[FONT="]The Piano Project[/FONT]
I had seen a picture online of an upright piano someone remodeled into a computer desk. I knew it was a neat idea, so, I stole it, and improved upon it...
I found it on Craigslist for FREE, emailed back and forth with the owner and went out to the next town and picked it up. Before I even had it off the truck I was ripping out the hammers by the handful.
I took off the front piece first, to expose the strings and the action. The action was held on by four studs with decorative nuts, it came out really easily.
I was amazed to learn that the keys are over a foot long and not really attached to anything. Each key rests on a pair of brass pins.
I pulled out all the keys and pitched all but the first few on each end of the keyboard. The keys I kept, which will be at each end of the desktop, I glued together
Next, I started removing the piano wire, with a pair of dykes Even the wires for the high notes made remarkably loud noises when cut, and they whipped across so fast and were so fine I didnt notice I had been cut until I saw the blood running down my wrist.
The wires for the low notes were heavy gauge wire wrapped with copper. These, being too thick to cut with the tools I had, I wedged a claw hammer under and applied pressure until they broke. Sounded like medium caliber gunfire.
Once I had all the wires off, I started unscrewing the cast iron harp that had held the wires. The harp was held in place with two studs, 26 two and a half inch screws and 18 four inch screws. All the screws were 3/8ths in diameter.
After I got the harp free, I couldnt move it by myself so, I moved on to removing the pedals and the shafts they operated.
My dad and I rolled the piano into the drive way an laid it on its back, with a little mule tape and the hurried removal of some wood on the sounding board, we managed to get it out. Sadly, the garage door decided to slam down into Dads side with no warning. It really knocked him flat. Amazingly, I managed to convince him to go to the doctor in just over an hour. He is fine, he just got hit hard...
Once the harp was out, I set the piano back upright and began cutting out and/or knocking out the sounding board.
Once I had the sounding board out, I broke out the sawzall and cut out the four large (4x6 at the top/4x4 at the bottom) support posts.
I removed the bottom front piece and cut it to make a cabinet for the computer tower. I took the decorative metal bar that had laid over the wires for the ¼ highest notes and fabricated a handle for the cabinet door. The off side (the larger side) I immobilized with cleats cut from underneath the keys.
Next, I disassembled a headboard that hadnt been used in years and cut the top board to make a desktop. I bought a orbital sander and sanded the board down and stained it.
I mounted a power strip on each side where the tuning pegs (176 two inch long, quarter inch pegs, with superfine threads screwed into the eight inch thick Top Beam) after removing the top lid and cutting a channel for each of their power cords. Then, I remounted the top lid.
When you open the key lid completely, it flips upwards revealing what is now empty space; in this space I mounted a USB hub and a SD card reader. Both are now easily accessible and yet, out of sight. When the tower is in its cabinet, I will also mount the transceiver for my wireless mouse and keyboard. As the desktop is only about 8 inches across, I may change to a trackball.
Yes, I have been taking pictures along the way.
