I broke up piano yesterday...

[scottbr]

You've always wanted to do that, haven't you.
We were a three piano family.
This was one we found dumped in the lane behind the house about 5 years ago. We dragged it into my shed and served its purpose, but it was time for it to go. And old pianos can't even be given away.
It was 100 years old (google told me that) and I thought there might be some good timber in it. There wasn't. It was made from what looked like cheap and knotty oregon and pine. And they used a lot of glue.
They was some interesting hardware, but less than I expected.
I can confirm that the cast iron frame makes up about 80% of the weight of a piano. Not sure what to do with it.
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[TassieRob]

It is worth hanging onto the keys. The black ones are usually Ebony which is very handy for smaller jobs.

[Tonyz]

Put the cast iron frame back in the alleyway, one mans junk is another mans treasure.

[skot]

I did this 10 years ago. I picked up an old piano to use as a prop for my wife's photography business, I cleaned & polished it up...BUT unfortunately it went under in the 2011 flood that went through our workshop. I demolished it and couldn't believe how heavy the cast iron frame was. Nearly burst a poofle valve lifting into the van to take it to the scrap metal merchant. I got $12 for the frame.

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[Old Croc]

I wish you had asked the question before you destroyed it. Do a google search on piano bookcases. I am going to make one, another of my projects.
Rgds,
Crocy.

[Handyjack]

Along time ago, I am sure I saw a piano converted into some sort of buffet, where the keys were replaced with a counter.

[Tom trees]

There may be some use for some of it.
Are you sure that the frame is cast iron, and not bronze, although it doesn't have any golden colour, could it be some sort
of oxidation, guessing not on this one.
If it was, it could make good stock for making plane parts like lever caps, or thumb planes with.
spring loaded go bars, or dial indicator thickness gauge for soundboards,

Obviously the black keys could be ebony or similar.
The soundboard might be good for those delving into luthiere,
I wont get into the white keys and what they would be suitable for, I have no clue, but feel obliged not to throw them away.

Whats left, some of the timber frames are very difficult to dismantle to get use out of, and sometimes infested.
Could do something with the panels, usually walnut.
The felt might have some use for something

That leaves the strings, which can be made into springs, which are very difficult to source.
Everyone who works on their workshop will likely need some sort of spring.
Thinking angle poise lamps, latch mechanisms, Cosman'ish bench dogs and no doubt more things.

All the best
Tom

[clear out]

Our dumb neighbour smashed one up and left it out for the council clean up.
The sound board was still connected to the iron frame strings and all.
The sound board was something nice but it got rained on quicksmart.
It was a really neat thing, I thought about contacting the local daycare and making a frame for it so the kids could pluck the strings.
The council guys couldn’t lift it to get it to the truck so I unscrewed the sound board with brace and screwdriver bit whilst the truck did the rest of our dead end street.
It still didn’t want to come apart so they turned it over and from memory it was bolted.
All rusted up as the neighbour always puts his collection stuff out a few weeks early.
The council guys couldn’t stuff around any longer, so left it.
Long story short, it was out there propped up against his street tree for six months until the next clean up.
H.

[LanceC]

It was a really neat thing, I thought about contacting the local daycare and making a frame for it so the kids could pluck the strings.


That's a great idea. I was going to suggest seeing if a local school wanted it to hang on the wall of their music room. I don't know if non musicians also consider it beautiful, but I certainly do, and would be a shame to scrap it.

[scottbr]

Gee, this aroused some interest - I sense some of you have always wanted to do it.
I wasn't really asking what to do with it. If I wanted ideas I would have asked before wrecking it - I don't need any more furniture.
It was so cheaply made, I'm surprised it lasted 100 years. I kept the lid - it's solid timber. and the top. But all other panels were pine? framed with very thin ply.
Kept the mechanism with the hammers because it looks interesting - I'll move it from place to place for the next few years and likely throw it out.
Kept the keys. The white ones are oregon? and the white part is thin plastic glued on. I'll also keep them for some years and toss them in a clean up.
The black keys are morning interesting. As someone said, likely ebony - certainly hard and dense.
The frame is definitely cast iron - it had been painted gold in places where it was visible. There is a childcare centre up the road, but if that thing toppled over, the coroner would be involved. There was a sound artist from New York living in that building for a couple of years - she was the one keen to drag the piano in from the lane. If I put the frame on FB Marketplace or something, somebody might be interested in taking it.
One thing that will be useful is a couple of 1200 lengths of timber with rounded spikes. I cut them in thirds and can imagine using them when I'm oiling a breadboard or something so i can do both sides simultaneously i.e. I will rest the bottom when oiled on the spikes while I do the top.

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[ian]

Kept the keys. The white ones are oregon? and the white part is thin plastic glued on. I'll also keep them for some years and toss them in a clean up.
The black keys are morning interesting. As someone said, likely ebony - certainly hard and dense.
The thin white "plastic" glued onto the white keys could easily be ivory.

To my mind worth checking before throwing them away

[scottbr]

They possibly are ivory.
Sad to think an elephant may have given its life for that piano.
Not sure what I could do with several dozen thinner than wafer pieces of ivory.
And now I have that terrible song 'Ebony and Ivory' in my head - what on earth was Paul McCartney thinking?

[rrich]

Oh goodness. . . .

My parents bough a beach house about 1949. The previous owners left an upright piano in the house. After trying to give the piano away for over a year, the piano was rolled out onto the deck. After sitting there for months and over the winter we moved it out to the beach and burned it. We did manage to get the trash disposal people to take the cast iron frame.

[Enfield Guy]

Yeah maybe, but what can you do with it? Can’t make anything to sell and not enough to remake the elephant.

[mature one]

maybe useful as inlay material for people who make instruments with inlay pieces.

[yowie]

The vast majority of white keys are not ivory but a plastic imitation ivory that comes under a few different names. Ivorite, celluloid etc.

[scottbr]

The vast majority of white keys are not ivory but a plastic imitation ivory that comes under a few different names. Ivorite, celluloid etc.

If it had been possible to use a cheaper option with that piano, they would have.

[clear out]

Drove up to Gerard’s with the cyclone and he was making a guitar from a piano thrown out from the Cassilis pub.
Sound board was Spruce which will work well as the top and has quite a lot of ‘character’.
The neck is New Guinea Rosewood from a bed frame thrown out at the same time.
H.

[wood spirit]

Have seen them gutted and made into nice bars also computer desk with glass over the strings to save dusting. The frame itself can make a good garden ornament -can be crudely played with a small mallet:U

[scottbr]

I can report that the iron frame with all strings intact is now in the office of a sound artist at Sydney uni. She was over at our place last week for a visit. She had stayed for a year previously in our Airbnb and sometimes drops in. She's from New York and has a great job at the uni. I told her I had something out the back she might be interested in. She was.

[Repete]

Pianoi recycling, Victoria Pianos Recycled (http://pianosrecycled.eco)