<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><style></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Wim is right, Randy.  Think about that 1000 plus pounds being loaded onto what are still a very small contacting surface with the floor or carpet.  That carpet is still a high friction medium for the wheel, particularly with all the weight being pressed down into such a small area.  It is not going to be so easy to roll, so it is not unlikely that the movers might try to start by giving it a good shove.  This would have quickly added a great deal of stress, particularly if the wheels had not rolled into position to slide in the intended direction.  (Most likely, they were facing in the opposite direction after having been rolled back to its resting place from the time before).  The bump in the carpet that Wim is talking about is the carpet being pulled away from its backing and beginning to bunch ahead of the wheel.  So now that wheel has a little mountain to obstruct it and try to get the 1000 lbs. over.  Laminated or not, this accident would still happen in this circumstance.  Simply put, no leg has been designed to withstand these kinds of stresses.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Not only is this risking the life and health of this $100,000 plus piano, it is quickly destroying the carpet too.  A few years ago I finally convinced a local church to get a truck for a Baldwin SD-10 that had the large brass European style double wheels.  The legs were getting loose at their glue joints and the carpet had curled and was going to be replaced.  In the interest of the new carpet, they heeded my advice and went for the truck.  Didn’t hurt when I told them that one of the legs would break sooner or later, probably sooner, and risk the life of their concert instrument. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>I would place some blame at the feet of the dealer that sold them this instrument too.  We all know how numb our customers can be about these things, and how often we have to help save them from themselves.  I have never known a Steinway dealer to shy away from a healthy profit margin, and it would have been easy for the dealer to sell them a truck at the same time they were writing that really big check – small potatoes of additional cost for the safety of the piano and carpet.  Once they have written that big check, the purse gets locked shut, they will tend to act penny wise and pound foolish, and against their own best interest.       <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>In Wim’s example with the piano truck, I cannot help but believe that this took an inspired level of stupidity and incompetence to muck it up, even with 40 year old legs.  Nominations for the Darwin award, anyone?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Will Truitt<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>tnrwim@aol.com<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 14, 2012 10:53 PM<br><b>To:</b> pianotech@ptg.org<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [pianotech] Broken leg on 5 month old Steinway D<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Randy<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>If the piano was being moved on just the legs and casters, that was an accident waiting to happen. Whoever is pushing the piano, especially one as big as a D, won't feel a slight bump in the carpet for the leg to catch on. Now that the piano is on a truck, it should happen again. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>But even on a truck, there is still the possibility that a leg can break. That happen at the University of Alabama. The floor cleaning crew rolled the D, on a piano truck, over a door jam out in the hallway. When they to tried to roll it back, over the jam, the right front leg broke, and the piano became wedged in the door. Mind you, this was a 40 year old piano, and the legs probably were weakened anyway after years of moving. But with inexperienced people, it will happen. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Wim<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>-----Original Message-----<br>From: PIANO2NR <<a href="mailto:PIANO2NR@aol.com">PIANO2NR@aol.com</a>><br>To: pianotech <<a href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a>><br>Sent: Tue, Feb 14, 2012 4:51 pm<br>Subject: [pianotech] Broken leg on 5 month old Steinway D<o:p></o:p></span></p><div id="AOLMsgPart_3_20ac91d9-72c0-4f9f-9ecb-716a2c698fca"><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Hello list;<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Has anyone else experienced this?  Piano is in new university chapel with smooth, short nap carpet and gets rolled twice a week about 20 -30 feet.  It seems to me that the base of the leg with the grain running cross ways on the back leg would be prone to breaking and the large caster being so offset from the leg would add to the stress.  Piano has been repaired and placed on cart without the brass casters.  But since base of leg is not laminated, it looks to me like this is an accident waiting to happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Randy Mangus, RPT<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><img border=0 width=182 height=221 id=MA1.1329273962 src="cid:image002.jpg@01CCEB8F.41AD5130" vspace=5><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><img border=0 width=185 height=247 id=MA2.1329273962 src="cid:image003.jpg@01CCEB8F.41AD5130" vspace=5><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>