Day 31 – Sunday, July 11 – Inside, where it’s cool:

Goals: Reassemble the pedal lyre, begin work on the veneer on the back.

Music: Serge Chaloff’s “Blue Serge”, John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, The Best of Chick Corea.

I put the pedal lyre back together. I glued felt to the inside, sewed two pieces together for the pedal fittings, glued pads to the base, meticulously reviewed my photos of disassembly to ascertain which wood plugs that hold the pedals in went where, then put everything back together. I pulled out the brass rods that I bought and grabbed my Dremel and cut the lengths needed for that and the damper lifter bar. I’m taking them to work to have them cleaned up a little before I install them. I still need to make some rods for mounting the pedal lyre to the bottom of the piano, anyway.

Then I set to filling the missing chunks on the back of the piano with wood filler. I was trying to avoid having to sand the back surface, since it will be covered with veneer anyway, but I think I’m going to have to level it out before putting it up. I’ll talk to my experts on veneer and see what they say. I may be able to get away just putting it up, but after my shortcut on the harp turned into a disaster, I’m a bit reluctant to take any more shortcuts on any major portions of the renovation project.

Next step is to clean and organize. I’ve got all the keys laid out on the piano frame, but after I get the veneer on, I want to put the legs back on (what a space saver that’ll be!) and move my sawhorses to the garage for working on the wood top pieces. So, I’ll need to set up a table or something to put all the keys out on, along with all the other parts that are cluttering up the floor.

I think my Labor Day target completion is feasible, as long as I don’t have too many more setbacks like the harp episode this past weekend.