Upright Pianos

[Ursus]

I see throught the free section of Craigslist that there are upright pianos offered. Is there enough scrap value in these heavy beasts to make it worth your while?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[Emperor Findus Cladius]

There is a lot of metal in them, but it is mainly steel & iron, the lowest paying metals. Then you still have all the wood and other non-metals to dispose of.

 

[Emperor Findus Cladius]

The only way it would be worth taking those is if you restored them and resold as a piano, otherwise not worth the trouble.

 

[boogeyman]

Right on for charging a removal fee. Scrap isn't too good. Depending on the wood, try running an ad for turners (wood lathe). A lot of guys will buy the wood if the price is right. You'll probably be cheaper than a lumber yard.

 

[billjustbill]

Two years ago, the city sponsored a "Clean Up Day" for residents living around the lake. They marked 10 zones where you could dump anything.

One zone had a full grown upright piano... By the time I got there, somebody had taken a huge chunk of concrete and let it do it's damage.... Not much there of use before they put the chunk into the the metal frame and back sound board.

It was a bit sad to see the manufacture date of 1922 and all the thin veneer scuffed off the plywood. I did take the end of a 4 ft. long 2x4 and quickly shoved it along the black keys to shear them off. The fancy wood, if it's true Ebony, is glued to the key action levers. So with the old hide glue used back then, almost every one popped loose at the old glue joint. A full length of black key, plus half the width of another is enough to make a writing pen from those kits you can buy at Woodcraft, etc.

The true treasure in that sad sight came from those black keys. You see, one board foot of Gaboon Ebony, a piece 1" thick, 12"x12", now cost $129.00

 

[markmopar]

The ivory veneers on the keys of older pianos can be sold as well. eBay is a good place.

 

[Woodennicol]

If a guy had a way to store them and get enough of the sound boards to make a ton cast iron goes for more than just steel scrap. I have seen a lot of different people take the wood and turn it into small boxes, picture frames and cabinets from the quarter sawn white oak on many of the old uprights. I think right now on CL here there are 4 or 5 for free. Need time and my wife won't let me bring any more stuff home until I clean up the stuff I have now!

Could be a market so do some research in your area for crafters and re-purposing folks,

Jeff

 

[Red James Cash]

Do a little research on the piano before you plan on selling it for scrap.Some pianos go for a nice hunk of change.

 

[billjustbill]

The cast iron frame for the strings is under a lot of stress pressure. And remember that many of those piano wire strings have a lot of power stored in them when you use a small bolt cutter to clip them out of the way.

You're right about the price of cast iron being higher that scrap steel. Last Friday, I sold a mix of metals. The cast iron brought 190/Ton.....

Good luck, but be careful around those sound boards..

Bill

 

[clovis97]

There were a couple of yocals that were charging people to haul old uprights away. Seems that they were charging $50 to $100 to move them, and even more if they were hard to move out of a house.

They were then taking the pianos, especially anything in poor condition, and burning them so that only the iron remained.

I am told that they did score a good piano once, for free. It was a small baby grand, made in the 1920's, by some known maker. It sold at a local auction barn for $1,800, and a dealer bought it to flip to a piano dealer. I am told he sold the baby grand to the dealer for $3500, IIRC. If the dealer paid $3,500 for it, and it still needed a full restoration...what on earth did the piano dealer get out of it, on the retail end?

Back to the burning of pianos. How does one burn a full upright piano? I've built a thousand camp fires, bonfires, and burned a bunch of brush in my day, and still can't imagine having a fire big enough to burn a full piano, LOL.