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Has anyone ever dismantled an old piano and recycled or used any of the parts?

Over the weekend I dismantled a 50+ year old spinet piano to salvage some of the good wood and the 45 lb aluminum plate for the recycling center.

Nice pictures on your link, Kokunutty! I've seen a few of those Winter pianos with the aluminum plates. Even thought they don't sound the greatest they are sure easier to move! Del Fandrich told me that Baldwin made a number of pianos with aluminum plates but then ditched the idea.

How much $$ did you get for the plate? (I wonder how many pop cans would be the equivalent?)

I haven't taken it to the recycling center yet. I just did the dismantling yesterday. I'll let ya'll know soon on the amount.

Hey, you're from Olympia? My wife's sister is from Olympia. My wife and I grew up in Tacoma.

Oh, I thought you were talking about a musical instrument...

I am. My piano. I dismantled it. I have a few good wood and a 45lb aluminum plate ready for the recycling center.

I’ve got an old 1931 “Lenox” (by Lauter) upright that a neighbor gave me sitting in my shop now. I was going to refurbish it but found some cracks in the treble bridge. It could have been repaired and restored but I simply don’t have the time now. I plan on keeping the decretive wood, the brass pedals and some other parts (real ivory key-tops) but I will salvage the rest (when I get time). It looks like the bass strings are nickel/aluminum wound instead of copper; they are more silver colored than copper colored.

Anyway, as much as I like to tinker, refurbishing/restoring old pianos is very time consuming and expensive. I think I’d like to tinker around with an older grand if I ever get the opportunity.

I’ve restored old pick-up trucks and old farm tractors but now I’m interested in pianos (plus it's a lot less greasy ).

It’s fascinating how our interests change as we get older.

Best regards,

Rick

Ah, yes...another Winter finds it's proper place in the world...Well Done!!!

Fantastic!

Every time I pass a construction site I shake my head in dismay at all the wasted materials. What we discard to build a house is what people in South Africa and elsewhere make into a house: very sad. At least you've taken one small step in the right direction.

I just recycled some aluminum. The value had plummeted from $0.50 US to $0.15. So your 45lb plate used to be worth $22.50. Now it would be worth $6.75. Hard to justify driving it anywhere for that.

Well, just recycled my aluminum piano plate this morning. Aluminum price was at .25 cents a pound. Plate weighed 48 lbs. I got $12.00 out of it. Oh, Noctugranes, the recycling and scrap yard is less than 2 miles away. Used half of that money to buy lunch today. LOL

Actually, Baldwin made a number of pianos with welded steel plates and only ditched the idea because Baldwin United went bankrupt for reasons quite unrelated to the piano business.

They considered using aluminum plates but I don't know that they ever built any. Alcoa was heavily promoting these things to the industry back in the 1950s and 1960s.

ddf