Curious lead source

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Who'd-a-thunk that old pipe organs could be a source of lead. Apparently many of the pipes are lead-tin alloys. However I see that zinc may also be used which gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Is there any way to tell if a piece of metal has zinc in it before melting it down?

Has anyone else used pipe organ pipes for shootin'? Any thoughts/experience would be appreciated.

[Tom W.]

I've been reading here for years, and those that know say to put a few drops of HCL or Muriatic acid on it and see if it bubbles. If it does, sell it to someone who makes cannonballs.

[Hossfly]

Test what temp. It melts at.

[JBinMN]

Who'd-a-thunk that old pipe organs could be a source of lead. Apparently many of the pipes are lead-tin alloys. However I see that zinc may also be used which gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Is there any way to tell if a piece of metal has zinc in it before melting it down?

Has anyone else used pipe organ pipes for shootin'? Any thoughts/experience would be appreciated.

Interesting about the pipe organs. News to me anyway!


Zinc content can be ID'd by dropping some muriatic acid drops on it to see if they "fizz", or bubble up due to the reaction between the zinc & the acid. Muriatic acid is one type of acid that should do it for you, and you, of course, should be able to go purchase it from a Home Depot, Menards, Lowes, building suppliers, etc., if you like.

{Muriatic acid is an old name for Hydrochloric acid or "HCL", btw, if anyone was not aware of that fact.}

It sometimes is also usually easily available by asking some Cement/Concrete contractors to let you have some, as it is used in that trade for cleaning tools, forms, etc. when concrete/cement has cured & is sticking to a shovel, rake, screed, etc. because someone forgot to wash the concrete/cement off the object or did a poor job if cleaning it after use.
There are more examples of its use, but that is a common one.

{ I got a gallon simply by asking a buddy in that trade that I knew from my being in the trades & it was free. More than I wanted, but he said jokingly that the gallon jug was what I was getting, and if I wanted it in a smaller container I could do it myself or he would actually try to charge me to do it himself. So, a gallon is what I have, minus a couple drops I used once... LOL Guys in the trades are pretty nice about sharing with others if asked politely & some beer or pizza can hep too when necessary, but most of the time their kindness cost nothing but a smile & a nice, "Thank you very much!". }



Your local scrap yard might have a spectrometer to measure content of metals in things and they may or may not charge you to test for zinc. I have a buddy who doesn't own one, but he has a guy who buys his scrap from him who does & he will have something tested for me if I ask nice. ( Remember that beer/pizza/soda, etc. & such small gifts can go a long way in getting some assistance some times.

So those are a couple options for ya to test out your metals...

I have never used such lead alloy so I can't even start to answer your last question, but I am interested if anyone else has used it as well & that was worth posting in the topic itself!

[RED BEAR]

You may want to check anything you get from a scrap yard. They really don't distinguish between lead and lead alloy .

[lightman]

I've never used organ pipes but I've heard of them being either lead or tin. Like the others say, check them with acid. I use the stuff that you treat swimming pools with and a glass eye dropper from Walgreens.

[Froogal]

I can understand organ pipes being made of tin, but I think most often they are made of brass, or maybe even wood. An organ pipe made of lead would not resonate very well, but that is just my opinion.

[Winger Ed.]

Any place that sells swimming pool maintenance stuff will have HCL. Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.
It's usually out in the garden dept. since it and other related chemicals smell so strong.

[rsrocket1]

Isn't HCl/Muriatic acid available from pool supply stores? Its been decades since my brother and I bought a gallon at the local grocery store. We didn't own a pool, we were junior high and high school students that learned too much in our chemistry class and used it to make hydrogen gas for other experiments.

[Bazoo]

If I'm not mistaken the small organ pipes are normally pure lead and the larger ones have tin added for strength to support their own weight. I believe I seen an episode of modern marvels some years back about lead that had a segment on organ pipes. I know if they ain't voiced right the pipes can sound "tinny".

[oconeedan]

muriatic acid is easy to find, in your home improvement store. For cleaning concrete.

