In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron, no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel, and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

jtaylor wrote:

In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron, no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel, and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

That it is a quality item does not reflect on the potential for the
material to be a stone bitch to work.

You will find out soon enough with the hacksaw.

Cast tends to have a "skin" of quite hard material on it, with the rest
being (usually) quite nice and soft. Thin sections that cooled fast tend
towards hard through.
Did the piano burn? A good fire with a slowish cooldown will often
result in a softening of hard iron.

A good fire and a large hammer will allow the iron lumps too be broken
relativly easilly, if not precisely.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

"Trevor Jones" wrote in message
...
jtaylor wrote:

In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the
frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron,
no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel,
and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

That it is a quality item does not reflect on the potential for the
material to be a stone bitch to work.

You will find out soon enough with the hacksaw.

Cast tends to have a "skin" of quite hard material on it, with the rest
being (usually) quite nice and soft. Thin sections that cooled fast tend
towards hard through.
Did the piano burn? A good fire with a slowish cooldown will often
result in a softening of hard iron.

It may have. I'll let you'all know what it's like after I
hack/hammer/curse.


A good fire and a large hammer will allow the iron lumps too be broken
relativly easilly, if not precisely.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

In article ,
"jtaylor" wrote:

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel, and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

If all you're wanting is the iron in small enough pieces to carry away
and recast, a BFH alone should do the trick - bring earplugs and eye
protection. The other tools would only apply if you want to try to get
it to break in a particular location. A beater splitting maul might be
convenient as a sledgehammer-scale object with a nice narrow face on one
side.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

"Ecnerwal" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"jtaylor" wrote:

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel,
and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

If all you're wanting is the iron in small enough pieces to carry away
and recast, a BFH alone should do the trick - bring earplugs and eye
protection. The other tools would only apply if you want to try to get
it to break in a particular location. A beater splitting maul might be
convenient as a sledgehammer-scale object with a nice narrow face on one
side.

Have to be more-or-less specific sections. She won't let me play with fire.

jtaylor wrote:

In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron, no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel, and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

I strongly suggest leaving it right where it is until you actually need it. If
you haven't needed it for a few years you may realize that you saved yourself a
whole lot of work by not hauling it home, where the probability is enormous you
would never use it, it would take up a huge amount of space, and you might well
have to some day incur the effort and expense of hauling it to the dump.

Learning basic clutter control is essential to a livable shop.

GWE

jtaylor wrote:
In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron, no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel, and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.




If there's a significant number of strings and they are still tensioned,
cut them or "let them down" BEFORE you mess with the frame.

The stored energy of full load of strings in a "tuned" piano can can
make the frame buckle and try and emulate a fragmentation grenade if the
wood providing structural support to the cast iron frame is removed.

The iron frame provides a rigid spacing for the ends of the strings, to
help keep the piano in tune, but it's the wood structure that keeps that
frame from buckling and cracking.

DAMHIKT

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

Backpack, BFH, safety glasses, and J. Wisnia's advice. I carry around a
6# sledge on a short handle for these type projects.

A piano cast is narrow enough that it's easily broken into packable
pieces. Hell, I break cast iron all the time to feed the the furnace at
www.friendsofredtop.org all the time.

Now, is it just me, or am I imagining that some pianos are
***bronze***, as opposed to cast iron?

Now, if it's bronze; Sweet!

~Dave

jtaylor wrote:

In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron, no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel, and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

Drag it home and sell it on eBay, maybe. There are piano
restorers who might pay well enough for it. Heintzman pianos were
quality pianos; my folks still have the 1901 model they bought when
they got married in '52 and it plays as well as it ever did.. You can
get a piano repairman to look up the date of manufacture if you give
him the serial number off the top front of the harp.

Dan

On 18 Jan 2006 12:01:43 -0800, wrote:
Drag it home and sell it on eBay, maybe. There are piano
restorers who might pay well enough for it. Heintzman pianos were
quality pianos; my folks still have the 1901 model they bought when
they got married in '52 and it plays as well as it ever did.. You can
get a piano repairman to look up the date of manufacture if you give
him the serial number off the top front of the harp.

I doubt anyone would trust a chunk of cast iron with unknown history,
given the tremendous strain something like that is put under in use. A
lot of piano guys won't even touch upright pianos, for instance.
I can't think of any reasonable way for a piano to get into the woods
without _some_ sort of abuse happening to it.

In article ,
Dave Hinz wrote:

On 18 Jan 2006 12:01:43 -0800,
wrote:
Drag it home and sell it on eBay, maybe. There are piano
restorers who might pay well enough for it. Heintzman pianos were
quality pianos; my folks still have the 1901 model they bought when
they got married in '52 and it plays as well as it ever did.. You can
get a piano repairman to look up the date of manufacture if you give
him the serial number off the top front of the harp.

I doubt anyone would trust a chunk of cast iron with unknown history,
given the tremendous strain something like that is put under in use. A
lot of piano guys won't even touch upright pianos, for instance.

