# Piano Man



## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Well, gotta weird one. I have a couple that wants to take a Baby Grand piano and convert it into an entertainment center. When finished it will have legs in the area of the keyboard. The keyboard will be facing towards the floor and the body will be upright. Trying to use as many parts and pcs of hardware in the new setup. 

1st things that need to be done will be to get rid of the parts that aren't needed. The soundboard would be nice to keep, but it just takes up too much room that is needed for shelf space. Some of the bracing on the bottom will also be removed. After that I need to strip the existing finish from it. It is old and worn and would be tough to replenish. Plus they have a different color in mind.

Hopefully this will take less than 50 hours. Additional parts should be minimal, the shelving and I might make some of the legs over as the existing ones are in poor shape.

Some before shots.










Going to try to save the name stencil and apply it on the 
entertainment center somewhere.




































Soundboard and bridge









Looks like a nice mahogany veneer.


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

This is going to be interesting.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

rayking49 said:


> This is going to be interesting.


+1. :yes: Sounds like a challenging project, but a lot of fun. Lets your innovative chromosomes go to work. Looks a bit heavy to move around. 

BTW...thinking of changing your username?:laughing:










 







.


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

Cool! Look forward to seeing this progress.


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## CasinoDuck (Jun 15, 2011)

subscribed


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## Shop Dad (May 3, 2011)

Can't wait to see what you do with it Leo.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Me neither. :laughing:


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## JQMack (Sep 24, 2011)

This is going to be cool to follow!


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## Ted Tolstad (Feb 20, 2011)

Very interesting.....count me in on this one.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Started working on the piano today. First thing I needed to do was to remove the soundboard. I wanted to try to get it out without damaging it. Had to remove a few small blocks of wood that were epoxied in place. They popped off easy. I was happily surprised. I gave the backside of the soundboard quite a few sharp wraps with a block of wood and a mallet to shock the epoxy and break it free. I used a putty knife to break the joint on the front side of the soundboard. Mostly it came apart pretty easy. There was about 1 foot of it that gave me some issues, but I got it off without destroying it to much. Mostly the back (underside) where it was attached with the epoxy and nails is where the damage occurred.



















After the soundboard was removed I had to get it up on horses so it would be in a horizontal position so I could work on the area that the soundboard was removed, some epoxy and wood from the soundboard was left over.










Wood from the soundboard remained









After I cleaned it up with a chisel and a sander









Most of the laminations look like poplar. When I sand the underside of the piano I’ll be able to see what all the laminations are.

At this time I called my clients to ask if they wanted to keep the big maple member that went across the piano. It was a very interesting detail and it really made the piano look pianoish. Plus it had a large recess under it and I thought it would be a great place to hide some lights.

They came by and looked and it kind of screwed with their plans. They liked what I was thinking but now had to think if this would work into the plans they had thought they were going to use this entertainment center for. I told them no real rush. It was 94 in the shop and past lunchtime. I told them to think about what they wanted to do with it and let me know for the morning. They said they’d like to come back around 5:30 to let me know what their decision was. Not a problem So I went to Hooters with Snobnd.

Went back to the shop around 4:30 after some awesome thunderstorms and started up with the paint stripper,

Put on some stripper and it really didn’t react like I am use to. Usually this stuff will bubble up the paint nearly instantly. This just sat there. After 10 minutes I took a glue scraper to it and it seemed to be working. Put more on the spot and was going to let it sit. My clients came back and we discussed what they wanted to do. We are keeping the beam, we are putting more lights in to light up the keyboard. Gonna be cool.

Here is what the stripper was able to do.










Gotta be carefully with the sanding, this veneer is thin, a lot thinner than I expected. I’ll take care of it in the finishing process. Glad it isn’t going to be a clear coat.


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## mattk8715 (Jan 22, 2010)

WOW! I love following your work Leo, and can't wait to see how this turns out!


