Stieff Rebuild - Tear Down

Week 15? Yes. I made no progress on the project for the past 10 weeks. Oh my. Interruptions were a lot of customer work, a week at Renner Academy, and reconditioning of a Yamaha P22 for resale.

But on with the story:

I had the time this week to do the major tear down of the piano in preparation for case refinishing, soundboard replacement, and pin block replacement.

Here are photos of interest:

Nice bass strings. It's a shame they have to go for the sake of the project.

Mapping old soundboard crown prior to releasing string tension.

Completely unstrung.

Plate levitation.

Steiff used plate height adjustement screws at each plate bolt, instead of dowels. I'll be using Mason & Hamlin plate bolts which allow for height adjustment during assembly without removing the plate.

Recording the position of bridges relative to the case, per techniques described by Nick Gravagne

Cutting out the pinblock with help from a 16" Makita circular saw. Looking carefully, you'll see a shoe plate attached to the saw, controlling the position of the cut.

The pinblock cut was finished with a hand saw, and the last bit of glue joint was broken out. Subsequently the 2 mm of material remaining on the stretcher was carefully removed by moistenting, heating with an iron and peeled off with a chisel.

Preparing for soundboard removal. Glue joint was weakened with vinegar. It popped right out with a little dancing on its bottom. Check out the massive rim on this piano!

The point of no return!