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Your Organ Built Of Mdf....


Guest Roffensis

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Guest Roffensis

Yes it's true, the writing is on the wall, the USA has already highlighted MDF as a NO NO on account of it delightful Cancer risks. All that nice fine dust held together by Formaldehyde, or Embalaming fluid to you or I. An organ builder collegue of mine has mentioned several times the problems with this very risky material, not least the way it affect the lungs and causes tumours. :o

One remmembers with great affection also the Asbestos risks, and the banning of that nice sunbstance. Today where any exists you would think there was a major radiation brakeout, and rightly so. Indeed, there are guidelines just how to get rid of it, professionally. I guess the next (belated) "wake up" will be MDF. Walk around a major continental cheap and cheerful store which uses it a lot, and you can smell the stuff coming out the air systems. It's on the floor as well. Meanwhile, schoolkids are being given the stuff to work with in woodwork, but then, we do value our children's health don't we!!

 

So....watch this space, not long and some wise one will stand up in Government and it will be "Guess what I learned today" and, just a yesterdays mad cow eat itself, the pipe organ of the past few years will also disappear, banned for any use of MDF. Oh dear!!!!

Of course we can all sit back, it takes a nice polish doesn't it, and of course, we can seal it all in, and who is really going to admit.........think of the cost......but the truth is that the stuff is downright nasty, rsky, and unstable. Having worked with it I can vouch it does not have as good workability as proper fully seasoned wood. QED. So, watch what is blowing out of your pipes, wear a mask in the Bach, and like Vierne do a hatrick for an ending.......... ;)

Richard

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I suppose we can look forward to another EU directive then... :wacko:

 

MDF is great because it doesn't warp or crack so easily. I think possibly GD&B were among the first to do this at New College with a Polish substance called Tabopan which I always assumed to be a forerunner of commercial MDF. If that's gone for 37 years without a major rebuild, which I think is the case, then it's pretty much unique among its contemporaries, and still entirely free of runnings and cyphers last time I saw it.

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Yes it's true, the writing is on the wall, the USA has already highlighted  MDF as a NO NO on account of it delightful Cancer risks. All that nice fine dust held together by Formaldehyde, or Embalaming fluid to you or I. An organ builder collegue of mine has mentioned several times the problems with this very risky material, not least the way it affect the lungs and causes tumours.  :o

 

Of course we can all sit back, it takes a nice polish doesn't it, and of course, we can seal it all in, and who is really going to admit.........think of the cost......but the truth is that the stuff is downright nasty, rsky, and unstable. Having worked with it I can vouch it does not have as good workability as proper fully seasoned wood. QED. So, watch what is blowing out of your pipes, wear a mask in the Bach, and like Vierne do a hatrick for an ending.......... :wacko:

 

 

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Well, this looks very plausible, but the reality is rather different. Within the EU there are different rules concerning MDF, and in Germany, it is possible to obtain MDF which carries not the slightest risk of dangerous Formaldehyde emmission.

 

As a material, whilst not suitable for exterior panels and fixtures, it is entirely stable as others have suggested in their replies.

 

Nevertheless, I was surprised and delighted to note that the organ which I play (currently in pieces) actually uses very thick marine-ply in the windchests.

 

Knowing just how strong this sort of plyboard is (they make boats out of it, and Marcos used to make cars out of it) from the time I spent in the marine industry, I was quite impressed. It certainly hasn't degraded at all in the past 32 years, and I can never recall a single cypher, sticking slide or the wind running, unlike most older slider-chest instruments.

 

I think the BIG problem was when organ-builders used chip-board, which really is fairly awful stuff.

 

MM

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