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Me too. The keep coming up with different ideas. And I told them as long as I don't start building they can keep changing things. But once I start, that's it. All bets are placed and the horses are running the field.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Played stripper today:blink:

Used Klean Strip stripper, the one that will take the stain pigment out too. Not sure what the finish on this piano is but it doesn't seem to be paint or lacquer. I think it is epoxy. I've used this stripper before and usually when you apply it you need to count to ten and it will be blistering and bubbling. I applied it and it just sat there. Wasn't sure what to think. I let it sit there for 10 minutes and then took a glue scraper to it and it did remove the finish, but not all of it. Let it sit for the recommended 1/2 hour and it did better, still had color to it, but most of the finish was gone. Wiped it down with mineral spirits and it seemed to remove the stripper, but nothing else. Tried lacquer thinner and it took some more color off as was apparent on the rag. The goo on the scraper was removable by lacquer thinner. Lac thinner has acetone in it which is epoxy thinner too.

When sanding the finish it doesn't sand easy at all. It ends up in a big sticky clump and it gums up the paper something awful. Doesn't act like lacquer which would at least powder somewhat, not get all gummy like this did. Anyway.....got the piano stripped today. Took two to three coats of stripper one after the other to get to the results I achieved. Some of the areas I didn't go hog wild on as they won't really be seen anyway. The top of the maple beam, the top and bottom of the mahogany beam [in its final upright position] won't be seen so I didn't really sand it to hard to get the remaining color out of it. Most everything is sanded to 180 grit using my Ceros with Abranet discs.

Before:









After:































































Took just about all day. Went through 1/2 box of gloves and 1/3 gallon of lacquer thinner and 1/4 gallon of mineral spirits. The little bullnose detail at the bottom of the piano was a real pain. There seemed to be so much more finish on this small molding than on any other part of the piano. I bought a small set of metal brushes, the steel brush worked to do this, but I also ended up using my radius scrapers. The stripper wouldn't take the finish completely off this little molding, don't know why. Had to do a lot of sanding, scraping and 3 extra rounds of stripping while using the brush to get it moving along.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Short day at the shop today. Had to go to Danbury to see my son play saxophone in a jazz band. He did great and we saw a bunch of different jazz bands to boot. They had 4 different levels and you could see they mostly got older as the levels went up. My son was in the 2nd level out of 4. He's 14.

Back to the piano. Played with the feet today. The feet are derived from the original legs on the piano. The originals aren't in very nice shape, the veneers are lifting and cracked so I made new ones out of solid mahogany.

original:









Had to make the back feet the proper thickness to match the board it was mating to. That meant making them 1 5/8" thick









I did a mockup of the leg, I used a pc of cypress I had kicking around that was about the right size. I cut out a mortise and it fit nice and snug, no need for clamps. Looks a little funny in the pic, but it looks good in person. There will be a shelf covering the top of the leg. It will look more correct at that point









Glued up the blanks for the two front legs









And cut out the mortice in the back. The second leg needs to be chiseled square. I need to take these to the band saw and edge sander next. These will be epoxied on









But that's for another day.


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## mattk8715 (Jan 22, 2010)

Very nice, keep the pics coming! Is that an illusion, or did you make the new feet wider?

I still haven't got a clue as to what your plan is, but can't wait to see it come to fruition!


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

The back feet are traced and copied. They are only thinner. The front legs I did the same thing, traced them. The too, will be thinner, and flat on the backside instead of shaped on all 4 sides. Just something I decided when I made the mock up. Which why I made the mockup, so I could see it in place and decide what needed to be changed or modified. 

This is really a front viewed piece, so there is no reason to make the legs look good on the back. With a piano you would walk around it and it makes sense to have them shaped on all 4 sides. The back comes down so even if you could see it from the back the back of the legs would be hidden. Plus I want to have emphasis on the keyboard, I don't want to make the legs look overpowering.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Well, at it again. I flipped the piano over and stripped the bottom and sanded it. This seemed to be normal lacquer or some other clear coat. Bubbled like it should and came off with only one application. Sorry, forgot to take a picture, need help flipping it so it stays where it is for now.

I did the legs today, simple bandsaw work with some edge sanding to tune them up.

Didn't get a pic of the fist cut, but you can see the remainder on the right of the second leg. After the cut is taken I tape the pc back into place because it has the markings on in.









