junking pianos

[Farrell]

Sounds like fun. BUT:

> If you can knock the bridge off, small chunks of maple
> come in handy for certain repairs.

Just watch that puppy if you push it through you table saw - wear glasses
and say good bye to your blade!

I like the idea about:

> Teenage and twenty-something kids who do
> industrial/experimental music...

What a hoot!

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Nereson" <dnereson@dimensional.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 8:20 AM
Subject: junking pianos


>     Doesn't happen often, but I have fun when I have to (get to) junk a
> piano.  I save all the wood screws, which are higher quality than the ones
> made nowdays.  I made a hobby workbench out of one old upright and donated
> player piano bellows, manifold, and other parts to an artist friend who
used
> them for sculptures.  Recycled the plate at a scrap metal yard.  Kept the
> trapwork, pedals, pedal rods (dowels), casters, hinges, knobs, other
> hardware, soaked the ivories and sharps off and kept them for
replacements,
> gave the keys to a neighbor who has a woodburning stove.  I've knocked the
> leads out of keys and used them for weighting lightweight cars on my model
> railroad.... pulled keypins out if in good condition to use for odd
> replacements.... made a pinblock supporting jack out of the keyblocks and
> some nuts and threaded rod.... used the top lids and certain kinds of
> fallboards from uprights for shelves in the shop.  Made 2 action models
for
> use at chapter meetings to teach regulating.  Have used old hammer butt
> assemblies on the jigs for the technical exam (hammer filing, broken shank
> replacement).... made a partial keyframe with several keys for the key
> rebushing part of the exam.  The case I knocked apart with a sledge
hammer,
> saved any wood usable for shelves, jigs, other projects....if you have
room,
> you might save the bottom board, if it's not split, for a piano that needs
> one in the future.  If you can knock the bridge off, small chunks of maple
> come in handy for certain repairs.  Teenage and twenty-something kids who
do
> industrial/experimental music will gladly take the strung back to bang,
> pluck, drum and otherwise create cool semi-musical noises on.
>     Just yesterday, a local hotel THREW OUT a baby grand.  It was a small
> Hamilton, and was in the roll-away dumpster being used by a
> construction/remodeling crew.   Some musician friends rescued it.
> Soundboard OK, pinblock OK, had to dig to find the legs and pedal lyre,
top
> lid was missing, and it was quite dirty, but heck -- free piano for
> struggling musicians.             --Dave Nereson, RPT, Denver
>
>