[pianotech] Weight question

[Roger Gable]

Greg et al,
My dyslexia got me again. I should have said the treble leg sustains 55% of 
the 2 front legs. Again, the rear leg on a 9' piano is sustaining a 
substantially higher percentage of the total mass. To illustrate this, draw 
a straight line between the treble and bass legs. You will see that the 
amount of mass occupying the piano on the keyboard side of the bass/treble 
line is small compared to the mass on the rear side of that line. Conversely 
a 5' piano's rear leg is sustaining little of the total weight. Try lifting 
the leg of a 5' piano, it is very easy, but not a 9' grand. Another useless 
bit of information I discovered while engineering the grand piano tilter is 
that Yamaha's two front legs are placed further back from the keyslip line 
than the Steinway, hence you can see that the brand of piano creates 
variations with the percentage of total load to each leg,
Roger

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell at ameritech.net>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Weight question


Roger,
I don't know why this is but if you dead lift each leg one at a time
you will find that the treble is the heaviest.

Greg Newell
Greg's Piano Forté
www.gregspianoforte.com
216-226-3791 (office)
216-470-8634 (mobile)

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Roger Gable
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 11:38 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Weight question

Having designed my grand piano tilter for the last year to determine weight
distribution of grand pianos, I can tell you that the weight distribution
depends on the size of the piano. 9' pianos have slightly more weight
distribution on the tail, but smaller pianos (around  6') have about 2/3
distributed on the 2 front legs with the bass leg taking approximately 55%
of the 2 front legs. A 750lb. piano is commensurate to a 7' piano which
would have approximately equal weight distribution on all 3 legs. Of course
this varies with the manufacturer.
Roger Gable
P.S. Why did you need to know this?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell at ameritech.net>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 7:39 AM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Weight question


No! Lift each one, one at a time, and you'll understand.

Greg Newell
Greg's Piano Forté
www.gregspianoforte.com
216-226-3791 (office)
216-470-8634 (mobile)

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Richard Ucci
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 8:34 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Weight question


List,
If a piano weighs 750 lbs. , should one assume that each leg supports
one third of weight?

Rick Ucci/ Ucci Piano
www.uccipiano.com