Limited, but another lead source

[Rockydog]

I stopped by an old friends house yesterday. He is a professional piano tuner and restorer and has been in the business for many years. He also removes old pianos from community buildings, churches, etc. and junks them out for parts. As we were talking I remembered that my son used to help him junk pianos. There are 88 keys in a piano and each is counter weighted with a lead slug in the back end of the key. My son used to take these keys and rap them on the top of a brick and the lead slug would pop out of the hole. My friend kept these for some reason. Each manufacturer has different sized slugs based on key length, design etc. Also, black keys being shorter than white keys, and full keys being heavier than keys with cut out for the black keys, all result in different sizes. The sizes I pulled out and measured varied in length from .400 to .440 and in diameter from .400 to .456. Some are tapered and some are straight cylinders. All appear to be dead soft lead. All together he gave me 3 large tomato juice cans full of these things. I'll give him some reloads for his .38 in return. These are fairly clean with a little glue residue on a few and a little oxidation on some. I don't know how many in a can but at 88 per piano he's junked out or replaced the keys on a ton of pianos. He still has about 3 more cans too. RD

[357maximum]

We better get all them health hazards out of schools, churches and such...it's for the children afterall.:confused::twisted::roll:[smilie=1:

Thanks for the snippet of knowledge.

[oldtoolsniper]

My brother restores old piano's as well I have about 60lbs of the stuff. Some pump organs have lead tubing in them as well as a few player piano's.

[StrawHat]

I was working in Pittsburgh after one of the floods and a fellow who restored pipe organs was closing his shop. One of the barrels he was tossing out was full of organ pipes, all pure lead. I helped him get rid of it.

[Alchemist]

I got some organ weights at the local junkyard a coupla years ago. They varied in size/weight from probably 3-4 oz to a coupla pounds. They had tapered brass tubes cast in them, with a brass reed covering an opening in the tube. The reed was held in place with a small tapered wooden peg.

Anybody seen them before? They are harder than pure lead, and slightly harder than WW's. I'd like to know what alloy they are if anyone knows.