Removing old soundboard intact

[Stéphane Collin]

Hi Dale.

I've been told a nice way for removing the soundboard out of a grand piano.  The useful trick was to turn the piano upside down, with the bridge facing the ground.  The good is that this way, you can soak the joints from the (former) underside (so, now it is the upside).  Soaking with wet rags (water + vinegar and soap) possibly covered with aluminium folies, so the humidity stays high at the joint.  After less than one hour, you can already try to put some weight on the perimeter (I simply stand on the board with one foot, so I can carefully and precisely add pressure following what I hear is happening at the joint), and some places come loose, effortless.   The bellyrail is the hardest place to get loose, but there you can try to insert carefully a cisel between the board and the rail.  Also, in some pianos, the bass side is sandwiched into the cornice, and you would first have to take away the piece of wood that does the sandwich.
I don't do this routinely, but when I did, the board came out very neatly, contrarily with my earlier tries, where I got nervous.

Maybe there is an even better way, and I will be glad to hear about it.

Best regards.

Stéphane Collin.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Erwinspiano at aol.com 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 5:04 PM
  Subject: Removing old soundboard intact


     Hi All Euro dudes
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