Bob, Sorry I can't offer advice on the bolt replacement - good luck with that. My suggestion is a rule that students not move the piano. I know that would be difficult or impossible to enforce, but no matter how the piano and legs are protected, entrusting the move of an expensive piano like this to students is asking for troubles of once kind or another ("Let's see how fast we can make it through that doorway!"). I would use this incident as a catalyst for getting a rule established, and posting a sign on the back side of the piano stating something like "Any movement of this piano must be done with the supervision of school faculty / staff members." This also implies that the dangers be clearly explained to any involved faculty. Another thing to look at is checking the condition of the floor, especially the joints between the wood and concrete, if any. If any repairs can be done to minimize the cracks which the casters hang up in, that will reduce the risks. In the Kawai EX (with the same big casters) the legs have 2 bolts, 2 dowels, and extra strong sockets for the bolts to thread into. Our bolts are rarely broken by rough treatment, but we have had keybeds get cracked near the case sides inside, right through the middle of the almost 2 inch hard maple! It is amazing the amount of stress the legs can apply to the piano when it is pushed sideways over a floor crack at high speed. I also do not recommend a spider dolly for tonal reasons, plus the fact that it makes it even easier for students to damage the piano in other ways. Perhaps buying the Jansen truck and training people to use it will help to enforce the rule I mentioned - but with the big casters still in place, people will tend to simply shove the piano around rather than going to the trouble of getting the truck and using it. Good luck. Don Mannino -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Bob Hull Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 10:33 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] Hamburg leg bolt Caut List, The Hamburg D here almost hit the floor as some students were moving it last week. The bass leg came loose but they caught it in time and put a piano bench and books under it. I found the bolt that goes in to lock the plate turned as if stripped because the inner threads or sleeve is broken into two pieces. The sleeve material is soft and thin. Half of it is still in the hole and the other half came out with the bolt. I'm checking with a Machine Tool and Supply store to find a new sleeve and may have to change the bolt as well. Do you think the sleeve is in there just as a force fit? I'm thinking about using epoxy. I didn't try to look in the Steinway catalog for this item, not wanting to wait to get something from NY or Germany. The piano faculty is wondering if the piano would be safer on a piano truck (spider?) instead of the double casters. It is moved quite a bit. Does the truck do a poor job of keeping the piano level since the ends of the truck arms flex downward under the weight of the piano through the legs? And what about the connection of the piano to the floor for better sound? If the floor is hardwood on top of concrete is there any value to being connected directly versus being on a truck? I'd appreciate your ideas on the repair and the truck versus casters question. Bob Hull __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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