WIre Nut Keyboard

The last of the Wire Nut figure series is Wire Nut Keyboard, for a keyboard player. The figure itself is by by now straightforward. The real difficulty here is making the keyboard. What to use for the keys? For that matter, how do I work a cartridge into the composition? Both problems solved at one go: use .22 shells for keys. I raided my stash of .22s, and came up with a keyboard.
The .22 shells are soldered on to an underframe, barely visible in the picture. The sharps (or flats if you like) are sheet copper. There are no cartriges smaller than a .22 unless you count the .17 cal but that is airgun ammo, no cartridge required. So I used sheet copper for the sharps. In retrospect maybe I should have beat out some copper tubing , but I didn't think of it at the time. The stand should have been straightforward, but I remade it several times to get it at the correct height. So...
And here is Wire Nut Keyboard Player belting out a number. He has been soldered to a sheet copper base, all he needs now is a wood base for rigidity. Contact cement is your friend here.

After one makes all these figures, the final step is pickling -- put it in vinegar and salt; as I think I remarked, this is just like sauerkraut. That gets rid of the flux residues and shines up the copper and brass a good bit.

And so ends the saga of Wire Nuts. We will now move on to other pre-Christmas projects.