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I tried to give away a 1960’s Baldwin Hamilton for years. I finally decided to gut it and turn it into something useful.
Originally I thought I’d turn it into a bookcase. After we got some kittens that could climb Everest, I decided to make it an at least temporary home to some of my modular gear for protection.
The result is a stealth desk - sections of the piano lift out to reveal the desk inside. It is a bit rough and ready as the result of the overall demo process (I learned a lot about how pianos are made) as well as the general lack of finish for the interior of a piano.
Despite appearances, pianos have very little good/real wood in them but are complex assemblies of many small pieces of wood glued together. The glue makes it rather difficult to repurpose much of the interior/rear wood, at least with the tools I have.
I would suggest that anyone wanting to do this borrow a piano trolley that flips the piano, remove the cast iron plate (after removing everything else) and leave the back on. I wanted the extra space of the back, but removing the back means adding back in a lot of structural support. I used four 2x4s to create bracing at top/bottom as well as extend the keybed all the way back.
There are some great videos on YouTube for breaking down a piano (A,B,C,D). You definitely want wrap around eye protection, gloves, and if you are removing the pins, a big corded drill and a rachet set.
Pictures below show my process.