Rob McCall asked: "This Wednesday, I'll be installing my first set of piano dollies for an upright. It's for a Yamaha P22 at a nearby Middle School. I ordered and have the Schaff #4009 twin dollies to install. (NOT the heavyweight one). I plan on mounting them permanently and would appreciate any tips, advice, tricks, caveats, provisos, stipulations, etc. that you are willing to share. Thanks in advance... Regards," Rob, I've found it's best to put the piano on it's back, i.e. on a tilter. That way you can attach the "saddles" to the bottom board and the back with strong #12 or #16 round head Screws, like it was designed. If you only attach to the back cross span the dolley will be a bit unstable and will work loose after the many thresholds, etc. However putting the piano back on it's feet, with the new casters sticking out, beyond the back of the piano, presents a stability problem. This problem is best solved with two 4" x 6"ers or my favorite spacers that I call "Stackers". I'll explain what those are. Stackers are 2 (two) pieces of 3/4" plywood, (the cheap kind), approximately 5 1/2" x 9". These are covered with carpet on one side. AND 2" x 6"ers cut 9" long. These are drilled, through, while stacked, with 3/8" drill in two places approximately 2" from the length ends. When you drill the stack of 2" x 6"es, also put the piece of 3/4" plywood in the stack and drill it half way through, (3/8"). In each 2x6 glue 1" long 3/8" dowels into the 2"x6"s holes. Insert them so that a 1/2" of the dowel is sticking out. Let set up. Then, redrill the remaining part of the holes with a 13/32" drill bit. This will allow the dowels to easily fit into the holes when you stack the pieces. Now you can have a stacker that can be 2 1/4", 4" or 5 1/2" tall. You need two of these to do the job at hand. When you start to tip the piano back on it's "feet", you'll find there is a "balance point" where the piano is approximately at a 45 degree angle. At that point place the stackers on the floor in line with where the bottom board will contact the top of the stacker that's been placed the long way, front to back. Tip the piano onto the stackers. I usually only use the 4" height for doing the regular Twin Dolleys. For the large Twin Dolleys you may need to use eht 5 1/2". The whole idea is to take the castor out of the contact point when you are tipping it back to a vertical position. Once the piano is vertical, again, then simply lift one end of the piano and remove the stacker and set the piano on that twin dolley, at that end. Go to the other end and repeat. Now the piano is safely on it's feet. If you like you can remove just one stacker layer at a time and bring the piano down in increments. I would advise having a helper. It can be done by one person, but it'll be a lot safer with two. I hope this helps Joe Joseph Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon) Captain, Tool Police Squares R I -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091103/46751326/attachment.htm>
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