Baldwin 1984 Model L grand -- legs/piano wobbly

smithac345

Has anyone encountered this? Where the lower part of the leg meets the upper part of the leg, there is maybe a 1/2 millimeter gap on at least two of the three legs and so the piano rocks, especially when using the pedal (the lyre is a bit high off the ground on this model, and so playing the pedal pushes piano away from you, instead of most of the force going down into the pedal; there is not much shake when playing without the pedal.) I Had the piano mover take a look, take a leg off, try to use a heavy mallet to pound on the top of the leg to compress the two parts of the leg together. Nothing has worked. He's considering drilling down using the existing screw holes at the very top of the leg (which hold the round metal plate that has the metal thing that locks the whole leg assembly to the body of the piano) and then inserting longer screws, which would reach down into the lower part of the leg (but outside the perimeter of the dowel) to act as stabilizing pillars, as it were. I'm concerned this could introduce a crack in the wood of the lower leg. Any solutions, thoughts, experiences? Could it be a problem of a minutely uneven floor? (the piano was just moved -- it didn't rock/shake before the move). The piano is on coasters (the wheels of the piano sit on these coasters). As perhaps you can tell from my language/description, I am not a technician but figured this is a good place to inquire. Thank you for any help!

twocats

smithac345 if it wasn't a problem before, I'd blame the floor! Why not just stick something thin under the coaster to stabilize it?

smithac345

twocats Hi and thanks. Yes we will try that and have tried shifting the piano around on the floor to check. But we can also see a very thin space between the upper, wide part of the leg and the lower leg (on the rear leg of piano) and feel with our hands a bit of movement at this joint where the upper and lower part of the leg meet, on two out of the three legs. But as you say (and as I have thought), it wasn't so wobbly before, so maybe it's the floor. Though wouldn't a three-legged object (think camera tripod) simply be not-level/tilted on an uneven surface rather than wobbly? (whereas with four legs, at least one leg will be off of the ground on an uneven surface and hence cause wobble). Thanks again.

twocats

smithac345 oh dear, that's definitely a problem.

Do the legs look the same? If so, I'm guessing they got switched. I have old cabinet drawers where they all look the same, but each drawer will only fit one cavity.

smithac345

twocats I think the legs are in the correct position but I will double check that too when he comes next week to try to fix. Thank you

pianoloverus

Is the space you notice a place where pieces should be glued together? A picture would be helpful.

smithac345

pianoloverus Yes, I was thinking the same and will upload a picture -- thank you!

smithac345

pianoloverus Here's a bit blurry photo of gap in the back leg I have mentioned (second photo). I also found this other gap on the front leg between the top of the leg and the main body of the piano. I don't know if this is also relevant because the center of that top part of the leg is secured to the main body with the metal thing that slides into place and then is locked in with a strong latch (using a rubber mallet to secure or unsecure to remove leg).

pianoloverus

Your tech should if the gap is at a glue joint.

smithac345

THanks -- the glue joint is for the lower joint. I'm dealing with a mover (who recently moved the piano) who is hoping to fix it so I don't have to then go shell out more money -- because it was not shaking before he moved it.

twocats

smithac345 it's pretty suspicious that two legs have this issue!

ShiroKuro

@smithac345 I’m just now seeing this thread… yikes, this would make me very nervous. Is it possible the piano legs were somehow damaged during the move?

Personally, I would not want to rely on the mover to assess and/or fix this. Unless the mover is a specialist in moving grands and also does piano restoration, I would absolutely want to have a piano tech involved, preferably someone who does piano restoration rather than someone who only tunes. What kind of insurance do the movers offer? Perhaps they can be billed for resolving this issue.

Anyway, please keep us posted on how it goes.

By the way, what kind of piano is it? I’m going to go look at my grand, because I’ve never thought about that part of the piano before.