♪♪ Most days, Chuck Behm can be found in his workshop restoring old pianos.

Check Behm: So, on a typical day I'm doing my refinishing in the morning.

I'm 74 but I'm not ready to be full retirement mode.

I have no intention just to sit around and watch soap operas.

Apply the finish.

Check.

Chuck Behm: I like working with my hands.

I like working on mechanical things.

So, it really suits me.

In 1972, I got my first teaching job in Festus, Missouri working at the St. Pius X High School for $6,000 a year.

So, I knew I needed a part-time job and my dad had just gone into tuning the year before.

He was a band director in Mason City.

And he encouraged me to look into piano tuning and I bought my first set of tools in '72 and I started tuning in Missouri.

I did one or two a month and then it just built up from there.

So, with this piano it's 52,928.

52,000, 1902, so it's been around.

Chuck Behm: You take a piano that hasn't been really worked on since it left the factory in 1900 or 1910 and you're tearing it completely apart and when you get done it's more or less like it rolled off the factory floor and it's just a real satisfying feeling.

If you're restoring a piano top to bottom, you're refinishing the case, you're putting in new what are called pins and strings and hammers and keys and replacing all sorts of things.

So, it's a little something different every day.

But none of it is high stress and I don't keep track of my time intensely because when I come out here it's just a job that I enjoy doing.

In 2015, Chuck decided to take on a new project, building an outdoor piano that the community could enjoy.

♪♪ Chuck Behm: I had been reading about pianos that were put outside and after a week or so something would happen, primarily they get rained on, and they'd be ruined.

I was in the Piano Technician Guild and I approached my guild chapter with the idea of taking a piano and modifying it.

And we spent three Saturdays doing everything we could and we made a piano that was outside here in Boone, it was actually moved from location to location for three summers by the city.

The city was very good about it.

And people really loved it.

And then finally it got to the point where it just couldn't be used anymore.

So, I built a second outdoor piano and I did this one on my own and it's quite a bit more elaborate.

♪♪ Chuck Behm: So, this is a piano that I built to withstand the rains that we get here in the summer.

And it's unique in that it's not just a single piano, but it's a piano inside of a piano.

It's a small console piano or Wurlitzer that's inside the case of a 1903 upright.

♪♪ This time around, Chuck decided he wanted the piano to be truly weatherproof, which meant the keys couldn't be made out of wood.

Through trial and error, Chuck experimented making keys out of liquid plastic and aluminum before settling on using a 3D printer.

Chuck Behm: And so, this is what we ended up with right here.

They come apart in three parts.

So, I'm going to prop this lid up.

And the lid, by the way, is made out of PVC lumber to prevent it having a veneer surface that is going to peel away when it gets wet.

What makes this work is that when it gets rained on, instead of accumulating underneath the keys as it would if it was an ordinary piano, the water is going to pour right off.

(water pouring) Don't try that at home.

♪♪ ♪♪ Chuck Behm: Boone doesn't have a whole lot of tourist attractions.

We have the train, of course.

We have the racetracks.

But I think this is something that people can say well, we have a really cool outdoor piano.

It just gives the community something that sets it apart a little bit.

♪♪ We're in downtown Boone in front of the book shop here and she has graciously consented to having the piano out front for a time.

And this is right on Story Street, the main street through town, so a lot of foot traffic along here.

♪♪ Susan Schafer: It brings smiles.

When we had it the first time around you could just see people smile when they hear the music or when they actually got to play the piano.

I think it's a great thing for Boone.

It's a nice, positive piece for downtown Boone.

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