Moving Day

This  weekend The Fuzz and the whole family met to celebrate the wedding of the Younger Son and His New Bride.  It was an excellent affair.  But that is not what this post is about.

The subject at hand is moving a piano.

Some years ago, there was a group effort to move a piano up into a second story apartment.  If anyone wishes to be reminded of this, they can click HERE (1) (2) (3).

But of course that is all in the past.  Yet, as it has been said, "What goes up, must come down".  And so that time had come.  And this time it was not The Fuzz's problem.  After all, he's retired.

Any project like this requires planning, and the proper equipment.  (More will be said on this subject later)  In a situation like this, which requires lowering a huge (and heavy) object down a flight of stairs will benefit from any type of mechanical advantage.  And so a close friend of the owner made up this impressive set of blocks for the occasion.

The first task was to get the thing out of the apartment.  This was accomplished with little trouble.

In this shot we can see preparations being made for the next critical step in this operation.

The blocks were attached, the rope secured, and the piano was slowly guided down tis specially designed system of ramps.  Now we were safely on ground level.

Of course it was still necessary to get the thing onto the truck.  Here you can see this flexible ramp system reconfigured for this purpose.  The steps in the walkway were utilized to eliminate the need to lift the thing up into the truck.  It was simply rolled on, and strapped down securely.

One does not want something like this sliding around back there once on the road.

Naturally, getting the thing into it's new home presented it's own challenges.  The truck was backed up to the doorway, and once again, the ramp used to move it to the porch.  Note the dolly at the arrow.  The key to moving a piano is a good dolly.  Unfortunately this was not a good dolly.

Unfortunately, there are not any pix of this next phase of the move.  As the piano was being pulled up the ramp, one wheel slipped off of the ramp.  While the piano did not fall, the dolly broke.  It seems that plastic is not the best material for this sort of task. 

The piano was successfully moved the rest of the way up the ramp where the dolly was reinforced with a piece of plywood.

Here it can be seem in the tight quarters at the top of the last flight of stairs.

And finally in it's new home after an adventurous move.  

Here's a look at the equipment that did not fail.

And what did.

This will be going back to the Home Improvement Store, with a complaint!   

Pianoforte Showtime

The time had come to see if this plan would lead to success or disaster. The Piano was there. The equipment was there. And the *People Power was there. We had combined this Piano Affair with a Birthday Visit for that Academic Son, currently residing nearby.

But the Moment of Truth had come. Here we can see The Fuzz rigging the strap to fasten the Main Block to that thing.

Here's a closer look at it. This thing was put together with some plywood scraps, bolts, pipe spacers and an old lawnmower wheel without the tire. It was left from a well digging incident that nearly killed The Fuzz. But that is another story.

The plywood ramp was laid down and tacked together. And then the Upstairs Crew assembled and slowly took up the slack in the rope.
Now the Downstairs Crew guided the Massive Musical Instrument to the ramp and raised this end to help it up onto the ramp.

The neighbors were beginning to gather in anticipation of some excitement. The Fuzz was hoping there would be none.

The whole affair was over in a matter of seconds. The ascent was swift and smooth. The thing made the transition from ramp to deck with no complications, much to everyone's relief.


All that remained was to roll it to the door, and into it's new home.

And here it is in it's new home. Now it was finally time for that Beer that had been wisely passed up earlier.

And of course, to test it.

The End.

*Remember, The Fuzz is that "Happily Married Father of 8"

Pianoforte Cont. The Plan

The first part of The Plan involved getting there.

That was the easy part. Now lets get a look at the rest of it. And yes, it did "involve rope, pulleys, and an inclined plane"

Simply carrying the thing up the stairs was considered. But not for long. Besides the stairs being too narrow, all the weight would be on the poor guys with the rear end of it. But just about anything can be done with the right approach.
Since the thing could be rolled easily with the dolly, The Fuzz decided to "roll" it up the stairs. A sheet of plywood was halved which would provide more than enough "ramp" to make it all the way to the top.
That is, could be rolled easily on level ground. Up this slope was another thing. The Fuzz had an old Block, made from a lawnmower wheel and scrap wood. This was left over from a previous Well Digging project, but was just the thing for this.
There was 100ft of rope available, more than enough to double though the block. And enough "Muscle" anticipated to handle things.
Tying it off on the railing was out of the question though, but The Fuzz figured it could be looped back below the deck and secured to the stairs themselves.
It seemed like a good plan, a workable plan. But as my old Drill Sargent told me once, "Always expect the wost, and you'll never be disappointed". And if I am not mistaken, there is something written somewhere about the "Plans of Mice and Men". Even a good plan is only a plan. But would it work ?

To be continued..........

A Pianoforte Foray

Did I mention we had a busy weekend planed? Let me explain.
Here we have a Piano.
Nice, isn't it. But the thing is, it needs to be someplace else. Like at the home of the Daughter in the Big City that is the Home of a Famous University.
This required a move of 160-170 miles.

So The Fuzz went to work on it.

He thought about loading it onto his truck, but it would have been exposed to the weather. This would not be the best option. And while it would fit in the truck bed, getting it up there would not be easy. And so, let me present for your information and enjoyment, The RENT-A-TRAILER. Note how he has constructed a ramp with Plywood, 4x4s and various scrap stuff that was laying around. (A Fuzzy Techno-Tip: never throw away lumber scraps)
A Piano Dolly was borrowed from a friend to help things along. Some Muscle was borrowed from Local Daughter and Son in Law.

Here we can see them using all that Muscle to move this Instrument into the RENT-A-TRAILER whilst Young Daughter helps by staying safely out of the way.

This operation went quite smoothly, and shortly, Fuzz, Sweetie and Young Daughter were headed up the road.

But of course there was a complication involved in all this. Here is where this thing had to go. But The Fuzz had a plan, which will be revealed in a Future Post. So keep watching. To be Continued...............