Piano no. 6 is on its way to Rochester

[Overs Pianos]

Hi all,

Well, I sort of feel like I've got a life back. It felt quite strange 
to knock off work at 5.30 pm this afternoon after the final hectic 
months building no. 6. I even arrived home before my long suffering 
wife, Kristie.

We pretty much finished building the Overs no. 6 by Monday night. 
Fortunately the final stuff was mostly casework. Talk about just in 
time scheduling, since the crated piano was to be picked up from our 
workshop on Wednesday morning for transport to our freight 
forwarders. As usual, quite a few things didn't go smoothly, so we 
were 'against the wire' getting the piano crated in time. We made the 
protection shoe and did a trial-run of assembling the crate around 
the piano from Tuesday morning early. By 9 pm we had the piano back 
on its legs. I spent the next six hours making various final fittings 
for the crate while our guys went home to sleep. From 3 am to 6 am I 
was able to sneak in a final regulation check-over, and make a new 
120 gram sound board weight to change the highest-treble weight 
(which was 90 grams) before crating the piano on Wednesday morning. 
This last sound board weight-adjustment proved to be a plus, so it 
became a keeper. Two of our staff, Curt and Leo, turned up at 6 am to 
help with the crating and by 10.50 am the last fixing screws went 
into the crate. Unfortunately, the carriers had arrived early with 
two teams to load the crate at 7.30 am (we were expecting them at 
10). So one team left to do other jobs while the one driver/carrier 
who was taking our crate to the airport stayed around for the moment 
of the big lift, which turned out to be a sixty minute moment. So 
when the crate was finally ready the three remaining people from our 
workshop, plus the Italian hairdresser from the shop next door, got 
to help the hapless (but very capable) driver, Craig, to load the 
crate onto the truck.

Carrier Craig said "all we had to do was lift the light end of the 
crate so someone could set the trolley" and the rest would be 
history. Well sure! Four of us amateur lifters took the big lift with 
Craig the carrier and all we could manage was to get the crate about 
3" off the floor. I came up with the idea of lifting one end of the 
crate with our gantry, for setting the trolly. It worked just fine, 
although the solid rubber tyres on the 50 Kg piano trolly were 
clearly doing it hard.  Once we got the crate to the truck the task 
remained to push the crate up a ramp of about three metres length and 
onto the tray of the truck. But the high end of the ramp was pinned 
about 6" below the tray height of the truck. We got the crate up the 
to end of the ramp with the end of the crate resting on the tray. But 
the 650 Kg crate was just too heavy for us to lift and slide it onto 
the tray. We nearly lost the thing getting it back down to ground 
level. After looking at the problem afresh we collectively came up 
with a way of securing the top of the ramp level with the tray of the 
truck. This resulted in a steeper incline, but our determination to 
get the piano to Rochester seemed to help us summon the energy to 
push the crate up the incline and onto the tray. We came far too 
close to disaster for my comfort, but we made it.

The piano is now on its way and expected to arrive at JFK airport by 
this coming Monday. So when I meet a number of you folk at Rochester, 
I can be thankful that 'there by the grace of god went my piano no. 
6'.

I've uploaded a couple of images which were taken during the crating saga.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/cratingno.6.jpg
This image shows the legs and lyre mounted in the crate with the 
case. The plastic sheet is sealed all-round the case and shoe with 
gaffa tape. The piano is covered with a flannelette sheet inside the 
plastic. The top left area is for the cheap bench were taking to 
Rochester. The very nice duet adjustable bench, we've finished for 
the client, will be shipped direct to him.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/crated06.2.jpg
This is a lit-image of the piano I took for the brochure we've 
written for Rochester. Forgot to turn the shop flouro's off. Hence 
the uneven lighting on the strings. We were just too pushed for time 
to be able to do a proper shoot of the piano.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/no.6underside.jpg
Here's a sneak pre-Rochester view of the underside of no. 6. The 
treble end cutoff is new for our 225 piano. It is made from Antarctic 
Beech and 35 mm thick. The base cutoff is the same as for our 
previous 225 pianos. The sound board weights can be seen between the 
treble end ribs. The weights continue right to the top of the long 
bridge. I'll be explaining how we adjust the weights over the belly 
rail in my class. The protection shoe is screwed to the case along 
the underside. We left the inner/outer rim maple laminations visible 
from below, finishing them with the same clear coat we used for the 
board. You can also see how the treble cutoff allows the long bridge 
to continue running very much in the central area of the board right 
up into the high treble. Back braces are also made from rock maple.

I should be sleeping but I'm suffering from a kind of 
post-piano-building jet lag.

Look forward to seeing some of you in Rochester Wednesday week.

Best regards,
Ron O.
-- 
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
    Grand Piano Manufacturers
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Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:ron at overspianos.com.au
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