On Jul 11, 2008, Phil Bondi wrote: > Again, I fear for leg#3 without getting the piano up in the air > first. Hi Phil, Randy Mangus, who sometimes contributes to this list, taught me that, in order to protect the tail leg (#3) when tilting a grand piano up from its vertical position, turn the wheel on leg #3 up (pointing towards the ceiling). If that wheel is pointed down, it will contact the floor in an unstable configuration, and it may kick out and swivel around suddenly as weight is added. The stress caused by that sudden movement (essentially, the piano tail falls about three inches during the wheel's swiveling) can shatter the rear leg. If the caster stem or kingpin is fairly tight, you can just rotate the wheel up before tilting. If the wheel swivels freely, I rotate the wheel up, and then secure it with blue painter's tape just to be sure. You might already know about this, but since you want to be careful with this operation, I thought I'd add it. Joe DeFazio Pittsburgh
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