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The thread about the floppy fingers on the fellow's acrosonic action when he removed it reminded me of my discovery for removing regular spinet actions.

Schaff sells a 4-piece threaded rod that is the right length when threaded together to hold the stickers up while removing and transporting a spinet action. It does not however have anything to keep the rod in place. I fixed the problem by drilling a hole near each end of the assembled rod, smothing the edges of the hole, then running a shoe lace through each. Now I assemble the rod, free the stickers, and tie the ends of the rod to the action brackets for a solid hold on the stickers until I am ready to untie them. Usually I don't even have to remove the keys for room to remove the action because they hold so snugly!

Prior to that I tried wire and all sorts of other methods and was not satisfied with any of it.

How do YOU do it?

Dennis: I also use the rods sold by Schaff. On many spinets there are hooks cast into the action brackets that the rod slips into. Otherwise you have to fasten the rods to the brackets somehow. I was going to try plastic ties next time instead of string. I like your idea with the shoelaces. Is one on each end enough?

The rods were made for Kimballs and Baldwins that have the grommets that fit into slots at the ends of the keys. They both have hooks molded into the action brackets.
For other pianos I've used heavy rubber bands that I loop around the action brackets, then around the rod and back to the bracket. Wire or string will work as well.

A 36" lace through the hole at each end with a knot at each end of the lace to keep it from getting lost between times works great! There is always some place to tie the thing and it holds the stickers snugly. Where there is a grommet or a hook, the strings don't seem to interfere but do still find places to tie to keep the back and forth movement of the car in transit from allowing the rods to move.

I usually rubber band action sticks that I take out of new pianos to the action brackets. Or I use old bicycle inner tubes...I got a million of 'em!