Probably the first time you played your player piano in a long time
was right after the move.  Before the move too many things were going
on you probably didn't even play it for six months.   :)   Moves are hard
on player pianos, but if routine up keeps are done over the years they
should keep on pumping.

One of the most important chores of player piano care-taking is cleaning
and lubrication of the gears in the roll drive.  The owner can easily
be shown how to do this during a service call by the player technician.
Every few years the gears need to be cleaned with a blast of WD-40
[penetrating oil], with plenty of paper towels to keep over-spray from
the rest of the piano and to soak up the drip under the gears.

Over the years the oil on the gears gets gummy from oxidation (I think)
and WD-40 for me is a good cleaner of gears thus infected.  WD-40 is
_not_ a lubricant but it does have excellent cleansing qualities,
especially involving old gunk on the metal gears.  Make sure you have
enough paper towels to keep the spray confined and soak up the drip.
An application of sewing machine [lubricating] oil on the gears and
friction points in and on the spool box will work wonders.

Just make sure you do not use wd-40 or oil on the airmotor.  On the
motor use only powdered graphite or Teflon or Teflon spray.  Notice the
roll motor has felt bushings that metal rods revolve through -- not so
on the spool box.  That is because oil was used on the spoolbox and
they knew oil would quickly gum up [airmotor] felt bushings, in my
opinion.

The bottom line is that player piano owners should have their player
pianos serviced in a reasonable time frame by a qualified player piano
technician.  How to find such a tech?  Direct recommendation from other
player piano owners, telephone "Yellow Pages", and this Internet list.
For those in remote locations, some of us do travel around the country
for vacation or family visiting, and a couple of service calls here and
there are more than welcome to enhance the travel budget.

Richard Moody - piano tuner and player piano technician
www.pnotec.com