2nd cut









3rd cut









result after cutting









Both sanded









Leg fitted over piano edge, you can see the other side without the leg. This is what 
the mortise fits over. I got very nice tolerances, it fits snug and will stay without clamps









closer


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Here is the keyboard unit before I did a blasphemic act and cut the keys off. Any 
piano person would have a fainting spell about now...









First I put on about three coats of epoxy to hold the keys together. After if cured I 
used the Festool TS55 to cut them off the rest of the mechanism.









For whatever reason the keys were a bit sprung and didn't hold a straight line. I wanted
them to have nice even gaps between them and for them to be very straight, like they 
were on the piano. So I found another use for my business cards. Tried 1 card in between each key first, but it wasn't enough. Then tried 2, was nearly perfect. If they were 1 or 2 thousandths bigger they would have been perfect. But it was close enough


















Next on the list was to make some veneer for the inside of the lower laminated wall. I want to match the beam. It will give a striking contrast. I will also do the beam as no matter how much I sanded, and believe me I sanded, I couldn't get the middle of the beam to be nice an white like the outer sides were.

Went to my buddy with the widebelt sander and got a maple board. Cut it to 6" wide and then cut it vertically on the table saw to 3/32". I trust this is thick enough to not give me any issues when cutting. I did this twice to give me two flitches. The face got sanded before I cut it on the TS. Then I took the remainder of the board which was about 7/16" thick now and sent it through the sander to flatten it up. Then I used 2P-10 to glue a small pc of wood on the front end of the veneer. This would hold the veneer stable when it's being sanded. I don't want it to slip off and get destroyed. 

Started at 3/32" and finished at 1/32". Used 60 grit to do the grinding and 150 grit for last pass.

Here is the veneer. 6" wide and 9 feet long. Just under a 1/32"









2 pcs









Here's that block I glued on. It sat over the front edge of the 7/16" board that was used as the backer when going through the sander. Needed to do that because the sander is limited to 1/8" minimum. You can defeat that by removing the lower limit stop. But this is easier.









I used a pc of masking tape to determine the length of the veneer. I just stuck it to the inside radius of the piano and then cut it at the corners of the start and finish. Then I removed the tape and applied it to the veneer. Brought it to the chopsaw and cut it to length. Perfect fit.

I did a trial setup of my clamping system. Those are styrofoam, I cut it from 2" thick styrofoam. I made them 2" x 2". They even out the pressure on the curves. I'm using epoxy so I just need contact, not great pressure like you need with PVA. I need to get a bunch of bungee cords to do this, don't have enough.


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## mattk8715 (Jan 22, 2010)

Very nice Leo :thumbsup:!

You have a veneer slicer (or whatever those are called)? Fairly positive you're not getting down to 1/32" using a resaw and a planer!


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Sawed it to 3/32" on the tablesaw then ran it through my buddies widebelt until it hit 1/32. I should have gone a bit more. But the veneer was curling coming out of the sander because of the heat being generated. It all flattened out soon after it cooled off.


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## mattk8715 (Jan 22, 2010)

Never considered the wide belt sander for that. One of those things I wish I had, but probably never will. Too big and expensive for my little shop.

I tried to go to 3/64 w/ my planer on some cherry; didn't work so hot. Got to 1/8", but after that it started to eat the whole plank and just spit chunks out of the other side :laughing:. Since then I figured I'd just make all my veneer 1/8" or so.

Just curious, how are you gluing your veneer to it?


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

That's the fun part. NOT!!

West system Epoxy for a nice long open time and styrofoam, bungee cords and quick clamps. 

Here is the bottom of the piano that I stripped but didn't get a picture of. I needed to 
put it in this position to do the bondoing of the mortise holes









Rough Bondo, used tape on the open area to contain the Bondo.









After sanding


















Then I sanded the veneer on the shown side and taped a pc of plastic over it
to protect it from the epoxy, It'll make it easier to sand and finish if I don't have
to worry about random epoxy spots.









And I used styrofoam as a flexible material and clamped it down to the piano to 
hold the veneer tight to the bend.


