# Kimball swinger 500 organ. any ideas?



## oldgeek (Oct 5, 2011)

I found this organ on the side of the road in my neighborhood today. It was in very poor condition before i destroyed it. :twisted: It believe it was made around 1974. I thought i had found a load of gold plated fingers, and contacts, but they are plated with a "silver" metal that has not tarnished over time.
Does anyone know what the fingers are plated with? The keyboard contacts are springs, and bars. I have no idea what they material they are made of either. The springs have a slightly brassy look to them, possibly very thin gold plating and the base metal is tarnished?


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## Geo (Oct 5, 2011)

im afraid its tin. try a little hcl on a small area and see if you get a reaction. if you leave a drop on one trace over night and the metal disappears, its tin.


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## oldgeek (Oct 5, 2011)

Geo said:


> im afraid its tin. try a little hcl on a small area and see if you get a reaction. if you leave a drop on one trace over night and the metal disappears, its tin.



I will try the HCL as you suggest. I thought TIN would have corodded after 35 years? I found some silver plated switches, that are solid black with tarnish.

Oh well, at least there are some strange looking gold leg IC's and a few gold leg transistors in the lot. :wink:


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## Claudie (Oct 5, 2011)

If that wire is what the keys make contact with, I would make extra sure it isn't Gold plated before I threw it in the Tin pile. :|


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## Geo (Oct 5, 2011)

actually pure tin is highly corrosive resistant. its used to coat many metals that are exposed to weather and electronics where the connection needs to have a reasonable expectancy of having been in an atmosphere where moisture is present. where the connection has to be failsafe as in military or medical or high end consumer goods gold plating is required.


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## Palladium (Oct 6, 2011)

This ain't the answer, but it's a good read.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=164&hilit=hammond+organ


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## knujiv (Oct 6, 2011)

Here's a list of Kimber-Allen (Kimball) organ components that are apparently currently available. Haven't checked this out in detail, so am not sure if it relates to older models or current production. What is clear is that they do (or did?) use PM's in the manufacture of their organs. Hope it helps. 

http://www.kimberallen.8m.net/custom.html


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## kelly (Oct 7, 2011)

It's been a couple of years since I tore into a kimball, but if I remember right the springs and contact bars are gold plated. Gullbrensen's have upwards of two ounces of silver and a gram or so of gold.


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