Is there a local place where I can get piano supplies and tools in the Los Angeles or Orange County CA area (I'm in Costa Mesa)?? I am aware of the great online vendors, but if I need something NOW, any place local? I've already contacted Pacific Piano Supply in Chatsworth, but they won't sell to me because I'm not in the trade. Thanks, Kip..................

I don't think there are any walk-in stores in North America where you can find a range of piano supplies or tools. It is a specialty market, and virtually all purchases are mail order, except for Piano Technicians Guild conventions, where attendees can browse the exhibit hall vendor booths and do some buying there.

Nope. As Jurgen said, it's a specialty market, so everything is pretty much mail order. Hire a piano technician.

This is so dinosaurish. You would think they would be pleased to make a few dollars, and pleased that you are entering the trade. Even if it's just trial and error on your own instrument.

You could try contacting a local piano tech and see if he/she will sell to you retail. Or, maybe a local music store.

Edit: I've seen some stores where they carry basic tools and supplies like tuning forks and tuning hammers.

There are lots of wholesalers in lots of different fields that only sell to people in the trade, not sure what's dinosaurish about it. Like daniokeeper said, sometimes music stores have some basic supplies for sale, or you could call around and see if some piano technicians would sell to you retail.

And it's not entering the trade if you're only tinkering on your own piano.

Anyway, why do you need it NOW? Next time, plan out your work in advance.

Let's put in a plug for Frank. You can buy piano tuning supplies right here on Pianoworld's website.

Wow- this post grew legs. I went with the info that Jurgen provided in his early response at top of this thread, and it seems quite accurate. In any event, I've accepted the fact that just about everything I will be getting for the piano will be coming by UPS, USPS, etc. At least I'll be saving gas. Of the vendors that sell to the public, none are near LA (am I wrong?) I will be ordering from Frank. Have been ordering from Showard on eBay (fast), and several others. Am researching action cradle now. Thanks, Kip............

I clamp pieces of wood to action frames, instead of using a cradle. It works really well for Steinway uprights if you drill a hole in the middle of the wood and cut it through the hole, to go over the knob at the bottom of the action. The only cost is for a few c-clamps, but I had those anyway.

Two pieces of wood on each end, one on the top, and one on the bottom, will hold the action vertical, hammers down, or hammers up.

BDB- I saw your post with David Jensen's in the "action cradle that doesn't suck" thread. I wanna try it, or one of my own design. I'm not getting a clear picture of your setup. Two wooden I-beam type structures, one clamped to each of the outer frames at the ends of the action? I'm not getting "...drill a hole in the middle of the wood and cut it through the hole, to go over the knob at the bottom of the action." By "knobs", I'm pretty sure you mean the ball shapes at the bottoms of the four gold colored metal triangular action frames. Got a moment to be more specific?

I think you have the idea. Try it, and modify your idea if you need to. That is the way that it works in this business.

BDB

Since I'm only working on one piano, I could build a balanced one with captive bolt with wingnuts for the top, and hole for bottom- then a t-stand................