recycling piano wood

My inlaws had a baby grand Steinway, after my FIL died, my MIL tried to sell it, with no luck, she ended up giving it away, and got a charitable donation tax receipt for its appraised value.

Electric Comet wrote in news:nmhanr$koq$2 @dont-email.me:

I got a few pallets once, and took several hours to take them apart. After lots of effort, it really didn't yield all that much usable wood. It's an experience I'll only repeat if I really _really_ want the wood.

A piano is likely to be 10% wood 90% other. What are you going to do with the other once you get it? Steel was practically worthless when I took some pool sides in for recycling. (They were talking $25-50 on the Internet, I got $2. I just wanted them gone.)

Puckdropper

Many dry to the point that the pinblock developes cracks and they become untune-able. They de-tune so fast as to become worthless. I would hesitate to scrap the wood and iron from one like this.

That should be "...wouldn't hesitate..."!

Obviously it depends on the piano, but if they are giving it away on CL, odds are that they did their homework and discovered that it not worth anything.

My parents had an upright piano for decades, handed down from their parents. When we were helping them downsize I called a good friend who is in the piano restoration business. As soon as I gave him the name of the piano, he told me that it was going to cost me more to have it hauled away than it was worth.

This page discusses the history of piano manufacturing. You can see the periods during which pianos were mass produced for schools and homes. You will probably find that the freebies on CL are part of this mass marketed group.

Puckdropper wrote in news:578c356b$0$51803 $c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

If it's an old enough piano, the keys will be ivory and ebony. That's an "other" that's probably well worth having.

John

have seen some really beautiful old pianos being offered for free

i did find a program in japan that acquires pianos from overseas ships them regularly in containers and refurbs them and then they find homes for them in japan

great idea

the business model is not clear and it really seemed like someone with the means was doing it just because they could

might be wrong on that though

I suspect very few Steinways and the like available/being given away. Most of the pianos I have seen are run of the mill, generic uprights left over from the days when most kids took piano lessons (video games and travel sports hadn't yet been invented)

FrozenNorth was heard to mutter:

Really? We even have a Steinway shop here and they buy, refurbish and sell restored Steinways. I could buy a nice car for what those pianos are going for at that shop. Still, donation is a good thing too.

Interesting, it was in Kingston, Ontario , Canada, wonder if they would have picked up? Maybe I could have gotten a commission on the referral to her, never thought of posting about it here.

i see steinways for free on craigslist now and again

a piano is a liability of sorts due to size and weight