Piano Recycling

There is a vast amount of pianos that are unwanted now a days. They are very expensive to repair, tune and costly to move. With all the electronic pianos on the market and the features they offer who wants to bother with grandma's old Baldwin.

I don't think there is enough money to be made to offer "free piano recycling" but if you want to scrap a few to get a feel for the market perhaps charging $200.00 to pick up and $50.00 for drop off recycling might be worth the effort.

Here is a newer Kimball piano we just disassembled, it had one solid piece of oak at the top and the rest was laminated pressed wood. Most of the older pianos have some solid woods like walnut and others have more valuable woods including extinct species but most consist of laminates. The sound board is the best for recycling but is often the most difficult to reclaim. The ivory keys do sell on eBay and the older piano benches can bring up to $150.00 plus.

I don't know of anyone that would pay $200 to get rid of a piano when they can list it on craigslist for free and it'll be gone in a day or so.

Are piano strings bronze? Might be a tiny bit of cash there, the soundboard is usually quite heavy, might go for steel. They look brass but I dont think they are. Maybe you can chop the crappy wood for fire wood to sell! lol I think the foot pedals are solid brass though too.

I think enough people would actually pay to get rid of a piano in a pinch, I have charged $280 for removals of pianos. I have probably done at least 20 of them at that price over the last few years. (usually for real estate agents) You can't always depend of free pickup ads.

I'd have to agree with Idaho scrapper on one level, but people on Craigslist can be so flaky that it might be worth it to pay someone to haul it away. I know that there are times when I'd rather just lug my stuff to the thrift store than deal with CL.

Originally Posted by Richard

Are piano strings bronze? Might be a tiny bit of cash there, the soundboard is usually quite heavy, might go for steel. They look brass but I dont think they are. Maybe you can chop the crappy wood for fire wood to sell! lol I think the foot pedals are solid brass though too.

The strings are steel core, and are wound in bronze (usually) and sometimes nickel, so they should at least get sold for contaminated. As for the foot pedals, every one is different; some are brass, some are not.

The harp is usually cast iron. Are the strings solid nickel? Nickel is over $11 lb., that would make them worth figuring out how to unwind from the steel core.

Someone dumped just the sound board part of the piano around my area so the next day I went with a hammer and a friend and simply took the frame and left the wood and the wires there! Got me some heavy steel. I will post a picture soon

Originally Posted by Scrap man

A little off the topic of scrapping one, but an uncle of mine made a mini bar out of one with seating, lights, a cooler, and shelves for booze. I've never seen it, but it sounds pretty cool.

Might not be scrappin a piano, but that is def recycling one! Cool idea.

Update on my above post about finding a dumped one.

I just took the steel core



Not so good image but you can kinda see it

I had an antique one that had lead cores to weight the keys on the mechanics that connected to the things that pick the strings. they were about 3/8" in diameter and 3/8" long. cant recall how long it took to take them out but seemed worthwhile at the time.

Ideas on what to do with an old worthless piano. Ways to recycle your old piano. Thanks for sharing about it everyone.

I scrapped over 200 at one time....Good money but be prepared tp haul all that wood away.....Have fun lots of work but payday is ok

I just got one and WOW...the harp is cast iron....it weigh about 500 putting it with the 3 other ones hoping for good load ..hardest thing is getting the cast off the string pins just having a big fire ...just remember to be safe

alot of work

Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

Well, I do. I haul several pianos per month, charging $200 for garage pickup, and $350 if they're in the basement. It's all in how you present the services. Also, in my experience most people offering free pianos sit on them for months.

I agree with burly. You might be able to get rid of a good working one that is in tune but, if you have a piano that is in bad shape and out of tune $200 should be the going rate to haul it away. Most of the time the pianos for free just need to get hauled to the dump. I found a silver dime in an older upright piano one time.