Tilter -- making your own.

[Richard Moody]

----- Original Message -----
From: Keith Roberts <kpiano@goldrush.com>
To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2003 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: Tilter -- making your own.


> Thanks Ric, now I know what to do to make my homemade one safer.
I didn't
> have the catches right. I made mine out of 3/4" steel water
pipe. I bent the
> radiuses around a big propane tank and hammerd the ends flat. I
should have
> left those the full thickness for the catchers.

Interesting, yes leaving the catchers round would have "raised"
them 3/4 inch almost all you need.

    Tilted a huge upright today in a fine house. Pulled it out
from the wall on blankets so the castors never touched the
pristine oak floor.  For this particular piano a 2 x 4 could be
pushed under the piano from behind until it hit the castors.  When
the piano was tilted slightly back the back edge of the piano hit
the two by four and started to lift the castors off the floor.
This was well before the piano reaches its backwards falling
angle. If this angle is met and the castors are still on the
floor, the piano will try to scoot out rolling on the castors. But
once the castors leave the floor there is no danger of the piano
slipping out from the tilter.



 Cut it up with an abrasive
> saw ( chop ) and held it together while a friend tacked it
together with his
> TIG welder. Took him about an hour to weld it up. Some of the
diagonal
> stabilizing braces I made out of 1/2" pipe. It doesn't fold but
it will fit
> in the back of a pickup or wagon style car. I can carry it by
myself. Works
> great. Welded the casters on too.

Yes casters are important for the tilter.  They raise it that much
more instead of having to mak the radius larger.
    My tileter is wood so there are two sides and a middle piece
which comes out so it lays flat when I carry it. It is easy to
transport and bring into the house but takes about 10 minutes to
set it up.  I have smaller lawnmower type wheels  (4 inch)  two
on each side of the 2 x 4's for casters.  ---rm