Chickering cocked hat advice

[Larry J Hofer]

Dave, 
        I rebuilt a  1860's Chickering 8' grand that had the inner rim
over the edge of the plate like your piano. Here is how I removed the
plate.
First steam off the veneer off the top of the rim. Then you will be able
to see the glue joint. Drill 1/2 inch holes about 2 inches apart all the
way around the top of the rim right in the glue joint down to the plate.
Drill as straight as possible to stay in the glue joint and not wander
off the joint. 
With a sharp strong scraper split the inner and outer rim at the glue
joint now weakened by the 1/2 inch holes. Go slow and try to do as little
damage as possible. The cleaner the inner rim comes apart the easier it
will be to glue it back together. 
        The plate can now be removed and the rebuilding can proceed. The 
inner rim on the Chickering I rebuilt was made of  two different types of
wood, mahogany and oak. The bent part of the rim in the back of the case
was oak and was much harder to split with out damage. Once the plate is
back in the piano you can glue the inner rim back in and then dowel the
drilled holes and then re glue the veneer that was steamed off. 
        If I had to do this again I think I would glue a 1/8 to 1/4 inch
piece of  rosewood over the top of the rim instead of the rosewood
veneer.  The reason for this is that even though I sanded the top of the
rim so that the dowels were very flat to the top of the rim, after the
new veneer was glued on and the piano was refinished, you could see a
shadow of the  1/2 inch dowels through the veneer and the new high gloss 
finish. This is a lot of work and maybe someone knows of a better way.
Nice piano when done.
 
Larry Hofer
Corona CA  



On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 08:56:56 -0600 Dave Doremus
<algiers_piano at bellsouth.net> writes:
> Anyone have experience doing major surgery on these? The action 
> problems are straightforward but it looks like the piano is built 
> like an upright, assembled to the inner rim and bracing with the 
> outer rim then being applied over the edge of the plate and the 
> whole 
> thing then veneered. Could be a nice antique instrument if I could 
> figure a way to get at the soundboard. Or am I just missing 
> something 
> totally obvious? wouldn't be the first time. :-)
> -- 
> ----Dave
> 
> 
> -----------------------------
> Dave Doremus, RPT
> New Orleans
> ------------------------------
> 
>