This reminds me of what happened to me today that I have wanted to discuss before, but always forget. On a piano I service regularly (for several years now) at a school, it sits on a stage dolly that supports it on the bottom board. The weight of the piano has caused the bottom board to bow up to the extent that it is now impossible to remove the bottom board without first removing the screws and spring first, then the top of the board scrapes the bottom of the keybed as you remove it. I have to do this every year to this piano as it has a Life Saver system installed. I've seen similar things happen on similar dollies. Pianos were designed to be supported at the point of the castors. If you are going to recommend a stage dolly for a vertical piano, please recommend one that supports that piano where it was designed to be supported. Otherwise in a few years you'll likely encounter regulation problems, cabinet separation and perhaps even trouble removing the bottom board. And if you recommended and installed the dolly, guess who gets the blame? These kinds of problems will likely get worse and worse as manufacturers continue to cost reduce and cut corners, making cabinets even less rigid. Dean Dean May cell 812.239.3359 PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272 Terre Haute IN 47802 _____ From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of wimblees at aol.com Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 8:16 PM To: Pianotech at PTG.org Subject: [pianotech] How do you ladies do it? How do you take off the bottom panel when there are 2 springs holding the thing in place? I've got a big wing span, and strong thumbs, but sometimes that's not enough to push up the springs and remove the board at the same time, especially when the springs are rusty, which most of them are here in Hawaii. Up to now I push up on one, and pull the board towards me a little, and then try to push up the other side. But I wonder if there is another way to do this. This is not to imply that this has to do with you ladies being the "weaker" sex, but most of you are not as big as I am and don't have the wing span. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Mililani, Oahu, HI 808-349-2943 Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090820/12f1974f/attachment.htm>
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