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## mattk8715 (Jan 22, 2010)

Nice, looks like fun 

Good thinking on the styrofoam and bungee coards! Would've never thought of that, hence the reason I love following your builds. Hope the fumes from the epoxy don't react w/ the styrofoam and turn it to goo.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

So far no reaction. I encased the good side of the veneer in plastic so there should be no issues even if it does goo up. The bottom row of stuff isn't really styrofoam, its a plastic foam of some sort. Very resilient and springy. It was packing material for my cyclone, I've kept it around that long and glad I did. I knew eventually it would come in handy.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

I let the epoxy cure over night and took off the clamps this morning. Looked mostly good. Saw one spot on the bottom of the piano that looked like it could have done better. So I got out the router and trimmed up the edges and finished it off with the sander. There was one spot near the tight curve that wasn't quite attached so I squirted a bit of 2P-10 into the slender opening and gave it a spray of accelerator and pressed it in place. Worked nice, finished sanding the edge and cutting out the little mortises. 

Flipped the piano over and trimmed the veneer flush and sanded. Found there were about 4 spots that weren't attached. More do to the none perfectness of the surface than the clamping. Not sure if if was from my sanding or the original form itself. Either way, the 2P-10 trick worked again.

Flipped the piano back over and epoxied the next veneer into place. Still have the two small section on the vertical area to fit the veneer and epoxy.

Trimmed and 1st level sanded with the piano upside down.









Piano right side up, you can see the small mortises that were for the slats that supported the 
sound board









Got the next veneer in clamps.


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## Shop Dad (May 3, 2011)

This must be an interesting project to work on just to see the joinery of a grand piano. I'm enjoying from the cheap seats! Thanks for sharing the process.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Finally started on the shelving. This means the project is nearly complete. I have a bit of veneering to do, two small patches. The lower shelf along with the second shelf are a bit complex. The lower shelf is more so. I have to incorporate the legs in the lower shelf, or over the legs. Just have pictures of the shelf in clamps, the legs go under the bump outs. The underside of the front shelf edge has a 3/8" round over. It will be more noticeable on the higher up shelves. Thought about putting it on the top, but rejected it.










You can see the shelf bumps out. This is because the two different thicknesses of lamination in the piano. I cut the lower section and fitted it and then cut the upper section of the shelf and fitted that. Then I glued on the bump out with the miters already cut along with the round over routed. I then put a few marriage marks on the two boards which I lined up while gluing up.


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## GoIrish (Jan 29, 2012)

Neat


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

This is really fascinating. Leo, your ingenuity is remarkable!

Can't wait to see it come together.


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## burkhome (Sep 5, 2010)

Creativity abounds in your shop. This doesn't look like a "cheap" project.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

The clients agree. But the "take apart and strip" portion of the project took me longer than I expected. The put together won't be that bad. I hate refinishing.


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## Wema826 (Jul 22, 2012)

Awesome work Leo! I am hidding this thread from my mother in law. she has a piano she is wanting to "do something with"!


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

Very nice job. Loving your ingenuity.


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## JBSmall (Jul 6, 2012)

Impressive! 
I look forward to seeing this done (as I'm sure you do too!).
I have refinished 2 pianos, which is way more than enough. The finish is crazy. Have you found out what is is? I never have.
I was hoping you were saving the keys for the ebony and ivory, if they are indeed the real things, but it looks like they are going back on the case.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Got a picture of the lower shelf, the underside with the routed edge.









Friday was a lazy day. Wife had the day off and I didn't get in til 11am, nice to be your own boss on occasion. First thing I set up to do was the small sections of veneer on the underside of the maple beam. They are only about 7" x 12" but have to be cut to shape. The veneer was only 6" wide so I had to join a 1" pc to it. When the piano is in the upright position [as a bookcase] a good portion of this veneering won't be seen anyway. 

Again I used the epoxy to adhere the veneer on. Used the styrofoam as clamp helpers again, this stuff is useful :laughing:



















After I finished up with that I started to work on the middle shelf. Had to do the same thing as the lower shelf. I fit the lower section. This one had a small twist to it. I had to cut a small extension in it to accommodate the bevel on the lower fatter lamination. Then I fitted the upper section, put on marriage marks and glued them up.

