Old music box

[doc1955]

Any one here know anything about old music boxes.
My wife has a old music box it plays different music disks. The disks are about 16 inches in dia.
I was her fathers there are a few disks she has also.
The box itself measures about 19" x 21" x 11" high. It is missing the crank I think the main spring may be broken.
I may attempt a repair on it and see if I can get it to work after I finish building the beam engines I have going now.
It will still play the disks but you have to turn them by hand.
Regina label under lid and the label also says first music box manufactured in United States.

 

[Hal]

Doc

I fixed an old clyinder record player main spring by simply grinding a new set of "ears" on the end of the main spring, as one of the orginal ears had broken off.
You might get lucky.

I do have an extra crank handle that I picked up at a garage sale, I'll look and check the thread on it. I would guess it's off of some type of record player.
Hal

 

[doc1955]

Thanks Hal but it doesn't screw in it is pinned I sure I can make one but I wanted to get it to look close to the original. So I looked around for some pictures. Guess what I checked out Ebay and I found one like the one we have. So I maybe in business.


I think I may spend some time and see if I can get ours to work I cranked it up with a bent nail today and the spring seems to be ok and it actually played so I'll make a crank and take a look at the motor and see if it needs looking after. We have a stack of disks for it so it will be cool if I can get it to play again.

 

[Cliff]

I used to work on clock's and they have similar main springs just be careful with them cause they have a lot of energy stored up and can be very dangerous if they get away from you they can also destroy the mechanism if they get away from you. Be careful. Cliff

 

[doc1955]

Thanks for the warning Cliff.
I have no intentions of doing anything until all energy is released from spring. And then I may get some help from a friend of mine that is in to old record players.
I'm hoping it's something simple have not taken a look yet and will not until I finish up the engine build I have going I want to see it running first.

 

[Deanofid]

Doc, even when the spring is completely wound down, it will still have a lot of tension on it.
If you should need to take it out, the way it is done is to wind the spring up all the way, put a band around it, then release the tension until the band has the spring captured, and there is no more tension on the spring.

Just don't want you pulling the end pin on that spring thinking the spring is relaxed because the machine is wound down. It's probably not.
If the spring is in a barrel, don't try to take it out without help. Someone who can work on a real Seth Thomas can probably work on this movement.

It's a pretty thing, by the way. I like how this kind of product used to be made like a piece of nice furniture. Very nice.

Dean

 

[doc1955]

Thanks Dean
I plan on haveing someone who knows these things give me a hand. That way I can learn some new things.
Not going to do anything with it until I have time to dedicate to it.

 

[tmuir]

A similar type of player to that was the 'Romance player'
I think they were a bit smaller though.
I did ages ago find a website that was all about these types of players, unfortunately I can not find it now.

They do turn up on the ebay US quite often though, so keep an eye there and you may find a broken one that will get you the parts you need.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

When I was a kid growing up in northern Ontario, my dad was a lumberjack. Most winters he would be away from home in a logging camp, but a few winters he logged close enough to live at home with us---and about once a week the rewind spring on the pull starter of the old Homelite chainsaw would break. I can still remember the air in the kitchen being blue with curses and my mother and I ducking for cover as that spring went carombing around the kitchen at four thousand miles an hour. It generally took dad about 3 tries and at least 2 wounds every time he took that spring out, bent a new tang on the end, and reinstalled it in the saw!!!

 

[Maryak]

Dean and Brian are spot on about the dangers with those springs.

My dear old Gran used to go to the sales and buy all these old things. On the weekend we would be invited to stay over and Dad would be invited to repair them all. Back to the sales next week and most times doubled her money.

I will never forget the gramaphone with a broken spring. Because it was broken getting it out was somewhat problematical and even broken it still had enough umph for half of it to do several laps of the kitchen, whilst the other half successfully entangled Dad's fingers. This combined with the turntable deciding to return to the horizontal at the same time sure advanced my vocabulary of words small boys are not allowed to use.

The spring was taken to Dad's work and welded backed together. Next weekend armed with the repaired spring we returned to Grans to re-install it. It took at least 2 hours Dad on one side of the gramaphone and me on the other. He'd hold and then say push, up would pop yet another half of a coil from where his fingers and or hand weren't. Another cut to him and another backhander to me for pushing in the wrong place.

Ah yes, the joy of coil springs.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[tmuir]

On my list of things 'To Do' is to make a main spring winder.
I've got 2 clocks I want to repair and there is no way I'm attempting to remove the spring from the barrel without the proper tool to do it.
I like my eyes and all my fingers just as they are now.