Upright Side Removal/ Terry

[Joseph Garrett]

Terry et al,
I had to remove the sides of an upright so that it would go up a very
narrow/steep set of stairs. The piano had been put into the basement of this
house before the main floor and the staircase were built! With VERY accurate
measurements, I determined that the back would indeed fit, diagonally up the
stairs. But nothing else! So, the piano had to be completely taken apart,
right down to the strung back! I removed the sides with a 10" Porter-Cable
(Skill type) saw. It is a really heavy/beefy honker with torque to spare.
The 10" blade was set at maximum depth, which was about 1/4" to 1/2" shy of
going all the way through to the plate. I put the piano on it's face and had
at it! (Yes, I had help with this project....my son. <G>)
Once we got the piano out of the basement, (the best local mover and his
helpers did the move up the stairs.), we loaded the whole "piano kit" in the
trailer and the suburban and headed for the shop. The one mistake I made,
was that I did not predrill some indexing holes, so it was a little more
difficult to get everything back and aligned. Because the 10" saw blade made
an 1/8" kerf, it was easy to put 1/8" maple plywood in as spacers to
compensate and get the original "width" back to what it was. The piano was
saved for the "Son" & his wife, by doing this. The Mom and Dad were
delighted to get the piano out of the downstairs Rec room. Happy ending to a
real project.
Best Regards,
Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)

Been There, Didn't Like It, So I'm Here To Stay! [G}