Hi Zeno, I am fortunate to have a space 16x20 feet in the basement of our new music building. The space is adequate but cramped. I have benches, drill press, radial arm saw, belt sander, air compressor, and free standing storage around three walls. The wall that in on the entry side has a 24x24x18 inch deep stainless sink. I have a workbench in the far end that will hold a grand action with room to spare for parts and tools. Presently, I have a M & H "A" in the middle for new pin block and restringing. That is about the largest piano that I could have in here and this is hard to work around at times. I also have a free standing engine hoist that "folds up" to only take about 24" square. I do have a storage area for skids, extra benches, covers, and etc. This area is only about 6x12 feet. The shop space has no windows. It has no exhaust vent so if I use spray McLube or the like I get complaints from all in this part of the building. Depending on the type of work you need to do, I would certainly try to hold out for 20x24 as minimum space. You also need to make sure if you are going to rebuild that there is elevator (in my case) to bring whatever piano to the shop. I could bring a Steinway "B" but not a "D". There is no place to strip and refinish, and that may also be a consideration. I had to move the M & H off campus this summer to do that part of the rebuild. Before I came last year, there wasn't even a "wheelie cart". At least there was money in the budget then for that. I only had to grovel a little. I supply my own tools with the exception of the 1960's drill press and radial arm saw. The techs here previously did not do much except tune and maintain the pianos. Now that budget is non existent for replacing pianos it is evident that it is far more cost effective to rebuild. If the university has the foresight to build the shop space large enough now it may pay them dividends in the foreseeable future. Good Luck, Henry Nicolaides Piano Technician, SIU School of Music Carbondale, Illinois 62901 email: henryn at siu.edu Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:51:28 -0400 From: zeno.wood at gmail.com To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] Office square footage Hello all, We're in the planning stage of a new music building, and at this point we're looking at blueprints. The plans seem to change pretty drastically every couple of months, as the college deals with cost overruns etc. The piano technician's office is getting smaller and smaller! I'd like to be able to talk about other CAUT's work conditions as I advocate for a little more space. As it is now, I have a small and cramped office, with a workbench, desk, file cabinet, small table, metal storage cabinet, and a wheelie cart. I also have some storage space under the stage, and in a little closet on the other side of the building. I can do bench regulation and action rebuilding in the office. I do some restringing, but only over the summer when all the students are away and I can work in a classroom/studio. If you have a similar situation, I'd appreciate hearing how big a space you have, and also what sort of light/window/door set up there is. Thanks in advance, Zeno Wood Brooklyn College _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online. http://windowslive.com/Campaign/SocialNetworking?ocid=PID23285::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:SI_SB_online:082009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090818/1f247c23/attachment.htm>
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