removing a plate by myself

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
A couple of months ago I asked for advice on removing a plate by myself. I 
didn't get too many responses, but one person, (who shall remain nameless), 
gave a suggestion that helped me come up with a solution to my problem. 

As you know, when I moved to my new shop at the university, I did not have 
any way of hanging a hoist on the ceiling, as I had done in my other shops. I 
could have asked several students to help, but it is summer when there are 
virtually no students around, at least none that I could trust to do this 
kind of work. Also, I had to do this in the evening because it is my own 
piano, so I had to device a way to remove the plate all by myself. I got on 
pianotech, and asked for help, but no one had ever done this before, except 
one person. And the method he used seemed way too dangerous for me. But he 
did give me an idea. 

The heaviest part of a piano is the plate. The normal procedure is to lift 
the plate up and out of the piano, by at least three strong people, or a 
hoist. Then the plate is let down to the ground, or put on a couple of saw 
horses. It was the lifting up and out of the piano that gave me the idea. I 
thought, instead of lifting the plate out of the piano, why not tip the piano 
upside down, and lift the piano off the plate. So this is what I did.

I have a 7" block of wood I use for moving vertical pianos. (That idea was 
actually a tech tip in the Journal.) I also have a dolly that is 7" tall. 
That is about 3" more than the distance from the top of the plate and the top 
of the rim. This would give me enough room to put tools and hands under the 
rim to remove plate screws and bolts. I removed all but one of the rim bolts, 
(the one in the tail), and all but two of the plate screws, (one on each 
corner). 

I lifted the rear of the piano and tipped it forward, on both front legs. As 
I started doing this, my biggest fear was the casters slipping out from 
underneath the piano on the tile floor. So I put each caster on a caster cup, 
and put them on a blanket. The blanket also protected the front of the case 
as I brought it over. Once the piano was past the balance point, I had to be 
careful not to let it drop. This was probably the hardest part of the whole 
procedure. And this was one time I was glad I had that extra little weight 
around the waist. Once the piano was sitting on the keybed, the next step was 
the second most critical. I had to push the piano beyond it's balance point 
from the side, but then as it came around, I had to get in front of it, to 
keep it from falling all the way over. I let the piano down gently to the 
ground, making sure the dolly and the block of wood were positioned correctly 
under the underneath the piano. Once the piano was upside down, sitting on 
the dolly and the block of wood, I removed one plate, and two plate screws, 
and lifted the case off the plate. 

It was a rather simple job. One word of caution. You do need a strong back to 
lift the back of the piano. You must also be careful when letting the keybed 
to the ground. I was afraid that with weight on the front two legs, if I 
dropped it before the top of the case hit the ground, that the legs would 
break. But the final drop was only a couple of inches on the blanket, and 
everything went fine. 

Now you're probably wondering how I am going to get the plate back in. Once I 
have cut and drilled a new block, the plate and case are going to my house, 
where I will put the plate back in, and restring the piano, on my covered 
back porch, which has a couple of beams on which I can hang my come along. 

Wim 


---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/ea/02/9c/57/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--