I've spent the last couple of days pulling the spruce braces off the soundboard. Man, what a mission!
I tried steam after buying a cheap pressure cooker ($23). No cigar. The wood just got really wet and the thin paint scraper I was using was just tearing it up. So back to the heat gun, scraper and 1" chisel.
Basically what I'd do is heat the scraper up really hot, then slip it under the brace for far enough that I could put the chisel under the edge to lever it up. Then I'd heat scraper and the timber (as gently as possible) and work my way along until the brace came off. Only 2 braces splintered. The rest came off ok. Which is really cool, because the braces are also spruce and will make excellent bracing for acoustic instruments. Sorry there are no "how to" pics but I needed 3 hands as it was. Holding a phone was impossible.
The soundboard was cracked in a few places. The longest, largest board has the biggest crack, but then I already knew that. I'm not all that stressed about it, because I can easily glue it up. The panels are 8mm thick, so I can easily thickness sand them down for other instruments. All of the spruce in the piano was hard, well seasoned and really strong.
