Hello MMD.  Living in far-flung corner of the (former) British
Empire, I find that piano roll repair supplies are not always readily
available.  Pull tabs fall into the "not available" category so I make
my own.  I use bookbinding cloth, scraps of which can be obtained from
local bookbinders, who often are glad to get rid of them.

I removed a tab in good shape from a discarded roll and opened it out.
When the tab was well flattened I traced around it on to a sheet of
paper.  I cut out the outline and glued it to a scrap of sheet metal
about 1 mm thick.  I used various sheet metal tools to cut away all the
metal outside the tab outline, leaving me with a pattern for future
tabs.

To make a new tab I lay a scrap of bookbinding cloth on a cork tile,
hold the pattern firmly on top and cut around it with a scalpel.
I make D-rings by using a metal rod of circular cross-section that has
had half of its material machined away for about 1 cm from one end.

Held in a vice this provides a D-shaped pattern around which I can bend
a length of steel wire.  Cutting off the surplus ends of the wire makes
a respectable looking D-ring.  An opened out plated steel paper clip
provides enough material for one D-ring.

I used to glue the tab on with P.P.Co's PVC-E glue, but that is no
longer available, so these days I use an Australian product called
Evo-Stick, which I suspect is the same stuff.

John Phillips - in Hobart, Tasmania