Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum So, what did you do today?

Put long stakes in the garden so my beans will climb. Later, I'll plan to climb the thing and see if the giant does, in fact, have a grand piano.

Looking forward to the weekend...some down time and some shop time. Life is good!

RPD

Well, it is not always about pianos here. Sometimes I get interesting requests to manufacture or assist with making an unusual project.

A while back a young fellow contacted me a while back seeking assistance with his project of building a shadow box. The box was to be built with side rails to hang earrings on, but he also wanted to have a music box component to this item.

I thought this would be an interesting and fun project to do, so I kept a record of the progress to completion.

The photos are mostly screen shots of a design program. Then there are photos of the coloring and finish. At the end there is a small video sample of the music that this unit will play. I am not a fan of Pachelbel Canon in D @ 415.3Hz but it is pleasant enough…..

One more thing; my shop cat was fascinated by this project and loved the music box when it played. If you watch closely on the left side of the video at 1:25 she hears the music from the garden and comes into the shop to sit and watch the roller in the music box go around. You can see her coming through the doorway….

Shadow Box

Wow Dan that's pretty impressive.
Maybe your cat thinks you're going to fill it with kitty litter.

Thanks Sparky,

The cat; she is a funny one for sure. Either litter pebbles or full of food would be her choice…..

It was a fun kind of project. We had to do the video at the end several times over; I was trying to imitate those PBS educational videos without laughing; some of them came out sounding like Mr. Rogers and are quite hilarious….”hello there friends”….like that…..mistakes in the language and on and on….in one of the videos I state that this is the finished music box and then open the lid with no hinge attached….stuff like that……

I’m gone…gotta get to the courts……..

Dan, nice job...!!!

Nice, Dan!!

I finnished off some cosmetic work on my 1875 Bremond Organ Music box , as its due to go to Auction in 2 weeks

Les, Rick,

Thanks for the compliments.
cheers,

Ordered an A-440 fork. The pure 12ths D3-A4 temperament is working pretty good. Don't know if I will continue to use a C-fork for smaller pianos or not. 4:2 octaves and pure 12ths meet in the middle of spinets. No real need to set the temperament within a 12th.

Nice easy day today... I only tuned 3.

1. A KG-5C grand, replaced wicks, tuned to A/440. Pd. $170.

2. Tuned a Yamaha C3 that I did a year ago, beautiful piano. I arrived for our appointment, he forgot. I went home, ate an early lunch, called him, he couldn't apologize enough. I went to my 3rd tuning early, went back and tuned this piano for him. He was so appreciative that I came back today that he gave me $25 extra for "gas" how nice! Pd $175.

3. Tuned a Yamaha grand Model G0. I tuned it last in 2001. It was 1/2 tone flat. Raised it to pitch, tuned up nicely. Cleaned the piano a little bit too. Pd. $180.



Tomorrow, I'm working on a Yamaha C7 action. I'm filing hammers, dismantling the action from the key frame, cleaning and lubricating everything and then I'll be regulating the action on my bench.

Thursday, I'm tuning 2 pianos in the morning and then I'm returning the action in the afternoon at which time I will also tune and voice it. That's a nice job too. It should come out great!

Friday, I'm tuning 3 more pianos then I have a service call and then we're heading up north to the cottages for yet another week of vacation.

I'm so busy now that I'm booked solid all the way through September. I slowly starting to turn my 3 a day schedule into a 4 a day. Won't be long and it'll be 5 a day again which I am desperately trying to avoid! But, we'll see! At least it's great to be busy!



I love this job!

That coral snake chose the wrong driveway to slither on today.......I snagged it with the pooper scooper (the only thing handy) while my son got a shovel. RIP coral snake......

The customer said he had a Lester piano and a key was stuck down, so I prepared him for the broken plastic elbow job. The GPS location showed a marina, so I called for directions.... "oh, we are at slip 27, come on in". I arrived at the houseboat to find a Lester Mini Piano with a key broken at the key button - an easy fix. I raised the pitch to 440, but some of the pins are barely holding, so I sold a pin tightening job. This piano is so light, no piano tipper will be needed. I'll simply lean it down on a 2x4. They take the boat out about once a month. They bought the piano for $50. The wife, a retired singer will be the player.

Just so you know, there is a common type of milk snake that mimic the colouring of a coral snake in order to deter predators. The easy way to remember is "Red on yellow will kill a fellow, but red on black is a friend of Jack."
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Milk_Snake

But even if it was a coral snake I think it is very cruel and ignorant to kill them on sight.
They are reclusive, eat pesty rodents and do their best to stay out of the way of humans.
In fact only one person has ever died from a coral snake bite since 1967 and he was trying to kill it.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_the_United_States

First day of piano tuning school for me

That's great Dan, where's that? Newark?

Yea, Phil. The last course in the UK.

Which one did you do?

I was in the second-last intake at London Met. A great shame to lose that course, I hope Newark can take up the challenge and keep going!
Good luck with your studies

Cheers Phil!

The Newark course will be 40 years old next year (so I'm told) - let's hope it'll see many more!

Thanks for the info, Sparky, but Coral Snakes are common in my neighborhood. They are not very reclusive here, as sightings around homes are common. There are plenty of other non-poisonous, vermin killing snakes here, and we welcome those with open arms. A Coral snake bite will put a person in the hospital for a few days - they are the most venomous snake in Florida and one of the most toxic in the USA.

Anti-venom is no longer made, and current stores of anti venom expired last year.

I'd hate for someone in the neighborhood to get bitten.

Thanks for the info on the local snake situation there Bob.
I wonder why it is that they stopped making coral snake anti-venom?
I just assumed that hospitals would keep a supply of the anti-venom for whatever poisonous snakes populate the area.
(However being in Canada with no real poisonous snakes here, except one fairly rare rattler, I'm not too knowledgeable about the anti-venom policy of hospitals.
But thanks for being considerate to the good snakes out there.