piano moving/lyre

[Allen Wright]

Allan,

I agree - the Piano Horse is a wonderful tool, and makes the job of moving
grands much less stressful. It supports in the same way as the lyre, only
better because of the smooth roll involved in getting the piano onto it's
side. It's a beautiful thing.

For any of you that haven't seen the Horse, picture a 1/4 slice of pie.
That's the shape of the frame, basically, which is fit under the front part
of the piano (under the keyframe), with a threaded post (for support) that
screws out against the leg opposite the side that's being dropped onto the
sled.

There used to be a grand sled called the Piano Chariot, which had lockable
wheels, which meant you could move grands without any lifting whatsoever.
These two in combination made the perfect moving tools, in my opinion. I'm
not sure the company is still in business, since I just tried the website
address I had saved a couple years back and it didn't come up. They were in
Atlanta, or thereabouts. Anybody know what happened to them? They were
called Moving Equipment Makers. They had moved from I think Tennessee down
to Atlanta with a change of ownership, but perhaps the company didn't
survive the change.

Allen Wright



----------
>From: Allan Gilreath <agilreath@mindspring.com>
>To: 'Pianotech' <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Subject: RE: piano moving/lyre
>Date: Thu, Oct 30, 2003, 11:30 PM
>

> Carl,
>
> You'll usually find techs/movers (not dividing them into two groups
> there) strongly divided on this issue.  I've seen two collapsed lyres
> and quite a few more that had tenons weakened from use of the lyre to
> turn the piano so I quite simply won't do it or allow it to be done on
> any move with which I'm involved.  Sure, it's good money repairing these
> when they're brought in but I cringe at the thought of someone getting
> hurt.
>
> The best route is to use the "Horse" developed by Gordon Crail and sold
> my Jansen (I think).  It's a professional piece of equipment and does
> the job it's designed to do while protecting the movers and the
> customer's investment.  It's a frame that fits under the front of the
> piano and allows one person to roll the piano over onto a skid with no
> straining.  Two people can easily, and safely, turn even the heaviest 9'
> piano.
>
> If I don't have one of those available, I remove the lyre and set a
> metal stand (we made one that's adjustable in height) under the bass end
> of the keybed then remove the bass leg.  The bass corner is lifted
> slightly, the second person removes the stand and then the bass corner
> is lowered to the skid.  I haven't tried the support running from the
> bottom of the lyre to the treble leg but I still prefer the Horse
> because of the leverage afforded even on small pianos.
>
> My feeling is that if we're going to do this work, we should do it
> safely, efficiently and professionally.  Life is just too precious to
> take those kinds of risks.
>
> Allan
> Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
> Behalf Of Carl Meyer
> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 12:45 PM
> To: files
> Subject: piano moving/lyre
>
> I think that the lyres on most pianos are strong enough for tilting the
> piano.  Most of the movers I've dealt with  use them.  I would think
> that
> you would want to examine the lyre so that it is solid and attached
> well.
> Large and heavy pianos might be an exception.
>
> I've moved TOO many pianos.  I now (if I can't get out of it) lift the
> bass
> end and tuck a 3 inch thick piece of expanded polyethylene under the
> lyre.
> This lifts the bass up enough to remove the bass leg.  Now I position
> the
> skid on the dolly properly so that the bass edge tips on the center of
> the
> skid.  The dolly will tip so that the left side of the piano will be
> flat on
> the skid until the piano is raised upright.  The trick is to position
> the
> dolly so that the piano will balance.  Now the piano can be centered and
> strapped down.
>
> An idea I got from Lowell Wacker (who moves pianos, any size, by
> himself is
> to brace the lyre to the treble leg.  I made something for this out of
> threaded rod and plumbing parts.  Haven't used it much but I think it
> would
> be some insurance against putting too much side thrust on the lyre.
>
> Anybody seen or heard of a lyre collapse?
>
> Picture of the contraption is attached.
>
> Carl Meyer Ptg assoc
> Santa Clara, Ca.
>
> Photo at:
>
> https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/files/attachments/4e/48/2e/c7/lyreprop.jpg
>
> Alternate:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/t2h4
>
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