Leaf blower and dust . . .

[alzado]

We have recently acquired one of those powered leaf blowers. 

I have a grand piano that has accumulated dust on the soundboard beneath the strings.

Do you think a leaf blower would be effective to blow out some of the dust?   Note:  these machines do not need to be used at full power -- they have a throttle control.  Seems to me that blowing the dust out is the least injurious way to remove it.  Using a can of compressed air does some good, but is not sufficiently strong to do much of a job.

I have tried moving a slightly dampened cloth under the strings using a small hooked rod.  This does get at some of the dust, but is time consuming.

Are there any other alternatives?

To me the idea of keeping the piano closed all the time is not a good option.  I realize that some owners do this.

[donjuan]

We have recently acquired one of those powered leaf blowers. 

I have a grand piano that has accumulated dust on the soundboard beneath the strings.

Do you think a leaf blower would be effective to blow out some of the dust?

HAHAHA!! sounds like a real redneck-type of thing to do

Can't see why it wouldnt work, provided you dont mind the dust getting pushed all over the room..

I have tried moving a slightly dampened cloth under the strings using a small hooked rod.  This does get at some of the dust, but is time consuming.

Maybe wait for a technician like gfiore to respond to that one.  I wouldn't want to risk getting the strings wet. 

Are there any other alternatives?

To me the idea of keeping the piano closed all the time is not a good option.  I realize that some owners do this.

Why isn't that a good option?  I always keep the piano closed when I'm not using it.  Do you have a pile of sheetmusic sitting on the piano or something?

[pianistimo]

yes.  that's it! might require an airfilter in the room - but would probably work the best of anything i've heard so far.

[quantum]

I've been using my high powered shop vac to vaccum the sound board from above the strings.  I get most of the light dust but, some still remains.  Now that you mention leaf blower, my shop vac also has a blower.  Maybe I might try this. 

To you piano techs out there, how do you suggest cleaning out the dust from the soundboard area that is covered by strings?  Considering you want to leave the lid of your piano open. 

[pianistimo]

maybe your right about asking a tech.  the strings might accidentally get too much dust in them.

[g_s_223]

I think this is the sort of thing mentioned:

(from here).

What I would do is have the blower operating simultaneously with a vacuum cleaner, the latter with a very broad nozzle held over the strings, so that as the dust is blown out it is sucked into the V.C. and not dumped all over the room.

You might need two persons in this scenario (and ear defenders). 

[arensky]

I have tried moving a slightly dampened cloth under the strings using a small hooked rod.  This does get at some of the dust, but is time consuming.

To me the idea of keeping the piano closed all the time is not a good option.  I realize that some owners do this.

The dampened cloth worries me; the soundboard is the most fragile and costly to replace (? pin block, maybe) component of a grand piano. Are you in a dry climate? It might not matter there so much... also you can get a mud streak that way.

For years I have been switching my 1963 Electrolux vacum cleaner from suck to blow to expel the dust from the soundboard of my 1900 Steinway "A" grand piano. The piano is usually closed but dust gets in the open part (the dampers and the action). When the piano is open people comment on how clean the interior of the piano is, and how do I keep it that way? I blow the dust out as described above, about once a month. So your leaf blower should work, BUT don't leave the hot (I presume) air focused on any one area of the board for more than a second, because it seems to me that you could crack the board by blowing hot air onto it for a period of time. And this is the best way to get the dust out from around the pins, without unstringing the piano.

I was unable to do this for a few months last year and the dust started to accumulate on the treble area of the  soundboard, and simply blowing it out with the vacum did not do the whole job. So when my tech came to tune, we tried my idea of taking one of those Swiffer duster things (the mitten kind), cramming it up into the soundboard area while the action was removed, and then from the bass area pinning it down with a straightend coat hanger, wraped in cloth to prevent scratch marks on the soundboard, and moving it from the treble towards the bass, removing the accumulated dust as we pulled it. This worked very well. BTW while the action was out we vacumed the area where the action goes, then took the action outside and blew all the dust out of it. We do this every other tuning, makes sense to me to keep the action dust free; dust can't be good for it.

So wait for a tech to advise you on the leaf blower, but I've been doing basically the same thing to my soundboard for years. Just keep the air moving, don't saturate a given area of the board, probably not a good idea.

[pianistimo]

hmmm. never thought about the hot air.  good advice.