Piano dolly

[Norm Barrett]

Bruce,
For a piano as small as a console, you could slide it up on the tilter a 
few inches and put a block of wood as a spacer to the bottom of the 
piano thereby eliminating the problem of the dolly casters hitting the 
floor too soon. The right size spacer makes the job much safer all around.

Norm Barrett

Bruce Dornfeld wrote:
>
> Michelle,
>  
> This reply is very late by the standards of pianotech, but I want to 
> share a bit anyway.  One thing that was mentioned was that the tipper 
> does not work well with dollies on the piano.  If you are installing 
> twin dollies, this is very true.  You can tip the piano back and get 
> the dollies on, but then you have trouble.  Before tipping your Yamaha 
> console back down to the floor, the back of the dollies will hit the 
> floor.  If you are lucky and strong, you may get the piano to stand 
> up.  If not, the piano may slip off of the tipper, land flat on its 
> back and shove the tipper onto you.  I have been lucky putting dollies 
> on a couple of pianos this way, but I won't do it this way any more.  
> It scares the hell out of me.  One lady in our chapter broke her ankle 
> when a piano slipped off of a tipper.  If you have to do it solo, with 
> a tipper, strap the piano to the tipper near the bottom and get that 
> strap tight!
>  
> Your best bet is to get some one there on location to help you.  Tell 
> them you need help three times, they will need some muscles.  (It 
> really is not so hard to do this on a piano this size, so it should 
> feed their egos well too!)  Help step one: lift one end of the piano 
> to put a dolly under it, position it where you want it and get it 
> flush on the back, maybe with the upper hole along a back post.  Then 
> do the same on the other side.  Now you can drill the holes in the 
> back and screw it tight.  Most likely if this is all you do for the 
> installation, the piano will wobble front to back when it is played or 
> tuned.  That is why you go to help step two: push the piano onto its side.
>  
> Pushing a piano onto its side is a bit like cow tipping.  With both, 
> when you get them a bit off of the ground, you are close to a balance 
> point.  Ben McKlveen talked a few years back about how he would get a 
> couple of big high school boys to help with this.  Ben would have them 
> stand on the other side to make sure the piano didn't get away, and 
> Ben would do the lifting himself!  Man, those kids would have new 
> respect for the old piano tuner!  Yesterday, I had to do one alone.  
> It was a spinet in a recently flooded basement.  I removed the bottom 
> board with rusted pedals and trapwork.  If the area you will do this 
> in is not carpeted, bring a rug as big as the piano's side.  A 
> rubberized back on the rug will help too.
>  
> Back to help step two: with the piano on its side, you can drill 
> through the holes on the dolly bottom into and through the piano's 
> bottom board.  Get the bolts and nuts tight.  (I carry a couple of 
> lengths of bolts for this.  I want the shortest ones that will take 
> the washer, lock washer and nut.  Not all bottom boards are the same 
> thickness.)
>  
> Help step three: get the muscles to help put the piano back down.  
> It's on the new dollies and you are done. 
>  
>  
> Bruce Dornfeld, RPT
> bdornfeld at earthlink.net <mailto:bdornfeld at earthlink.net>
> 847-498-0379
>