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Here is a gadget that my Dad invented. He later amended it to use a hand winch instead of the car battery but when he applied for the patent it turned out someone had already invented one very similar back in the 1800s.

Click below to see a video that I just uploaded to youtube
1 Man Piano Moving Device

This now means that Dad can load a piano onto our van all by himself leaving me to fiddle about up in the office until he is loaded up ready to set off.

Hope you like it. It's quite a dramatic video don't you think?

Later on Dad decided that the device could be streamlined by removing the heavy battery and using a lightweight hand-winch instead. See the video below showing the new hand-winch version lifting the corner of a Yamaha C5 grand. That's normally the work of 3 men huffing and puffing. Watch below as Dad does it on his own with ease.

Hand winch powered 1 man piano moving device

It it this design that Dad applied for a patent for but it had already been invented 120 years ago

Hope you liked the vids

This is the best one for one man moving grands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMi-6HqE ... ded#at=102

Poetry in motion. Nice video.

However it's a very big piece of kit that takes up crucial space in the van when not in use and no doubt costs about £2000? It's also useless for getting the piano around tight corners in people's homes and it won't handle typical domestic flights of stairs at all. Oh and does it do uprights? Dads kit costs less than £100, takes up very little space in a van and is compatible with standard piano shoes.

It was designed for concert grands going into concert venues not homes


Barrie,

It excels at that one task but I doubt many piano hire companies can justify the expense of having one?

God it's soooooooooooooo slow - A 15 minute job takes 40 minutes using this - I'm sick of having to wait around when a tuning is booked for 10:30 am and can't get at the piano until well past 11:00am. Another point is that it simply can't negotiate places that the good old fashioned specialist piano remover can. It is however. brilliant for use by non-specialist removers!!

Nice video, but yes i agree that it may not be suitable for moving pianos for homes, and may be designed more for the bigger concert grands moving to performance venues