Which makes little sense, since an upright and a grand are essentially
the same thing, just one is a "stood on end and packed into a square
box" version of the "lays flat in a weird-shaped box" unit. (Spinets
don't count, but if they did, I'd expect themn to be considered little
more than a "more tightly packed" upright with ALL of the wires (rather
than just the bass end) running diagonally instead of vertically.)

I can't think of any reasonable way for a piano to get into the woods
without _some_ sort of abuse happening to it.

I'd take a SWAG that there was once a house at that location, the
position of the piano indicates where the "parlor"/sitting rooom was,
and that sometime in the
distant-enough-to-be-forgotten-by-men-and-overgrown-by-woods past, said
house burned to the ground, taking the owners and all of their
heirs/living relatives with it, and the property was effectively
abandoned until the OP took up residence.

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd for more info

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:15:15 -0800, Don Bruder wrote:
In article ,
Dave Hinz wrote:

I doubt anyone would trust a chunk of cast iron with unknown history,
given the tremendous strain something like that is put under in use. A
lot of piano guys won't even touch upright pianos, for instance.

Which makes little sense, since an upright and a grand are essentially
the same thing, just one is a "stood on end and packed into a square
box" version of the "lays flat in a weird-shaped box" unit.

Well, as it was explained to me, yes, they're similar size and all, but
the quality between a grand, and an upright, is considerably different.

I can't think of any reasonable way for a piano to get into the woods
without _some_ sort of abuse happening to it.

I'd take a SWAG that there was once a house at that location, the
position of the piano indicates where the "parlor"/sitting rooom was,
and that sometime in the
distant-enough-to-be-forgotten-by-men-and-overgrown-by-woods past, said
house burned to the ground, taking the owners and all of their
heirs/living relatives with it, and the property was effectively
abandoned until the OP took up residence.

A reasonable swag, to be sure. But, I'd qualify "been through a house
fire" to be abuse, metalurgically speaking, no?

It'd be interesting to know the color of the rust on the thing, if it's
that pinkish-color, for instance.

Grant Erwin wrote:
I strongly suggest leaving it right where it is until you actually need
it. If you haven't needed it for a few years you may realize that you
saved yourself a whole lot of work by not hauling it home, where the
probability is enormous you would never use it, it would take up a huge
amount of space, and you might well have to some day incur the effort
and expense of hauling it to the dump.

Learning basic clutter control is essential to a livable shop.

Boy, what a killjoy YOU are LOL

One should never leave a newly found treasure lie.No telling who may
come along and snatch it up on you. The more piles of scrounge stuff
around the better IMHO. Nohting like waking up at 2 in the morning
with an idea in your head, and grab the flash light and start
rumageing though the treasure piles neatly piled, stacked, heaped or
dumped all over 40+ acres knowing you have that item somewhere.....

Then jump in the truck and drive 20 miles to where that part is laying
in the woods for the last 10 years only to find the thing
gone...........real bummer! ;-)
On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:41:38 -0600, Rex B
wrote:

Grant Erwin wrote:
I strongly suggest leaving it right where it is until you actually need
it. If you haven't needed it for a few years you may realize that you
saved yourself a whole lot of work by not hauling it home, where the
probability is enormous you would never use it, it would take up a huge
amount of space, and you might well have to some day incur the effort
and expense of hauling it to the dump.

Learning basic clutter control is essential to a livable shop.

Boy, what a killjoy YOU are LOL

--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder! Koi-ahoi mates....

DEFINATLEY TAKE HEARING PROTECTION ALONG!!!!. Some freinds and I tried
breaking one up about 35 yers ago. My ears are still ringing. We bashed on
that thing for a long time. 3 or 4 20 something year olds taking turns with
a sledge hammer and we couldn't break that harp. Some nieghbors complaind
about the noise, (all the strings were still on it) the police came and told
us to quit. We explained that the trash men said break it up and they'd
take it. The cops said OK have at it. We beat on it till the wood was
toothpick size but the harp remained intact.
I can't hear you honey.....
Tom
"jtaylor" wrote in message
t.ca...

"Trevor Jones" wrote in message
...
jtaylor wrote:

In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the
frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron,
no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry
easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel,
and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.

That it is a quality item does not reflect on the potential for the
material to be a stone bitch to work.

You will find out soon enough with the hacksaw.

Cast tends to have a "skin" of quite hard material on it, with the rest
being (usually) quite nice and soft. Thin sections that cooled fast tend
towards hard through.
Did the piano burn? A good fire with a slowish cooldown will often
result in a softening of hard iron.

It may have. I'll let you'all know what it's like after I
hack/hammer/curse.


A good fire and a large hammer will allow the iron lumps too be broken
relativly easilly, if not precisely.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

Roy wrote:

One should never leave a newly found treasure lie.No telling who may
come along and snatch it up on you. The more piles of scrounge stuff
around the better IMHO. Nohting like waking up at 2 in the morning
with an idea in your head, and grab the flash light and start
rumageing though the treasure piles neatly piled, stacked, heaped or
dumped all over 40+ acres knowing you have that item somewhere.....

