciated.

 

[John Doe]

Go slow with the soldering iron as you heat things up to pull the button- you don't want to melt it into a blob or really wallow out the hole. The time between not hot enough and way too hot can be very short.

If you spring for a new button you can simply heat/ pull/ toss.

"Dry fit the buttons" before gluing them back on. If it goes down too far put a minescule bit of something- paper, thread, floss- no matter as long as it can take up enough space in the button hole to have it sit just at the right height. Go slow on this as once you shove something in there as if it is too much you'll have the devil of a time removing it again.

To do the final assembly I'd use either super glue gel, or a tiny dab of epoxy. Quick set is fine. Both collapse with heat so you can remove them (painful but doable) in future years.

Rubber cement is really designed to be applied, have the carrier evaporate for fifteen minutes to an hour, and then adhere on contact. Using it still wet results in a poor bond. Of course- this is not exactly a high stress application (the rod in the button hole provides the strength) but you'd like it rigid which the epoxy or cyanoacrilic will do.

You ought to consider roaming the internet; you can assuredly buy new buttons which ought to match pretty cheap and moving the chewed up A to another spot just means you have to do two buttons and you'll still have the chewed up button somewhere on the instrument.

This really IS something you can easily do yourself-

Henry

 

[Whasanike]

I personally don't use epoxy or cyano-acrylate glue. I have changed many buttons by this method. Use a low wattage iron and heat the rod slowly while twisting and pulling the button. Then it won't overheat or make the hole larger. Gorilla brand adhesive in the silver tube will allow for adjusting the button to make it match the others. Hard synthetic glue can permanently damage things.

 

[debra]

Here's what I would do! I would take off the back panel, and use a low-wattage soldering iron like 25 watts, to heat the metal piston while twisting the button to pull it off. To put a button on, I would have some heavy duty clear rubber cement handy and put a drop of it on the hole in the button. I would also check the button height and hold it in place a half minute.

Why would you heat the piston? The metal expands and grips the button even more firmly. I would rather freeze the piston (but that requires disassembly to take it out and put in the freezer) so the metal shrinks and looses its grip on the button. But the button then also becomes more brittle. I have taken off buttons a number of times. No heat or cold needed. Just wiggle and pull. And to put a new button on no glue should be used because that just makes life difficult for the next repairer.

 

[John Doe]

Really, at issue here is the technical experience of the OP.

For many, merely unblocking the bass after receiving a new accordion is an exercise in severe apprehension- if not terror.

Given the "A" is either in the bass row (five waving rows of pistons back as seen from the inside) or the counterbass- sixth row back...- many a novice might really be nervous about working a soldering iron or really long nosed pliers in there to hold the piston.

Many pistons are pretty flimsy to lateral forces (saving weight): just not that sturdy. Working them around by torqueing the bass button without a firm grip just below the button platform to ensure the stress doesn't affect the length of the piston could easily ruin a piston for someone who doesn't have a feel for it.

No insult here- just a question of what one is familiar with.

Really, the simplest and least likely to break something option is to get a replacement button that matches in diameter and color- probably pretty easy- and having same on hand simply remove the old button by gently wiggling, twisting, and pulling- and failing that just crushing it with a few good squeezes of a slip joint plier; first one way then rotate 90 degrees and crush again,(that's change the angle you approach the button from by 90 degrees- not twist the button at all with the pliers). It'll come out easily in pieces.

Fit the new one and if it is too loose, a dab of glue of choice - truly almost any adhesive ought to do (though how the Gorilla glue isn't just as synthetic as synthetic can be gets me) - and... voila.

So:
-bite the bullet and live with it,
-try the gently wiggle and pull, or crush option,
-push the limits and venture into working carefully through the waving ranks of pistons (DO NOT TAKE THE BASS APART unless you're willing to really go whole hog on learning),
-simply track down an accordion shop- a difficult thing in many locales and probably pretty pricey. You are paying for not only the shop overhead and time but also the experience of the tech.

Good luck- I still figure you can do this.

(Sorry for what are probably numerous typos)

 

[Whasanike]

Why would you heat the piston? The metal expands and grips the button even more firmly. I would rather freeze the piston (but that requires disassembly to take it out and put in the freezer) so the metal shrinks and looses its grip on the button. But the button then also becomes more brittle. I have taken off buttons a number of times. No heat or cold needed. Just wiggle and pull. And to put a new button on no glue should be used because that just makes life difficult for the next repairer.

I hear the piston only enough to soften the plastic so I can twist the button off easily. The adhesive is not hard glue, and also softens with heat.
Your method is fine if it apparently works for whatever accordions you use it on.
BTW Recently I have seen a new accordion on which the piston and button were one unit, and the button can't be removed.
If the button on a metal piston has been on there for decades, IDK if your method would work, but my method avoids stress on the mechanism, and has proved satisfactory for me. No hard glue is involved, so the job can be undone the same way.