[CAUT] piano moving stuff

[Ken Zahringer]

Paul,

I apologize for my inaccurate terminology.  I refer to the horse as
³rolling² the piano over onto the skid, since the horse has a curved surface
in contact with the floor.  The horse is designed so that the tail of the
piano touches the skid first, then the contact moves up the side of the
piano and the keyboard end touches last.  If you use the horse to tip the
piano onto the raised chariot, the entire side of the piano touches the skid
all at once, when the piano is at less than 45 degrees inclination, and the
horse is out of the picture at that point.  You just have to muscle the
piano up onto the chariot.  Perhaps I should instead say the horse¹s contact
point travels up the ramp as you tip the piano, preserving the process as
originally designed.  The tail touches first, and you still have the
three-point stability point with the rear leg, piano tail, and horse on the
ground, just like when you are using a conventional skid.  The only
difference is that the horse is partway up the ramp at this point.  You then
continue tipping the piano in the usual fashion.

Hope this clears things up,
Ken Z.


On 6/26/08 12:42 PM, "Paul T Williams" <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:

> 
> Thanks Ken. 
> 
> This sounds like a good idea.  I may get this set up for myself here in the
> shop. 
> 
> You mention that the piano horse rolls up the ramp.Could you clarify this part
> of it?  I didn't see the horse having wheels on Jannsen's web site.    It
> looks like it just lowers down on a skid-board and then you would still need
> to lift up one end to get a dolly under it.
> 
> Paul 
> 
> 
> Ken Zahringer <ZahringerK at missouri.edu>
> Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org 06/26/2008 12:07 PM
> Please respond to
> College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
> To 
> College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
> cc
> Subject 
> Re: [CAUT] piano moving stuff
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hey, Paul,
> 
> I have both of those items here and I love them.  We bought them a few years
> ago when we got tired of what the movers were charging.  Now we do almost all
> our piano moving in house.  The Wind Ensemble has a Steinway M that they use
> for most concerts in the percussion section.  Their practice room and concert
> venue are in different buildings.  I pack it up completely by myself; I only
> get help from one of the grad students to get it up the ramp into the truck.
> I don¹t think I would move a C7 without a helper, though.
> 
> The piano horse and the grand chariot are great pieces of equipment, but they
> were not designed to work together.  You will need to make a ramp so the horse
> will roll up it to the platform level of the chariot.  Otherwise the piano
> sets down onto the platform too early, and you have to use brute force to lift
> the piano from about 30-40 degrees on up to vertical.  Not fun.  Some pictures
> of my ramp are attached.  The ramp is the same height as the chariot platform,
> 9 3/4².  The ramp length is 34², which is the length of the curved part of the
> horse, less 3² to set the piano down at the right spot.  That makes the base
> of the ramp 32 1/2².  Note that the bottom cross brace at the high end is set
> in, to clear the chariot wheel.  The frame is square tubular steel, the same
> stuff the horse is made of.  The top surface is 3/4² plywood.  A decent welder
> can make it in a couple of hours.  I use a jack-in-a-box (actually a
> jack-on-a-post that I made) to lift the bass leg to get the piano on the
> horse.  After using them for 2-3 years, I would never go back to the old
> school ways.
> 
> You might also want to check out http://www.holzter.com/
> <http://www.holzter.com/> for their grand pads and leg/lyre carriers.  Pretty
> cool stuff.
> 
> Regards,
> Ken Z.
> 
> 
> On 6/25/08 12:27 PM, "Paul T Williams" <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi all 
> 
> I hope your time in Anaheim was good for all!
> 
> We have a professor here who is going to be "on the road" with her Yamaha C-7
> this fall.  she asked me about piano moving stuff and mentioned the piano
> horse (janssen) and something called a "grand chariot"  which looks more like
> a skidboard with wheels.
> 
> Have any of you used these things?  Are they worth the money? (she has a grant
> to buy said items)  Anything better out there?
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Paul 
> 
> 


-- 
Ken Zahringer, RPT
Piano Technician
MU School of Music
297 Fine Arts
882-1202
cell 489-7529

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