Sunday, May 30, 2010

Day 5 – Saturday, May 29:

Goals: Remove the pin block/sound board, whatever it is; repair the bench

Music: The Teddy Charles Tentet; Wynton Marsalis Quartet’s “The Magic Hour

I worked a little bit on taking the bench apart. Mostly spent the time finding a board to replace as the bottom and settled on peg board that I had out in the garage. I glued a sheet of textured brown paper to it to cover the holes. Tomorrow I’ll be able to put it in and reassemble the bench. After that, I won’t do any more work on it.

I spent a good portion of my time removing the trim that was in the way of removing the frame. It came up rather easily, as the glue was all dried out and the brads are all rusted. I even managed to remove all the pieces intact. Almost. The long six foot piece was coming right out when suddenly, one of the brads decided to grab just as I pulled. It sent a shock wave down the length of the piece and broke it in two places. After I get the wood in decent shape, I’ll glue it back together, but I may end up just replacing that trim with my own bits of fancy trim. (The big screw is the one just north of the screwdriver handle in this photo.)



The rest of the time on the piano, about three hours total, was spent pulling screws out of the cast iron frame. It was a bear. One screw broke off. Another turns but doesn’t come out. The large screw in the front with a special place in the frame wouldn’t budge, not an inch. I banged and dripped WD-40 into it, but it just won’t move. I wore myself out trying. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll get it.

No comments: