Interesting.
Out of curiosity since you did them all- did you push all the top layer rows (the diminished, 7th, minor, major button rows out) to access the lower level ones? Then push them back back in place and do them row by row? I hope this makes sense.
I’m thinking of finally trying this. I’ve got a butterfly model with this system and it got pushed to the side for some other accordion projects. Now I’m back to maybe trying this. I’m thinking of putting the shrink tube around them snd maybe heating with a soldering tip to shrink it.
Let me know what you think of my plan here and if that’s essentially what you did. I think you really have to do them all like you ended up doing since they disintegrate so easily.
Thanks
It's kind of what i did, except for pushing out any row, i didn't risk doing that, as the slats have those shoulders that press the wires that actuate the rods, and once those get escaped, it would have been a culprit to put them back. I looked at each slat at what rod it was connected to and pushed with one hand the button all the way in (this giving me full access to the row behind the rear one), and with the other, i pulled with the pliers if the retainer broke, i then let the pliers be, grabbed a pre-cut piece of retractible tube and inserted it by hand, then with a sort of "anti-wind lighter" with a long nose (that's in direct translation of what they call them here, but i guess you get the idea it's the one with sturdy flame and with a tube, like those barbecue ones) i just gave a quick pulse and the tube shrunk. The 7'ths and diminished ones i found the easiest to do because i could reach by hand to insert the tube as they are the exterior row. You will find there on those rows also the minor chord buttons if i remember correctly. The idea is to look at what button presses what slat and pressing that one affected.
The soldering iron might just be to thick to get into the first 3 rows with it. Those first 3 are some sort of harder to do. For them i used a bent-tip tweezer, i pinched and pushed the pieces, quite hard, and what felt to be soft i left, and all the brittle ones broke. Then i placed the piece of shrink tube on the tip of the tweezer, half in and half free so i could insert it over the "hooks" of the slat, depressed the button just about half, and from a side row (for example for button C major, i inserted the tweezer on its side from between the rows corresponding to D major), then i tried to get the tube over one "hook" of the slat, then worked my way with it around the other. For this you definitely need the bent tip tweezer. First tries you might be losing or deteriorating the shrink tube, but pretty fast you'll see you'll get used to the technique and then it will seem child's play.
Important thing is to keep each button you're working on depressed, more or less according the space of work you need. Otherwise, while trying to insert the retractible tube, the button will push itself outside.
I recommend doing everything brittle at once, because if not, you will find some new buttons getting out or falling in while you play, and having to open it up again. As you know, one button can depress more ones at the same time so chances are high something keeps falling and interrupting your play.
But the job is worth doing, because it involves little to none investment and it saves your instrument. In my case, some were redone before and the retainers were still really soft (around 20-no more than 30) those i left as they were. But some were badly repaired (weird materials used) and all brittle ones were redone. I kind of pinched them a bit harder one by one, so what had in mind to break, to just break and redo.
and buttons just kept falling in.
