Hi to Stephen Lewin!

> Hi all,  I am new to this list.  Has anyone made wood pipes using
> MDF board?  It is much lower cost than boards of pine or oak or maple.
[...]

Robbie commented:

>[ Therefore you might ask, "Why don't professional organ builders use
>[ MDF?"  I hope that an experienced organ builder will reply to MMD!

I'm not an "experienced organ builder", but I do (or did do) quite a
lot of woodworking.  My experience there was that the hours spent --
even with careful planning, a good workshop, and doing routine work --
are quite significant.

So my guess would be: The cost of wood is dwarfed by the labor cost,
especially for complex woodworking as it is necessary for an organ,
and there again especially for the pipes.  So, for a professional organ
builder, a comparatively small cost reduction would result in a huge
degradation of the perceived "quality of craftsmanship", with a
potentially much higher risk to lose future well-paying customers.

Also, the cost difference between MDF and pine is really not that large.
And as the backs and sides of traditional organ pipes are usually made
of pine or some other comparably cheap wood, not much cost can be saved
there (assuming that the organ builders dries the pine boards himself).

For the front, (a) MDF looks ugly, or at least "non-professional" --
after all, pipe organs carry with them an air of "traditionality");
(b) MDF cannot be used to form a reliable sharp upper lip of the mouth,
because it is much harder on the surface than inside, therefore it will
create a soft and rough surface when cut at an angle (except maybe for
some special grades of MDF -- but then the price advantage will be
lost).

Moreover, tools deteriorate much faster with MDF than with grown wood,
so the cost advantage might well be lost again on the time/cost of
sharpening blades, chisels, planes etc.

For more standard parts of an organ, where the ratio of labor cost is
smaller (e.g. the case), also professional organ builders try to use
cheaper materials if possible (i.e. if the customer does not care or
cannot see it).  At least all sorts of plywood can be found there.

Just my guess ...

Harald M. Mueller
Grafing bei Muenchen
Germany
http://www.haraldmmueller.de/