October 30, 2010 - 3 comments

Piano Project – Part 3

Click here for Part 2...

Next up was a set of new casters, because the old ones had seen better days and I knew I was going to be wheeling this thing around a lot. Excitedly I mounted them, and then realized maybe I should have waited. It turns out, my timing was right as I was going to be moving this thing a lot throughout the end of the project.



I knew I wanted to stain the inside and back, and paint the exterior frame complimentary shades of aqua and deep blue. Here's a quick shot of the finishes I landed on:

1. Behr primer/paint combo in flat. Sample can. Plenty of paint to hit the panels I wanted.
2. Glidden high gloss for the kick board. Easy to clean, durable, slightly different shade than the paint on purpose for depth.
3. Minwax water-based stain, dyed custom by the lady at home depot based on my paint swatch.
4. Clear coat for the stained areas.
5. Also, some serious wood glue I used for reattaching the bottom of the piano back on.

Then, a quick fit-test to see what kind of room I would have on the edges, and how big the plex would need to be that would function as my "bottom shelf". This 49-key Axiom fit nicely.


Next up: the shelves. I wanted the top one to be stained wood and the bottom to be made of plexi-glass so that I could inlay custom artwork in the 4 wood squares and they would be seen through the working surface. Picked up a piece of plex from a dear friend who is known for having this sort of thing on hand. Cut it with a jigsaw, then drilled holes in the notched sections to get the jigsaw running side-to-side to finish the notches. Despite all advice, I found running the saw quickly (instead of slowly like everyone suggested) made the cleanest cuts with no melted plastic.

Here's one of the glass laid in, with notches taken out of the back edge to stabilize any sliding. (It still has the protective blue coating on.)

 

Finally peeled the plexi-glass protective coating. Looks better than I expected. A huge thank you to Mr. Needham for the donation!

I spent the rest of my project time today fabricating some stops for the kick board on the bottom. Because of the pieces I took out, it doesn't have anything to keep it from falling forward or backward.

This one below is little more complicated because it needs to turn 90 degrees so that you can remove the kick board when access to the guts is required. Little square of foam on the end will keep the board from rattling too much.

Last coat of polyurethane is drying on everything that needed it.

The last step will be popping in the 2nd shelf, re-hinging the other half of the top, and getting started on the electrical wiring. The end is near!

Click here for Part 2...
Click here for Part 4...

Published by: Donald in NEWS & UPDATES, Uncategorized

Comments

Mama
October 31, 2010 at 10:55 pm

(This is Logan using Angel’s account)
Dude, this looks totally awesome! I really like the colors you’re using! And yes, you absolutely NEED to make that harp into a coffee table! I will help if you need it!! I have a piano that we plan on burning for a music video but I really want to get the harp out with the strings… I don’t think my idea will work because I would have to keep the pegboard attached to the harp and would need support to do so which means I would then have to keep the 3 or 4 main beams that connect the pegboard to the bottom of the piano, at that point I might as well just keep the entire piano. We’ll see, if I can’t keep the strings maybe I’ll steal your coffee table idea!

For the record I intended to advised to not push the plexiglass through the cutting blade too fast, what I didn’t make clear (I just checked my texts and realize I didn’t make much sense at all) was that a pretty high speed blade and a slow-ish push-through is what I’ve found to be the best for this sort of thing. Obviously you figured that out just fine. If you need any other random things let me know!!
-Logan

Leave a Reply to Mama Cancel Reply