Hoisting pianos

[Joseph Alkana]

Jacking and using cribbing is an old technique, which is still used today 
with lots of modern machinery. As I said before, houses, lighthouses, 
airplanes, submarines... in short, anything can be elevated to whatever 
height you would like. Twenty feet for a 600 lb object would be very doable. 
Yes, it takes skill and yes it takes the right materials. Usually the top 
segment is bridged over the wall to another short pile of cribbing for the 
horizontal phase.
I have seen this method used to lift houses to incredible heights. Somewhere 
I have a picture of a house sitting on cribbing about 80 feet in the air.A 
300 foot submarine was moved from a dock to a display area hundreds of yards 
away, up and over an elevated railroad track even.
It was my understanding that nothing heavy could be used on the floor, 
precluding use of cranes, lifting devices, etc. Just trying to give an 
alternate technique that would work. Maybe not the one you'll use, but 
certainly worth studying the history. The use of cribbing and air bags used 
as the jacking force are quite common in rescue tactics too.
Joseph Alkana RPT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 2:04 AM
Subject: Re: Hoisting pianos


>I think he means the technique by which one jacks a large object up at 
>three or four points maybe four inches or so at a time and shoves a 4x4 
>timber in place after each jacking session.
>
> I have used this method several times over the years to jack a 6,000 lb. 
> sailboat up about three to four feet off the ground so that I could back a 
> trailer under it and its cradle. Cradle is supported at four points. Jack 
> one corner up four inches with a little hydraulic car jack (or really any 
> jack you can get under there), shove a 4x4 under it, take jack out. Move 
> on to next corner. Repeat. Repeat this procedure about 50+ times and you 
> are there! I have done this completely unassisted.
>
> However, I'm not sure how this method would work jacking something up to a 
> second story! Hmmmmmm, don't think so. Maybe he was thinking of something 
> else.........
>
> Terry Farrell
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>         This is interesting. What do you mean by cribbing? I've not heard 
>> that term before. I suppose I could continue to add height to a platform 
>> being built underneath the piano as we go. Sounds like a lot of work 
>> though.
>
>
>