Can You Scrap Pianos?

with pianos-
everyone else has covered the alloys in breaking down. here is some info on the lumber.

the harp (cast iron) is near a large wooden sheet, the soundboard in uprights (you wont find too many baby/grand pianos for free) and the harp is birch, maple, or sitka spruce.

the fine grained yellowish-to brown-orange red woods with open grain (dimples, dark holes, can sometimes be visible, but sometimes also you can feel the hole through the finish, i.e. they didnt use a grain filler when finishing) will be mahogany.

if the piano was manufactured in the U.S. before 1964, you may be fortunate enough to have cuban "real" mahogony on your hands. definately worth cutting off clean and straight , then prime the ends with a water sealing. measure approximate dimensions, then look up "luithiers" in your state. instrument builders will pay good money for even fake mahogany (african mahogany, ivorensis)

the real money is in rosewood. even on the oldest uprights, it can be veneer on face panels, but the solid wood is worth exhuming. true dalbehrgia nigra , brazillian rosewood, is very rare, and hard to find cheaply. many luthiers will resize rough stock fresh. regardless of wether you have any known allergies, use a dust mask and good gloves. while the dust isnt as toxic as purpleheart, people sensitize quick to repeated exposures. if you manage to find a brazillian rosewood trimmed upright, and its not restorable, definately seperate that timber, seal and fresh cut exposed ends, and store dry. sell, freebay or craigslit. if you should happen to have a babygrand that looks like mahogany or rosewood, do Not dismanlte it. odds are there a 2 or 3 guys in your state that refurbish them, and those pianos are worth a new truck. older, solid rosewood grand pianos can go for over 20,000$ , so do your research. its worth it.

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Originally Posted by gustavus

I've found palladium in a lot of organs besides Hammond. when a key is depressed it makes contact with a very long wire, the palladium is on the key side a this business. It is the palladium wire from the key that makes contact with the wire.

The palladium wire is smaller in diameter than a human hair, about 1/4 inch long attached to every key mechanism near the end that comes into contact with those long wires., A sharp knife will peel them off.

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I found a Langley piano after reading this thread. The individual key wires were magnetic.
They contacted onto a wire that run the length of the keyboard (it had 3 'cuts' in it, making it actually 4 wires)

That wire was a total of 640mm long, 1 mm dia & weighed 6.2 grams.
It looks 'silvery', much like the 'silver containing' copper pipe welding rod (for use with a gas welding torch) it has a tinge of copper in it, not a 'white metal' like silver actually is.
The welding wire i have has thin lines down its length, so I don't think they just used the welding wire as a contact wire.

I put it aside until I figure out what it actually is, it dosn't melt over a BIC lighter flame, dosen't even get red, just covered in soot.

There was 4 other wires, like the individual key wires, that were soldered from the board to the silvery wires, looks like stainless steel, non magnetic.

There are different designs and styles out on market on Piano benches. So looking for the perfect one that would fit your personality and choice is little difficult.

The pianos I have scrapped paid quite a bit more than the ones mentioned here. Cast iron plate inside (looks like a harp laying sideways)
250-300 lbs of cast. Around here 280$ a ton for prepared cast Iron.
Also, makes a great bonfire, the wood is verrrry hard to remove from the plate, couldn't break off with sledgehammer. Hardwood burns a long time...

I'm curious about the organs. I sometimes see them for $5. Wasn't sure if it was worth it.

Organs are ok alot of wire in them, very time consummng, I don't think I would pay for them, alot of trash to get rid of. If I were you Jaydee I would stick to tv's. Electric pianos are better, at least you get curcuit boards.

put one end in a vise snip the cord in the middle and start to unwind the copper then pull with a pair of pliers. the copper unwind pretty easy

You're wasting your time trying to make money scrapping free pianos. I charge to haul them away, and get $200 to $350 to do so.

When you get to breaking down the piano, break, cut, or smash the box open to get the soundboard, which is cast iron and is what the
string are attached to. If you can find some value in the wood great, but I have not researched doing that.

