David, that's called cold checking or cold cracking. The finish is too brittle and too thick and can't expand and contract with the iron and wood when going from an extremely cold environment to a hot environment and visa versa. The finish needed to be more flexible and it should have been shipped in a heated truck. Al - High Point, NC From: David Heidel Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 11:29 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] pianos damaged by moving? I usually just sit back and read everyone's postings, but now I need your help. An insurance company has beckoned me to figure out what has caused the damage to 2 pianos that were moved from Alaska to Washington in February. The owner claims these pianos were in perfect condition before the move. They were loaded by actual piano movers onto a moving van. Both have Dampp- Chaser units on them. In my short tenure (8 years) of being around pianos, I have never run across this situation before and could use some help in figuring out what might have caused the damage. Could a combination of extreme cold and a 5-day move have caused this? As a side note, the owner also has a Suzuki digital grand (Costco) that sustained no damage at all on the case (unfortunately). Hopefully, the pictures are good enough to see some of the damage. Piano #1 - Young Chang grand, model G-208, serial # G 104337, built in 1996. The piano had 3 long cracks in the polyester finish on the lid, extending the entire width of the lid. The cracks are located on the front, middle and rear of the lid. The plate of this piano has hundreds of small cracks in the finish, located throughout the entire plate. Piano #2 - K. Kawai grand, model KG-5, serial # 479922, built in 1970 (but looks newer - and I didn't think Kawai used poly finishes back then). The piano had numerous cracks in the finish, of various lengths and patterns, over the entire lid, going in all directions. The music desk also had cracks in the finish. The plate had cracks in the finish, as well as the finish separating from the cast iron. The entire soundboard showed hundreds of cracks in it, giving the appearance of "cracked ice". There was also one crack in the soundboard that was actually in the wood, extending for about 2 feet. Also noted were cracks in the wood where the soundboard and the rim of the piano are connected. There were 4 keytops that also had cracks in the plastic. David Heidel, RPT Heidel Piano Services Spokane, WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100706/a5250894/attachment-0001.htm>
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