Then jump in the truck and drive 20 miles to where that part is laying
in the woods for the last 10 years only to find the thing
gone...........real bummer! ;-)
On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:41:38 -0600, Rex B
wrote:

Grant Erwin wrote:
I strongly suggest leaving it right where it is until you actually need
it. If you haven't needed it for a few years you may realize that you
saved yourself a whole lot of work by not hauling it home, where the
probability is enormous you would never use it, it would take up a huge
amount of space, and you might well have to some day incur the effort
and expense of hauling it to the dump.

Learning basic clutter control is essential to a livable shop.

Boy, what a killjoy YOU are LOL


Of course there's always this one:

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3539319a11,00.html

Tom

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:48:40 GMT, (Roy) wrote:



One should never leave a newly found treasure lie.No telling who may
come along and snatch it up on you. The more piles of scrounge stuff
around the better IMHO. Nohting like waking up at 2 in the morning
with an idea in your head, and grab the flash light and start
rumageing though the treasure piles neatly piled, stacked, heaped or
dumped all over 40+ acres knowing you have that item somewhere.....

Then jump in the truck and drive 20 miles to where that part is laying
in the woods for the last 10 years only to find the thing
gone...........real bummer! ;-)
Just wish I'd dragged home three or four of the steam traction
engines, or the 7HP hit&miss ant 4" water pump abandoned at various
locations on our trap zone fifty years ago. Or a few of the mid
twenties to early thirties cars pushed into the cedars along the lake
shore when the owners got tired of fixing flat tires during WW II.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

The bye key wire will be valuable also. various gage of music wire.
Nice sound board wood.

Such is life. Maybe real ivory on the keys ? - get it and make something.
That might be the reason it was dumped. Guilty feelings.

The ivory isn't Elephant. It is aged - Mastodon or Mammoth - typically from Turkey.
Otherwise the ivory would split and warp just like wood.

Martin
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH & Endowment Member
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder



jtaylor wrote:
In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron, no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel, and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
et...
jtaylor wrote:
In the woods around the cottage we found what's left of a piano - the
frame
and (some) strings, essentially. Heintzmann upright, it was.

I'm thinking that there's a nice bit of cast iron for projects.

Correct me please if 'm wrong, but it's likely to be _nice_ cast iron,
no?
Pianos being quality items and all.

And suggestions for reducing it to pieces small enough to carry easily;
right now I probably will take a hacksaw and a coarse blade, a chisel,
and a
BFH. There's no power anywhere near.




If there's a significant number of strings and they are still tensioned,
cut them or "let them down" BEFORE you mess with the frame.

The stored energy of full load of strings in a "tuned" piano can can
make the frame buckle and try and emulate a fragmentation grenade if the
wood providing structural support to the cast iron frame is removed.

The iron frame provides a rigid spacing for the ends of the strings, to
help keep the piano in tune, but it's the wood structure that keeps that
frame from buckling and cracking.

DAMHIKT

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

DON'T cut a string under tension. A lot of people have been hurt by
shooting strings. I' ve been told of one piano technician who was killed by
one... A 1/4 inch socket extension will slip over the tuning pin. Then,
put a big Crescent wrench on the other end and let the string down. Put
somethng like a piece of plywood or a furniture pad over the strings to damp
any tendency for a broken string to fly before you mess with them in case
one lets go.

Jerry

"Martin H. Eastburn" wrote in message
...
The bye key wire will be valuable also. various gage of music wire.
Nice sound board wood.

Such is life. Maybe real ivory on the keys ? - get it and make
something.
That might be the reason it was dumped. Guilty feelings.

The ivory isn't Elephant. It is aged - Mastodon or Mammoth - typically
from Turkey.
Otherwise the ivory would split and warp just like wood.


Just to clarify, there's no wood; the strings are mostly rusted/gone. It's
a hunk of metal, no more.

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 05:52:51 GMT, Jerry Foster wrote:

DON'T cut a string under tension. A lot of people have been hurt by
shooting strings. I' ve been told of one piano technician who was killed by
one... A 1/4 inch socket extension will slip over the tuning pin. Then,
put a big Crescent wrench on the other end and let the string down. Put
somethng like a piece of plywood or a furniture pad over the strings to damp
any tendency for a broken string to fly before you mess with them in case
one lets go.

If it was me, I'd do it in "zones" too - don't just start loosening on
one end and work to the other, keep things balanced as you take tension
off the frame. Maybe over-cautious, but doesn't cost anything more to
do it that way. Take down a high one, a middle one, a low one, and
lather/rinse/repeat until you run out of stress.

Stored energy is an amazing thing...

Dave Hinz

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 05:38:20 -0400, "jtaylor"
wrote:



Just to clarify, there's no wood; the strings are mostly rusted/gone. It's
a hunk of metal, no more.


Might I suggest (from a position of profound ignorance) That you take a
petrol/gas abrasive saw with you if you can get hold of one. Then you can nick
the frame where you want it to break before you start hitting it with the
sledge hammer.


Mark Rand
RTFM