When you get to the soundboard you need to free the strings, but be careful because they are under tension. The way I have found
to release them is by taking my 4" grinder and cutting the string very close to the end closest to me, that way if the string releases
tension it flies AWAY from me.

Once the strings are free, don't bother trying to unscrew all those screws and bolts. Since the sound board is cast, just smash it off with
a sledge. There's usually a couple of hundred pounds of cast, which my yard pays shred for.

I haven't researched selling the ivory either, but if somebody offered me a free piano I would just walk away. Remember YOU are solving a
problem for THEM and deserve to be paid for doing so.

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Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

You're wasting your time trying to make money scrapping free pianos. I charge to haul them away, and get $200 to $350 to do so.

When you get to breaking down the piano, break, cut, or smash the box open to get the soundboard, which is cast iron and is what the
string are attached to. If you can find some value in the wood great, but I have not researched doing that.

When you get to the soundboard you need to free the strings, but be careful because they are under tension. The way I have found
to release them is by taking my 4" grinder and cutting the string very close to the end closest to me, that way if the string releases
tension it flies AWAY from me.

Once the strings are free, don't bother trying to unscrew all those screws and bolts. Since the sound board is cast, just smash it off with
a sledge. There's usually a couple of hundred pounds of cast, which my yard pays shred for.

I haven't researched selling the ivory either, but if somebody offered me a free piano I would just walk away.

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I would have to totally disagree but I do put stipulations on "free" piano removal......The item must be close by as well as easily accesible(meaning in the garage or right in the front door)
I also tell the client the piano is going to be scrapped and i don't put much effort into preserving the piano......If you read through the thread I was given around 100 pianos and made well over 1500 in a couple of days with them......

Sounds like you've found a way to maximize profit from them Mike! :-) I like maximizing by having the customer pay me!

I'll look into doing it your way on the next piano I get. AFTER the customer pays me, of course!

I'm curious how many times a month do you get that call for a $300 piano removal......The only way I could see that being fair to the customer is if the piano is up three flights of stairs and very narrow spaces to work with......Anyways you go BOY!

I have worked on 5 or 6 pianos , They have some brass the strings can be considered copper bearing BUT the real money maker is the cast iron 300 to 400 lb that once busted up can go as short
other parts (busy with metals) you can put them in a fire pit and be rewarded with short steel also .
I like them but the strings can hurt you . I had a string go through my finger , I stayed calm and pulled it out .

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

I'm curious how many times a month do you get that call for a $300 piano removal......The only way I could see that being fair to the customer is if the piano is up three flights of stairs and very narrow spaces to work with......Anyways you go BOY!

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I get 5 to 6 pianos per month. But I market this service heavily.

I looked into the piano thing a couple weeks ago and then I read this thread and I scored a basket case of a Baby Grand later that day.
First I gave the sound board a quick inspection making sure it wasn't cracked that way when I took it apart it didn't fold up on me from the string pressure.
Separating it from the wood went pretty good with the Sawzall and a large sledge hammer.
I ended up with around 12 pounds of Yellow Brass and I'm not sure about the exact weight of the sound board but I'm guessing 275 I left the strings on it and it went into misc scrap. I would say I had at most an hour and a half into it and that includes driving and loading time.

I did a upright piano once as a favor for someone...very little brass in the one I did and not worth the effort even after selling the keys for $20.

I just got one that was so heavy its my 4 one in 2 weeks I'm thinking of the idea of charging to take the away ...that one killed me ...only bad part is the price of cast just went down ...but I gotta say I like taken out all screws from sound board its easier to move after ..and what ever u dot get out put it on the fire....and by the way a player one's are filled with brass just gotta dig for it I did 2 and got 50 lbs ....HAVE FUN ALL

Good stuff. You have motivated me to do the one I've had in my garage for four years. I got it as scrap and just never got around to... scrapping it. Thanks again!!!