When I started lugging my 54 around to shows, I soon decided that it needed casters. When I restore the case on that piano, I won’t want to ruin the original look by reinstalling those casters. Also, with a small shop, I need to be able to move other pianos around easily. Building a dolly out of angle iron was a very easy, straightforward project.
Materials included two five-foot pieces of angle iron, four 2″ casters, 16 1/4″x1 carriage bolts and 16 1/4″ nylon lock nuts. After cutting the angle iron, the unit just bolted together. At first, I planned on installing cross bracing, but after tightening the corners, it was clear this was unnecessary. The 1″ carriage bolts were the smallest I found but they were still too long and obstructed the motion of the caster so I cut them off after tightening everything down.
Some strips of 1-1/4″ foam rubber weather stripping added the finishing touch and made for a (nearly) perfect fit.