One of the central keys on my piano started sticking.

I called a technician twice, €160 each time and each time the key got stuck again after a while.

This time I decided: enough. I took the piano apart myself and fixed it with whatever I had at home.

The problem turned out to be swollen wood in the hammer mechanism. The piano is over a hundred years old!

I carefully shaved it down with manicure scissors, added a drop of glue under the hammer using a toothpick, and… borrowed a spring from the very last key.

Now one note doesn’t play 😅 But the main key works.

Classic engineering trade-off. One bug fixed, one feature broken