This is the side that I had to deal with the bevel on









Today I had to go out and look at a kitchen job and on my way back I stopped at HD to look at lighting. I wasn't sure what I wanted. I had mentioned LED lighting to my clients because it would be a low heat solution as opposed to a standard xenon or halogen lamp. I found an 18" 4 watt 3 bulb LED strip and a 23" fluorescent bulb. They didn't have a working display model so I got both.

Brought them back to the shop and put each into their respective positions. Started with the LED strip. It had a nice color but because the strip has 3 individual lamps and the area it is lighting is in close proximity you could see the individual spots of light. So I tried the fluorescent and it lit it up much more uniformly. The color was similar, I liked the LED better but....

I took the LED strip home and replaced a failing fluorescent and with the proper distance (18") it has a nice spread of light.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

JBSmall said:


> Impressive!
> I look forward to seeing this done (as I'm sure you do too!).
> I have refinished 2 pianos, which is way more than enough. The finish is crazy. Have you found out what is is? I never have.
> I was hoping you were saving the keys for the ebony and ivory, if they are indeed the real things, but it looks like they are going back on the case.


Plastic. According to the owner the piano has been refurbished twice and the original keys were likely swapped out for some nice white plastic ones.:blink:


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## mavawreck (Nov 26, 2011)

This came across my radar earlier today - as far as craftsmanship, what you are doing is worlds apart. But I thought it might be interesting to see.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

That is one of the pictures the client had shown me. Seems to be one of the few that is similar to what I am doing. I wonder if they clipped the right side of the piano or that is what it was.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Worked on the partition and the adj shelves today. The owners came by to let me know their color choice. A nice brown with a hint of red. Did the partition the same way as I have done all the shelves, in two parts. The lower and upper. The angles were greater than 45 so all my cuts we done on the TS at 90 up against the fence. The lower portion angle was 55 and the upper portion was 52 1/4. I made the whole partition about 7/8" long and I glued it while it was in place to make sure nothing moved. While it was drying I made the solid wood adj shelving. I had a board that was wide enough so I didn't have to do a glue up. Brought all to my buddy with the widebelt sander and sanded them to thickness.

After that I cut the bottom of the partition and snuck up on it 1/32" at a time until it fit nice. Since the partition will hold adj shelving I made sure the partition and the side were as parallel as possible. Took the shelf and the partition out and then screwed them together. I put it back it as a unit and to my surprise the top was pulled away from the edge of the piano by about 1/2". I checked square and the partition was square to the shelf. I gave it a push to force it into place and it fit very nice, just like the in the fitting.

This got me curious. I checked the shelf to the straight side of the piano and it was quite a bit out of square. So I checked the distance from the bottom of the shelf and the bottom of the piano and it was out about 3/8", the good way. So I moved the shelf so it was an equal distance from the bottom of the piano and checked square again, confident it would be right. Wrong, still out of square. My piano is out of square!!....So be it. This means in order for my partition to be parallel it has to be out of square. Gotta go with the flow.

Fitted partition.









Here is how it fit


















Fitted the adj shelves. They look a little off only because they
are just hanging there and the front one is drooping.









Drilled the shelf holes


















I am using the tuning keys as shelf pins. They are a bit bigger 
than 9/32". I had to take my 17/64" drill and sand it down a bit.









I took the stencil/emblem off the front of the piano and sawed it 
down to 1/8" thick and turned it into a plaque


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Man, Leo- That is sooooo *Top Drawer!* dude!

Really nice touch with the plaque and the tuning keys. Class act all the way.

I've been impressed with this from the get-go, and I have been nowhere near disappointment. 



I guess one could just say "Nice job", but that seems a little shy of the mark!


Dan :thumbsup:


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## JBSmall (Jul 6, 2012)

Customers watching this?
Maybe its not all flat but it looks sharp!


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Ya, I gave my clients the link so they could see the pics.


