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The end of the road is where you find me and my tootophones.
At Musiciansfriend.com , an alto sax sells anywhere from $250 for a student model up to around $3,800. This tootophone sax costs about $1 to make, sounds pretty good, and is a lot easier to play. Music departments take note. For the cost of one traditional sax you could probably equip at least 250 students with tootophone saxes. When the economy really, really sucks, you can still afford to have a band!
The mouthpiece for this tootophone variation is the same as the "Tiny Tootophone", http://www.instructables.com/id/Tiny-Tootophone. See that instructable to learn how to make the mouthpiece. It is made out of an insulin syringe and costs about 25 cents to make.
The reed material affects the sound. Stiffer plastic reeds sound more trumpet-like. Softer rubber reeds sound more like a saxophone.
Variations to the body of the tootophone make variations in the sound it makes. The tootophone sax has a rubber reed and a body that uses two cones made from x-ray film plastic. It is held together with electrical tape and a little nylon string.
Be sure and use good quality tape, such as that from the 3M company. The difference is in the adhesive. Cheap tape just doesn't stick as well.
To hear how the sax and trumpet sound, listen to the audio files in the last steps.
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Signing UpStep 1Cleaning the film
I figured the tape would stick better to clean plastic than to the emulsion on the surface of the film. To wash the emulsion off, I found that a wash basin, metal scouring pad, water and a little elbow grease did the job quite well. The pad scratches the plastic, but that doesn't affect the sound. A stainless steel pad is slightly magnetic, so a mesh strainer and a magnet could be used to help remove any bits of the abrasive pad that might break off into the wash water.
I saved the wash water in plastic containers in hopes of figuring out a way to recover the silver from it. It is like black ink at first, but the solids slowly settle to the bottom. Maybe electroplating will work, or heating of the dry sediment to drive of everything but the silver. I haven't gotten to that stage of the game yet, so I am just storing jars of the stuff.
Commercial recovery of the silver often times involves destruction of the film, so I think this is more effective recycling.
I saved the wash water in plastic containers in hopes of figuring out a way to recover the silver from it. It is like black ink at first, but the solids slowly settle to the bottom. Maybe electroplating will work, or heating of the dry sediment to drive of everything but the silver. I haven't gotten to that stage of the game yet, so I am just storing jars of the stuff.
Commercial recovery of the silver often times involves destruction of the film, so I think this is more effective recycling.
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There must be other uses for the film, but this is all I use it for now.
My guess is that the sound has something to do with the percussive overtones from when the reed material contacts the rigid mouthpiece part. Otherwise at the same X-number of vibrations per second, the reeds should make the same sound.
I don't know what is "elbow grease". I used bleach, it cleans quickly the film. You must put the film into diluted bleach, leave it some minutes without touch it, and then you can get the film totally clean. You get too that black powder you mention.
Then, "my" method of using bleach will be useful for you, to save that valuable "elbow grease".