As a collector of vintage stereo equipment, I got a big smile out of
the recent posting by Hi Babit.  I never thought of using a piano case
as an high fidelity speaker enclosure.  Back then, having a huge
speaker enclosure was the nuts.  Nowadays, the kids (and some of the
parents) are used to those tiny speakers on flat-screen TVs and iPods,
and they haven't the faintest idea of what full frequency sound is
like.  With the strings still in place, it must have had a really
interesting sound.

That reminded me of another use for an old piano case.  Many years ago
my dad was a trustee of the local church.  They were getting rid of an
old piano that had been in the Sunday School room for years and years.
You can imagine what shape it was in, with various kids banging out
hymns on it all that time and with the church being cold all week and
then heated on Sunday.   He asked if I wanted it, and it occurred to me
that there was a lot of good wood in a piano (and wire and ivory and
ebony), so I said YES.

I couldn't get the whole thing into the car to drive it home, so I did
some careful planning and took it apart.  The biggest problem was the
back frame (not the harp - which we trashed).  I took off the pieces
that were screwed on and then knocked off the ends, after carefully
removing the strings.  Then I used a hand saw and cut vertically
through the pin block.  What a job!  Over the next couple weeks I
managed to use most of the wood and built a rather nice European style
woodworking bench.  The top was made from the pin block and the large
posts in the back of the piano.

Here's a picture taken some years ago but I do still use the bench.
It's a bit worn over time, as is the fellow using it in this picture:
   http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/14/01/17/140117_162703_Workbench.jpg 

Craig Smith

  [ Craig, that fellow in the picture looks a bit like you.  Could it
  [ be?
  [ --Relief Editor.