turning a Grand upright

[soundsgreatmusic at sbcglobal.net]

Being in the business of service, new and used sales, and move for hire, we 
will typically use the lyre as previously described but use caution with 
older pianos and certainly never on an ornate Victorian sort of thing. The 
real problem comes when breaking down pianos with double spindles and 
stretchers. The stress on the tail legs could be enormous.
After hundreds of deliveries and moves, we've never lost a lyre (or dumped a 
piano).
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dean May" <deanmay at pianorebuilders.com>
To: "'Pianotech List'" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2008 9:00 AM
Subject: RE: turning a Grand upright


>>>I have seem lyres shattered from this practice.  More importantly. I
> suspect that the entire weight of the piano, being born at the center of 
> the
> keybed can do no good to the key regulation.
> Don't do it!
> Frank Emerson
>
>
>
> Then why is it standard practice for Keyboard Carriage to use the lyre 
> when
> they are putting a 9 foot piano on a skid?
>
> As a PianoDisc installer who has cut into lots of keybeds and a mechanical
> engineer with a modicum of structural strength comprehension I have every
> confidence that those massively thick keybeds, often reinforced with 
> another
> traverse member attached underneath, can handle the weight. In fact, it 
> was
> at my PianoDisc training session in the early 90's where I first saw the
> practice, it was standard procedure in their factory.
>
> I have seen one lyre break by doing this (thankfully it wasn't me that did
> it). It was an 1890's with ornate lyre, not straight legs. And that mover
> was not employing the brace that I showed in the previous post. No way it
> would have broken with that brace. Using that brace makes the whole thing
> unbelievably strong. There is absolutely no flexure of the lyre.
>
> Even so, I would not do it on a lyre with curved ornate legs. Just use 
> good
> judgment. If the legs and lyre are rickety from the start you may have
> problems no matter what you do.
>
>
> Dean
>
> Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
>
> PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
>
> Terre Haute IN  47802
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On 
> Behalf
> Of pianoguru at cox.net
> Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2008 12:17 AM
> To: Pianotech List
> Cc: John Delacour
> Subject: Re: turning a Grand upright
>
> ---- John Delacour <JD at Pianomaker.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Put on legs 2 and 3 and the lyre ......
>>When I was younger I would do this alone.  We nearly always do it
>> this way and have never had a lyre break
>
>
>