Field Trip Notes:

The Reuter Organ Company is a producer of custom pipe organs. They have been  located in Lawrence Kansas since 1919. They are the one of four remaining organ companies in North America who make every component of an organ themselves. WHO KNEW! its cool to get out and see the industry in lawrence! They make custom pipe organs for customers around the world. Their typical clients include Churches, Colleges, Universities, Concert Halls, and the occasional private residence (some guy in Lawrence used to have one in his house.) The largest market for them is churches, due to the classic nature of the instrument and its connection with religious material.

Materials used in the pipe organs at Reuter range widely. They include copper, zinc, lead, tin, sheep skin, goat skin, kangaroo skin, various types of wood, plastic, and cow bone. The copper and zinc are used on large pipes (over 4ft. tall), and a lead/tin alloy is used on the smaller ones, with 50% of both components. They actually melted down tin and lead inguts in house and then spead them across a slate topped table to create sheets of material. The wood is used to create air reservoirs, as well as the varying types of skin. However, only sheep skin is used when creating the valves that open and close the pipes. Wood, plastic, and cow bone are used to create the keys that make up the console box, no ivory is used to create keys anymore. They have several plastic options that look like ivory. Larger pipe organs are generally constructed using copper or zinc. They also may use tin on some occasions. Copper and zinc are favored due to the sound qualities they are capable of producing. They also have their own in-house lumber mill to make custom lumber for various parts. Out of all the variety of woods they carry in-house, poplar is most commonly used since there are very few knots in the wood.

Reuter relies on many typically classic forms of woodworking tools ( planers, bandsaws, and table saws) They also have a CNC router that they use to remove knots and cut complex geometries for their custom trim used on the organs.  Their products can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million. They said that much of that money is absorbed in labor costs because there is such a high cost to their production.  The design process itself can take anywhere from 3 months to 3 years, and the construction process can take between 12 weeks to 6 months.

Overall I was most impressed by their process of forming tin/lead sheets inhouse.