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Pipe Metal Casting |
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One of the things that we pride ourselves on at Taylor & Boody is making all of the parts of our organs in house. This includes, but is not limited to our metal pipes. We use three main alloys for our metal pipes, two of which we alloy ourselves in our foundry. They are "Herman's mix" (roughly 98% lead and 1% tin with trace elements), "28%" (roughly 71% lead and 28% tin), and a high tin alloy (90% tin, 9% lead and trace elements). The trace elements are mainly bismuth, antimony, copper, and silver among others. We have used different alloys in the past for certain projects, such as the restorations of two David Tannenberg organs. We had the alloys recreated to match the original pipe metal, but they are not part of our everyday pipemaking. |
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The first step in the metal process is casting. Our metal pipes start as ingots that weigh anywhere from 55 lbs. to 80 lbs., depending on the alloy. The ingots are melted in our casting pot, ladled into a pouring pot, and then poured into the "sled" that is pushed along our casting table. There is a small gap between the table and the back of the box that allows the molten metal to come out into a sheet. The sheets tend to taper in thickness from the start to the end, which aids in the strength of our pipes, which are tapered in thickness from bottom to top-this is very important because if the pipes are the same thickness over the entire length, they tend to collapse over time. After the sheet has cooled, it is measured for thickness and set aside for a specific note (or notes) in a specific stop of pipes. |
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Casting Gallery click on any thumbnail |
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