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Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:58 am
by TheHatTuba
Can you have a lead-filled leadpipe imported into the U.S., or will it be stopped at customs?
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:10 am
by Thomas Maurice Booth
I had one shipped to New York from Switzerland about a year and a half ago with no issues. You should be fine unless things have changed since then.
TMB
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:31 am
by bort
TheHatTuba wrote:Can you have a lead-filled leadpipe imported into the U.S., or will it be stopped at customs?
Where is it being shipped from?
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:32 am
by TheHatTuba
bort wrote:TheHatTuba wrote:Can you have a lead-filled leadpipe imported into the U.S., or will it be stopped at customs?
Where is it being shipped from?
Hirsbrunner/Switzerland
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:44 am
by PMeuph
LJV wrote:Fwiw, a year or two back I bought a couple of leadpipes from Peter Hirsbrunner and they arrived empty with no lead inside.
Shouldn't they have been just "pipes" then??
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:27 pm
by TheHatTuba
LJV wrote:Fwiw, a year or two back I bought a couple of leadpipes from Peter Hirsbrunner and they arrived empty with no lead inside.
He told me that an unbent pipe would arrive unfilled, but a prebent would arrive filled for final fitting.
Thanks everyone, I'll order the filled and see what happens.
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:40 pm
by sousaphone68
If it can't be x rayed to everyone's satisfaction it may not come by air freight
Upon arrival if customsare not happy because they can't x ray it and can't examine its interior with out destroying it you won't get it. Entry to the US is much stricter than goods leaving.
Does it have to be lead filled ?
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:11 pm
by TheHatTuba
bloke wrote:I've been having to order straight unfilled 'pipes.
B&S might (??) have more experience (as, generally, they sell more stuff) with this. I suspect that your Swiss supplier may (after a few weeks sitting somewhere) receive any lead-filled 'pipe back at his own door.
Yikes, that thought of it being sent back kinda sucks. Then... how difficult is it to have a pipe filled and bent/
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:21 pm
by TheHatTuba
bloke wrote:You have two choices:
Cerrobend or pitch.
Cerrobend is easier.
Pitch is cheaper.
(Lead is somewhat expensive, difficult to deal with, and fairly hard - "got muscles?" - to bend.)
If you've never bent a pipe before, you might consider having someone buy you two or three of those (filled with pitch) much-more-affordable "Allied" 'pipes - for practice.
very candid comments:
I can do this, but I do not solicit this sort of work. I do it because I MUST. (I lacquer tubas for the same reason...ie. because I MUST) I don't bend mouthpipes (or lacquer tubas) every single day, and these are not my very strongest skills. I've done quite a few remarkably-fine jobs, and I've also done a few do-overs (with, yes, the do-overs being "good"). I don't like to solicit work that occasionally calls for "do-overs". I'd rather only do those (mouthpipe bending / tuba lacquering / etc.) that I MUST do for myself.
bloke "very picky...particularly when some past customer points to something and says to someone else, 'bloke did that'."
Bloke, I have zero intentions of doing this myself, I'd probably wreck it, the horn, and burn down the house
Do you think this is something any shop can do, or worth sending out?
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:20 pm
by TheHatTuba
Nope, not at all
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:12 pm
by Ben
I have had three leadpipes fashioned for different tubas over the years. Kevin Powers, Sam Gnagey and most recently Matt Walters all performed an excellent job.
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 7:38 am
by MackBrass
I have prebent, pitched filled leadpipes that would fit the BBb, if you have the CC rotor version it may fit that as well. Send me an email at
sales@mackbrass.com" target="_blank if you want to try one.
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:37 pm
by bort
When I ordered my Miraphone 1292 leadpipe (through Dan Oberloh), it was pre-bent and not filled with anything.
I don't think this statement is helpful, just saying...
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:20 pm
by UDELBR
bloke wrote:Lead is somewhat expensive, difficult to deal with, and fairly hard - "got muscles?" - to bend.
Really? Lead's more expensive than Cerrobend?
Re: muscles: I'll admit that's true with any pipe larger than an inch in diameter, but anything smaller's a breeze to bend.
And re: "difficult to deal with", sure it's toxic. So is Cerrobend though, as it's 27% lead and 10% cadmium. Just take reasonable precautions.
Re: Importing a lead filled pipe?
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 3:49 pm
by J.c. Sherman
Lead works great - it's also toxic as hell. Now, while hopefully no one here's gonna chew on either cerro-bend or lead, the techniques of putting it in and taking it out with both boil (pun intended) down to one thing - heat.
Lead needs to get pretty hot to melt in and out; and there are all kinds of problems and things which can happen during that process. I can do all my cerro-bend work without touching it and without it touching the air; everything done in boiling water. Can't do that with lead.
Pitch works, but annoys the living hell out of me. It stinks to high hell, will burn a hole through you if it drips on you while hot, and has a narrow temperature range where it'll work at all well. But, it's cheap, it does work, and it's not going to make you a mental midget when you're done.
Asside from that: this country is now a paranoid, terrorised state; have the pipe sent empty... it's lighter for shipment and can always be refilled for adjustment. And DHS won't wet themselves in fear.
J.c.S.