For the rebuilders out there, What is the best way to remove the wooden Steinway grand music desk slides in order to remove the plate? They are glued in and always difficult to remove in one piece without them cracking. I have always just planed them down and replaced them with the brass ones that can be purchased from the piano supply companies. If there is a better way, I would love to know about it.

Thanks

I carve them out and replace them. Sometimes they can be loosened with heat, and come out as one piece.

I watched my mentor run a knife along the glue joint a number of times, top and bottom. Then take a piece of wood about as long as the guide and smack it from the top and the bottom. I must have watched him do that on 3 or 4 pianos at least and never broke one.


YMMV

Sometimes they can be taken out without damage. Most of the time they break and new rails have to be made. I also scribe/cut on each side of the rail and tap them with a piece of wood to see if I can loosen them.

I make enough blanks to redo many Steinways so I only have to set up the saw for this task every few years.

I love this Veritas planer, it fits perfectly in the grove and cleans out the old wood perfectly.
I should have dusted the piano before I took the picture.

Ohhhhh, I like that tool...bad habit.

Lee Valley Tools located here in Canada http://www.leevalley.com/en/
They design a lot of tools. Nice place to spend money.

Lee Valley Tools located here in Canada http://www.leevalley.com/en/
They design a lot of tools. Nice place to spend money. Veritas is one of their brands

Well friends, I tried everyones suggestions except for the Veritas plane method and the wooden slides are still very secure in their slot. They may have been removed in the past and re-glued since the piano was rebuilt many years ago. One of the wooden slides is now cracked. What do you guys do at this point?

I have narrow chisels.

Bust them out, if you have narrow chisels they work very well for cleaning
out the old wood. That is what I used for the years before the planer.
The nice thing about the planer is I can clamp a strait edge to the inside of the case just below the grove and run the plane along the strait edge as a guide.
This is useful if the wood rails is flush with the case. I have at times just planed down the old rail flush and then cleaned them out as described above.