not so much interested in the remedy, as to the causes of sticky reg keys (that worked just fine a few days ago, so please rule out the obvious, {i.e.foreign objects, bodily fluids, etc})…
WHY do sticky reg keys always seem to co-incide with the first general thaw??
What’s going on here with the wood + brass? just plain old climactic expansion?
Or is there some mythical force at work here determined to ruin the seasonal festivities???
When you say sticky, do you mean that the pad is sticking over the tone hole or is the key sticking in the key-block? The latter happened to the G key on my bass reg last summer at the height of the hot-humid weather.
Yes, I agree with PJ. Changes in general humidity can cause the wood to swell abit in the keyways. Things usually sort themselves out as the weather settles.
djm
Remove and clean sides of the the sticky keys and check schafts .
Yes I shoulvd been more precise; it s the keyshaft against the mounting block.
But PJ Ive never had a problem with it at the height of summers, It’s always just aftre the first good thaw, immediately prior to St Patty’s day.
(BTW Thnk uilleannfinlander, Its fixed now, but I’m looking for the root cause…)
Itsa really just wood expansion d’ya think djm?
Well, if you tend to sweat and drool on your set like I do, you may want to look for other causes. I think it depends, too, on the design of the keyways. Some makers put a strip of metal along the bottom of the keyway. This may help to prevent the wood swelling too much into the key’s movement, but if it gets encrusted with crud (Hey! What a great name for a band!) then it might adversely affect key performance.
djm
… also, I would like to point out that, when drinking an open cup of Mocha, try and do so away from and out of range of the regs.
I found that with my pipes some stickyness with keys caused when the spring didn’t move freely when it is against wood.
So I cut smallpiece of 0.4mm thick polished steelplate ( taken it from old alarmcloks spring ..about 4mm wide, u can cut it with scissors) ,put it under keysprings end inside hinge.It reduced the friction between wood and spring enourmously.
tsk..I know…its just soo hard to find a reliable drool boy these days…
Sorry, “CRUD” is already being used by us!
Capitol
Region
Uilleann
Dilettantes
Washington DC based pipers whom try not to sound like crud. But we use the term loosely. 
Sure, but Encrusted With Crud would make a great Death Metal Grunge fusion band name for “modified” recorders.
djm