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## JBSmall (Jul 6, 2012)

♫ I'm sure they take note of it. ♫


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Flat, sharp :laughing:

Didn't catch that the first time.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Yesterday I really didn't do anything with the piano. Had a function to attend. Got into the shop after 2 and then was bombarded by visitors. All I got done was to glue the back onto the partition. The depth discrepancy is caused from the large Oak sounding board under the front of the piano. This is to match the depth of the middle shelf. It'll give it some curves.










Today was a pictureless day. Don't know what happened. Today I got the majority of the components assembled. I put the lower shelf in place (not attached) so I could glue the front legs onto the piano. I also went and got some 5/16" x 5 1/2" lags and attached the rear legs to the piano. I could have just glued and clamped them, but I feel better with the steel in there.

Attached the blocks that go on either side of the keyboard. Figured out what thickness I needed for shims to get the keyboard to the proper height and cut them. Played in the sprayroom today with color. It was a color I already had on a board, with a formula. I mixed the formula up and it didn't match. So I spent a few hours getting the color as close as possible. I did pretty good, just took forever. I was mixing 2 stains and have a limited amount of one of them so I didn't want to screw it up.

Put a roundover on the adj shelves and sanded them. Applied the stain to the bottom side of the shelves. Tomorrow I will start staining the rest of the shelving. Then masking the piano so I can put clear on the Oak and Maple. Then pull that masking off and mask the stuff I just sprayed and put the stain on the Mahogany on the piano.

Getting near the end.


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## Carvel Loafer (Dec 31, 2011)

Leo, what an interesting project! I love it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## aardvark (Sep 29, 2011)

IF My Wife Sees This, I'm going to be looking for a $200.oo junk grand piano.
She WON'T see this.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Even if it is, tell her it would make mine non unique, so you couldn't possible do that to a fellow WWTer.


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## aardvark (Sep 29, 2011)

Done!
As artisans we can't copy each other.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Played with the brass that will be put on the bottom of the front leg. Went to the bay next to mine where the welder works, he made the brass wrap for me but it was just sanded with a grinder. I used his wheel to bring it to a luster and then used two compounds to bring up the shine.




























Had to redo the stain on these shelves because it ended up to red. The sample I did was nearly perfect, don't know 
what the heck happened. Hard to make the comparison because they have clear on them, but here is the stain on the shelves that was too red









And here is the stain on the shelves but no clear coat yet


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## mattk8715 (Jan 22, 2010)

Never been a good one for patience!! The anticipation is killing me!


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

You'z gonna have to wait. I have the piano masked up to do the clears. It was tough to get in today. The late night last night killed my ambition. That's why I'm on the computer right now. Shelves have stain and sanding sealer on them, they are the right color this time. Piano is masked off waiting for clear. Can you come by and give me a hand getting this lead weight into the spray room? Can't do it myself ya know.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

So today I put a sealer on the shelving and partition that I stained yesterday. The color came out where is was suppose to.

I went over the piano trying to find anything I missed. So I sanded and chiseled and cut a little veneer, removed a few small epoxy spots and various other fine tune up things.

Then I masked off the piano


















Then I brought the piano into the spray room Had a tough time trying to figure out what position I wanted it to be in, horizontal or vertical. Decided on horizontal for the time being. 

Then I sprayed on some vinyl sealer. I don't know what was done with this piano and
need an isolation barrier to try to prevent fish eye or other problems.









Because of the long day yesterday and the fact I didn't want to put tape on the fresh vinyl sealer, I went home early.
Maybe I'll go in tomorrow or Sunday and remask all the clear areas and then try my luck at the staining.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Big day today. I had to stain the piano. No stopping it now, nothing left to do but do it. Lot of thoughts about what can go wrong. I have to put stain on it and there isn't a way for me to do test samples. I picked an area on the piano that was facing down. To be safe I cut the stain in half with clear stain and sprayed it on. A bit light and too yellow. I tried it full strength and wiped it off quick. Looks good.

