Organ metal

I'm hoping to build a small pipe organ this summer, and as well as a rank of wooden pipes, I would like to make a set of small metal ones. The largest would be 2', going down to a few inches. The trouble is that most organ builders cast their own mixture of lead and tin for pipe building, which I don't belive is comercially available. Can anyone suggest another sheet metal that is:

Easily worked Solders well with an iron Isn't too hard to get hold of Isn't going to break the bank

Sorry if this is the wrong group; many thanks.

Reply to
stuartwilliammurray
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Have you seen this

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. Looks like it might be fairly easy to replicate. Christopher, in another reply, mentioned higher levels of tin in better quality work so maybe pewter (britania metal) might be an option, although I have never tried to solder it with an iron only torch. It would also help if you mentioned your location.

Reply to
David Billington

The distinctive "spotty metal" is, as you correctly state, an alloy of lead and tin. The exact composition varies, but 50% lead to 50% tin is not uncommon. Historically, organ builders have chosen to use an alloy with a greater proportion of tin for their best quality work.

You might be able to make your own sheets of metal using some kind of lead-tin solder, but I suspect this wouldn't be straightforward. I would suggest you contact some professional organ builders, explain your project, and see if they can help you.

An explanation of the history of spotty metal is given in the book "Engineering Properties and Applications of Lead Alloys" by Sivaraman Guruswamy.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

Saw a documentary show on the tube a few years back, that showed the process of building organ pipes, starting with the raw metal, melted and poured into a spreader to make sheets. Interesting stuff!

Looked like there was lots of room for trial and error methodology to be put to use. :-)

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

Reply to
Paul Hastings

I wonder what the pewter I have would work like, it's 92-6-2, 92% tin,

6% antimony, 2% copper.

And the things you find on the internet

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Reply to
David Billington

That's an interesting video. To elaborate, this is what the book says about alloy composition:

"In the last hundred years or more, lead-tin alloy pipes for organs have been made with as high a composition as 85 wt% lead and 15 wt% tin. However, the organ trade had the view that no alloy for organ pipes contain less than 25 % tin, and in really good work no alloy with less than 55 % tin should be employed."

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

I just googled "organ pipe metal" and got 1,000,000 hits. The first half dozen talked about what you want.

Pete Stanaitis

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Reply to
spaco

If you can roll out a block into a sheet or a rod into a sheet - buy bulk solder. Tin-lead by percentages.

It comes in sticks and ingots. A electronic supply house can set up an order. Or perhaps direct.

Look at a solder company. Tin lead.

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9 on the North American 2007 Recommended Electronics Assembly....

You will need a roller - and roll out a sheet as needed. I'd take the bars and make smaller sheets.

It would be nice to have a chunk from an old one and have it analyzed for the content % of material. Normally it is a simple and low cost test. Inquire as to what is needed (match head likely) and price.

Martin

Mart> I'm hoping to build a small pipe organ this summer, and as well as a

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Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

There's a multi-volume set on organ construction you might look up at a larger library via interlibrary loan, apparently the proportions of lead and tin have a fairly large effect on the sound of the pipes. The higher the tin content, the better the sound, up to a point. Too high a tin content and you get "tin disease" and the pipes will fall apart with temperature change. I'm sure this alloy isn't available commercially as sheet, it's relatively easy to make up, after all. There are several books out there on past and present practice of pipe construction, you need a stone table long as the longest pipe and wider than the circumference of the widest one. A sliding trough is used to cast the molten alloy as it's slid down the table. Different thicknesses of sheet are used for the different pipe pitches. One documentary on one of the cable channels showed constructors doing this. Apparently wrought metal sounds different than cast. You could use tin or brass sheet, but the sound would probably be more like a whistle than an organ. For short stuff like you want, you could probably knock together a sliding trough out of pine and use a tombstone reject or maybe a cheap Chinese surface plate(almost the same thing).

Stan

Reply to
stans4

I thinbk Pewter is too brittle to be rolled into tubes.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

You haven't tried working the stuff then, I can spin a tankard from a flat disc without any anneals. In high school people regularly formed it into tubes and soldered the joints. I have never seen it act in a brittle fashion.

Reply to
David Billington

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions - they've really helped. I'll hope to finish the project in a few months and then put up a webpage about it. Try googling Stuart William Murray in a few months!

Reply to
stuartwilliammurray

On May 11, 1:35=A0am, snipped-for-privacy@prolynx.com wrote: =2E.. For short stuff like you want, you could

I've heard that a canvas-lined wooden tray works, although it didn't for me using battery lead. I didn't have enough 50:50 solder to fill the sliding box.

Jim Wilkins

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Then the stuff I thought was pewter must not have been. Probably some cheap zinc imitation.

Yes, tin, antimoney and copper sounds like an alloy that should be easily worked.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Pewter alloys are wacky, in that they get softer and more malleable with cold working. Freshly cast they are fairly brittle and hard because the crystals are big and chunky. As you work them the grain gets more refined and they work like butter.

Paul K. Dickman

Reply to
Paul K. Dickman

Interesting you should say that as the the guy that supplied with the pewter sheet mentioned it work softening in his experience but he makes sheet and other products from cast ingots IIRC. My main experience with pewter (Britannia metal) is with rolled sheet upto 2mm thick although I do some casting and having just bent a cast handle with about 10mm thickness quite significantly without breakage, possibly that is a small section and the grain size is still small due to rapid cooling.

Reply to
David Billington

It's not like cast iron. It is still malleable as cast, otherwise we would not be able to roll out sheet.

I'll bet you heard it sing when you bent it.

Paul K. Dickman

Reply to
Paul K. Dickman

Not sing but I did feel little clicks.

Reply to
David Billington

That's it.

Paul K. Dickman

Reply to
Paul K. Dickman

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