The spinet piano was made probably either late 1940s or early 1950s though I couldn't tell the make but the aluminum piano plate was made by Alcoa in a signed agreement with Winter and Company to be made for their pianos. Since my old crappy piano was destined for destruction ever since I got my new piano I wanted to tear it down and salvage some good wood and get that 45 lb aluminum piano plate inside. This dismantling and destruction took several hours as I removed the pins, piano wires, wood, screws and what not. My hands were a little sore the next day but it wasn't enough to stop me from practicing on my piano.
Nearly done with the pins and piano strings. Used vice grip, wrench, hammer, and screw drivers.
All the pins and strings removed.
All done with the plate. Saved a few good scrap wood with one being a 3/4" inch plank seen directly behind the plate against the garage wall.
Off to the dump!
Mangled hammers meet their demise.
All cleaned up except for the non-aluminum metal pins embedded that the piano wires were strung around. Tried to remove a few and were successful but most broke off leaving the rest of the pins inside the plate. Decided to leave them as they are and see what the scrap yard guy says.
Aluminum piano plate die casted by Alcoa seen stamped on the plate. If it's Alcoa, it's all aluminum.
A 1946 silver dime found beneath the piano keys during the initial dismantling. Wondered how it could've gotten there. A silver U.S. dime for that period of time weighs .0724 of an ounce. Price of silver? $11.50 an ounce. Dime value? .85 cents.
The next step this week is to take my 45 lb aluminum piano plate to a nearby scrap yard that buys aluminum scraps and soda cans. The scrap yard is located about 5 miles from my house. I'm not sure what the price is but the last time I took my aluminum cans the price was around .45 cents a pound.
I'll let you know how it goes this week as I take my aluminum piano plate and some aluminum soda cans to the recycling center.
UPDATE: Just recycled the piano plate this morning. The recycling and scrap yard was buying aluminum at .25 cents a pound. Suprised to see aluminum prices dropped so far down from .55 cents a few years back. Probably people are making ends meet right now by recycling their aluminum cans and scraps that there is an oversupply of aluminum depressing aluminum metal prices even further. Oh well, my plate weighed 48 lbs. So, I got $12.00 out of it. The yard is located about 2 miles from my house on my way to work. At least I did something useful in the recycling business.
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