So I jumped on the horse and started to spray it. Sprayed about 3 sq ft and wiped it off quick. I went around the outside of the piano and as I got farther along I was getting better at the darkness I was looking for. The first 4' or so was a bit dark. I took the clear stain and sprayed in on and wiped it off to remove some of the color. Worked good. Then I did the inside of the piano and the legs.




























As you can see I was able to take care of the burn through on the piano.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

After I stained it I was worried about the brightness of the stain. I was having a tough time gauging if it was to dark or not. The main problem is the shelving I did was all horizontal and was bathed in light. While the sides are vertical and the lighting is not 90º to the wood. So I set up some lights and balanced the shelf on the edge of the piano and tried to do a comparison. One of the problems was the shelf has clear on it and that shows the red dye while the piano is still raw. So there is a color difference. I brought a few more sets of eyes in there and showed them how I was looking at it. I also tried a portable fluorescent light. After all that I was convinced that it was at least the right brightness.

So I applied the vinyl sealer and let it dry. I put the shelf up there and shined a halogen light on it and the piano didn't have enough red (grrrrr). Not much I could do about it now. And I knew why it happened. The red is a dye. And they dyes need time to soak in. When I applied the stain I wiped it off quick to prevent it from being to dark. I can fix to light, but too dark is a big problem. My solution was a lacquer shader. I used a 50-50 mix of thinner and lacquer and put 1/3 oz of Cordovan red dye into it. I sprayed a quick light coat on the piano. Let it dry. And made the comparison to the shelf again. Better, not enough red still. I shot another coat with the red in it. I got it close enough so I was satisfied. Tough spraying a 1930 mahogany veneer that has been stripped to match a fresh pc of sapele'.





































IT STANDS!!

This is with the two color coats and a clear coat on it. After these pics I put 2 more clear coats on it to finish it off.
The last coat had a lot of retarder in it to keep the overspray low.


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## mavawreck (Nov 26, 2011)

Beautiful.


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## burkhome (Sep 5, 2010)

Very Very nicely done...Kind of nice to do interesting projects now and then.


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## Shop Dad (May 3, 2011)

Looks great! What's amazing to me is that you managed to keep the beautiful grain of the mahogany veneer while matching the sapele. Very well done Leo.


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## haugerm (Nov 19, 2009)

Great work. I hope your attention to color and detail is something your clients appreciate.
--Matt


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## dbales (Jun 21, 2011)

It's nice to see it coming together and almost finished. The color looks amazing. I can't wait to see it finished.


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

This has been amazing to watch. Great work.


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## JBSmall (Jul 6, 2012)

haugerm said:


> Great work. I hope your attention to color and detail is something your clients appreciate.
> --Matt


 Yes! They will...and give a large tip, too!
Way to go.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Just about done today. Not sure if I am going to put the 3/8" quarter round around the fixed shelf edges. Doesn't really need it. Put everything together today, fixed shelves, partition, brass pcs, red felt, keyboard and surrounding pcs and the lights.



















Lights on


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## Carvel Loafer (Dec 31, 2011)

Very impressive for sure!!:yes:


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## burkhome (Sep 5, 2010)

Definitely beautiful...Your clients will have something that everybody on the block won't have.


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Superb!

:thumbsup:


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## bigben (Jul 21, 2012)

Wow, amazing work


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

Got the DLSR out. I took the piano out for a walk LOL.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

Very impressive piece. I have been reading this thread from the beginning.

I did not appreciate how the piano would be used until you posted a picture of another "re-purpose".

I love the Starck detail. Pulling that off at the beginning was a great idea.

Thanks for all the pictures and explanations along the way.

You should have a very happy customer. :thumbsup:


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## Shop Dad (May 3, 2011)

Nice glamor shots! While you are taking out the background you might as well show it on a Tahiti beach, at the Eiffel Tower, perhaps with a moon-scape etc. :smile:


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## mattk8715 (Jan 22, 2010)

Very nice work Leo :thumbsup:!! Well played!

I love the way the old maple (tongue and groove?) contrasts w/ your beautiful work on the mahogany!! Gives me some ideas for the future ! Well done. Hopefully you get a pic of it in it's setting all dressed out w/ your customer's nick nacks!


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