Dave Osborne wrote:

Tim Watts wrote:
I have an upright piano (can't play but my daughter can).

It's a nice piano, and pretty heavy.

Problem is it has tiny metal wheels which play havoc with slate.

I found some meaty proper piano wheels on the web (designed for school
pianos).

But knowing that pianos are made out of pretty substantial wood, I was
wondering if there were any gotcha's with screwing them on? Like maybe
drilling clearance holes only a little smaller than the screw thread? And
the correct type of screw (coach screws?).

What sort of wood are piano structural members made from?


Ooh, you don't want to do that. I expect that the wheels you have seen
are for making a dolly to move the piano, and require a mechanism to put
the piano back on the floor when you're finished moving it.

If you put large diameter wheels permanently on (the bottom of) a piano,
you will have to consider that you will be raising the piano up, which
means that the pedals will be off the floor, the keyboard will be too
high and you may not have enough adjustment in the bench. To get around
this you would need to put the piano on a dolly which was big enough to
put the bench on as well. This would not look good in a domestic
environment.

What you would normally do in a domestic environment is put your piano
on castor cups. There are various options: -

http://www.pianoaccessoryshop.co.uk/...ups-368-0.html

http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-access...shop/index.php

also called caster cups and glides if you're Googling.


HTH
DaveyOz

I was just thinking of sliding it over something. Like hardboard. Remembered
people said that worked for washing machines and the like. If that doesn't
work, sheet metal probably would. Or teflon sheet, if that could be had for
sensible money. It's fairly hard stuff in solid form from my recollection of
once seeing a block of it.

For cleaning/decorating, it's not too much trouble to whip out a bit of
hardboard, and it should be perfectly feasible to move it into the hall with
3-4 boards.

I take your point about raising the height, and Spamlet's about bits falling
off. Having just tried lifting it, I could just get one end off the ground,
barely, and I'm used to lifting. Got to be 1/4 ton or more in all.

I expect the wheel bearings are shot anyway and bumpy slate doesn't really
go well with 3cm dia brass rollers!

However, it would be quite easy to tip it slightly to get hardboard under
the front. I'll get some next time I'm down B&Q and try it.

It's an inherited piano - not complaining, it's very nice - but if I had to
actually buy one, I know for sure I'd get an electronic one - they weigh and
cost rather less!

Re the castor cups - do you think they'd work on slate? I can see them
(assuming they are plastic) getting ground away in pretty short order.

--
Tim Watts