[tomme boy]

Farm and Fleet, Fleet and Farm, Tractor Supply Stores all have it.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Thanks guys, I don't think sourcing the HCL will be a problem, I just didn't know that it worked (never heard of the trick until now).

I think I will have a source of lead for years to come then if the pipes pass the no-zinc test.

FYI, a good pipe organ in a church will have many different pipes. Some wood, some copper/brass, and many lead-tin. The texture of the finish will vary considerably in order to produce different sounds. They typically select certain pipes for the exposed parts which have a highly polished finish, then they hide the wooden pipes and dull-finished ones in the back.

[rsrocket1]

Funny how some of us shooters will cry "sacrilege" if someone wanted to cut down a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 barrel and put it into a laminate stock, but are more than happy to melt down antique organ pipes to make projectiles.

Heck, I'd be tempted to melt down a Paul Revere pewter beer stine or a lead wine goblet originally used by Julius Caesar to make some good boolits .

Congratulations on the score.

[uscra112]

Funny how some of us shooters will cry "sacrilege" if someone wanted to cut down a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 barrel and put it into a laminate stock, but are more than happy to melt down antique organ pipes to make projectiles.

Heck, I'd be tempted to melt down a Paul Revere pewter beer stine or a lead wine goblet originally used by Julius Caesar to make some good boolits .

Congratulations on the score.

There are specialists who restore old pipe organs who would roast you over a slow fire for destroying those pipes. I'd be delighted to watch. Akin to using M1 Garands for tomato stakes.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

There are specialists who restore old pipe organs who would roast you over a slow fire for destroying those pipes. I'd be delighted to watch. Akin to using M1 Garands for tomato stakes.

Well they are most welcome to come and get the pipes. I've reached out and contacted several organ builders - they all told me the same thing, "they're not worth anything." We had two guys interested in some of the pipes . . . they took the wooden ones.

[JeffinTD]

I’d done some work on a tracker organ my mother purchased. The air that actually played the pipes was carried by passages made of wood, but pneumatic control was done via banks of very soft (I’d guess nearly pure lead) tubing about 1/4” diameter.

In the pressurized chamber below the pipes were little bellows/ fulcrum/ stopper kind of arrangement, with a wire spring to hold fulcrum over so the stopper blocked air to the pipe.

The little bellows is connected to the keyboard via lead tube. Metal reed valves and drilled passages supplied the tube with pressurized air when the key is at rest, but when you press the key, it blocks pressurized air and opens the passage to the atmosphere.

The little bellows under the pipe no longer has pressure in it, and it it mounted in a pressurized passage so it collapses, overcoming the spring and playing the pipe.

Anyway, people think of old organs as primitive, but a lot of engineering and craftsmanship goes into one.

And the tubing in the ones I’ve seen appeared to be pure lead.

[Wayne Smith]

They are of no future value in an organ because, without careful handling, they are bent, bumped, and very out of tune.

[Froogal]

Pipe organs are sadly a thing of the past. Very few folks know how to play them anymore, and no one wants to learn. Most churches have gone to electronic pianos and such because they occupy so little space and are relatively easy to learn.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Pipe organs are sadly a thing of the past. Very few folks know how to play them anymore, and no one wants to learn. Most churches have gone to electronic pianos and such because they occupy so little space and are relatively easy to learn.

Eau Contraire. They are expensive and big. The reason they are fading away is because churches are closing. Our parish purchased a better (tracker) organ and we are in the process of replacing our old electric organ. Ironically the tracker organs are older technology (but this particular one is made in 2001) but stand a chance at better longevity. The guts of the organ are simple wooden levers, rods and pipes as well as the apparatus to convey air. A replacement part can be fabricated fairly easily. Our old electric organ had circuitry made from obsolete and no longer manufactured parts. This raised the cost of repair to a level higher than the purchase price of the new tracker organ.

So our parish's future most certainly includes the powerful music of a real pipe organ. And we have an organ instructor in the area who teaches my kids.

And yes, moving the pipes from the other church into ours was a delicate process. I tried my best to give a new home to our old pipes, but having failed, a fellow parishioner and I decided to scrap the old one - that's when we discovered it was a good lead source. And we both reload and shoot.