Hoisting pianos

[Greg Newell]

Joseph,
         This is starting to sound kind cool! 
Cribbing would be needed on the other side of the 
glass wall too. I bet we'd get lots of Oooo's and 
Ahhh's doing it this way. Would take quite a 
while though. I wonder what cost effectiveness 
this would have compared to a hoist of some sort. 
Either way it's gonna cost 'em. :-)

Greg Newell



At 12:20 PM 9/2/2007, you wrote:
>Jacking and using cribbing is an old technique, 
>which is still used today with lots of modern 
>machinery. As I said before, houses, 
>lighthouses, airplanes, submarines... in short, 
>anything can be elevated to whatever height you 
>would like. Twenty feet for a 600 lb object 
>would be very doable. Yes, it takes skill and 
>yes it takes the right materials. Usually the 
>top segment is bridged over the wall to another 
>short pile of cribbing for the horizontal phase.
>I have seen this method used to lift houses to 
>incredible heights. Somewhere I have a picture 
>of a house sitting on cribbing about 80 feet in 
>the air.A 300 foot submarine was moved from a 
>dock to a display area hundreds of yards away, 
>up and over an elevated railroad track even.
>It was my understanding that nothing heavy could 
>be used on the floor, precluding use of cranes, 
>lifting devices, etc. Just trying to give an 
>alternate technique that would work. Maybe not 
>the one you'll use, but certainly worth studying 
>the history. The use of cribbing and air bags 
>used as the jacking force are quite common in rescue tactics too.
>Joseph Alkana RPT
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
>To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 2:04 AM
>Subject: Re: Hoisting pianos
>
>
>>I think he means the technique by which one 
>>jacks a large object up at three or four points 
>>maybe four inches or so at a time and shoves a 
>>4x4 timber in place after each jacking session.
>>
>>I have used this method several times over the 
>>years to jack a 6,000 lb. sailboat up about 
>>three to four feet off the ground so that I 
>>could back a trailer under it and its cradle. 
>>Cradle is supported at four points. Jack one 
>>corner up four inches with a little hydraulic 
>>car jack (or really any jack you can get under 
>>there), shove a 4x4 under it, take jack out. 
>>Move on to next corner. Repeat. Repeat this 
>>procedure about 50+ times and you are there! I 
>>have done this completely unassisted.
>>
>>However, I'm not sure how this method would 
>>work jacking something up to a second story! 
>>Hmmmmmm, don't think so. Maybe he was thinking of something else.........
>>
>>Terry Farrell
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>>         This is interesting. What do you mean 
>>> by cribbing? I've not heard that term before. 
>>> I suppose I could continue to add height to a 
>>> platform being built underneath the piano as 
>>> we go. Sounds like a lot of work though.
>>
>>
>

Greg Newell
Greg's Piano Forté
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