Jan. 2009 Journal issue issueHi David, I'll preface by saying that I have moved many pianos. Larger pianos are definitely with a trained helper, but quite often consoles and spinets have been done with only the owner present. Maybe for a taller person the 6.5 or so inch lift is not good. For me, it's right about straight legged and straight armed. Back is always straight, of course. I could stand there holding that piano for quite a while! More importantly, and I believe the TT&T mentions it (I don't have the issue in front of me), is that the box method is used for getting a piano on a dolly when there is no room for a full tilt of the piano and rolling the piano on poor casters, new floors, whatever, to gain room is not possible. Debbie L. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Ilvedson To: caut at ptg.org ; pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 3:46 AM Subject: [pianotech] Jan. 2009 Journal issue issue Doing a little light reading before sleep, I was reading the Tips, Tools & Techniques in the January, 2009 Journal. Debra Legg wrote a tip concerning a piano lifting box. With all respect, this is not an efficient way to get a piano onto a dolly. In fact it is a good way to hurt your back. It requires two dead lifts...one to get one end of the piano onto the box. In other words you lift and hold while the box is slide underneath on end of the piano. 6.5 inches is not a good place to be holding the weight of the piano. The 2nd dead lift is even harder as the other end is up in the air. I suggest you toss the box. Remove all case parts such as bottom board, music rack, lid, action to reduce weight. Then do the first dead lift with a heave past the 6.5 inch height of the box and simply continue to the balance point. With legs/chest and momentum you will have the piano at its balance point in a moment where you can control it with one hand. A helper can pull back at the other end with foot at bottom and hand on the exposed case side. Now you are ready to slip the dolly, at a 45 degree angle, with your feet or a helper, under the piano and be done with it. I've moved a lot of pianos unto dollies. I install trucks for uprights with generally the same method. Remove extra weight, heave piano up to balance point and over to a pile of blankets which enable the piano to be pulled back over easier, when the work is done, than from flat on the floor. Sometimes things need to be thought through... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090409/f2956623/attachment.html>
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