Music Box Made Anew

[Chet]

My brother and sister in law had purchased a music box several decades back while on their honeymoon in San Fransisco.  Over time, while the movement remains in great shape and sound, the veneer on the box started to crack and chip off.  So recently they asked me to make a new box for them.

It turned out to be a pretty interesting project in that there was a lot of detail to the building of the box to generate a good sound quality from the movement.  I am glad I researched this because I probably would have screwed the pooch on some of these details.

You don't use tone woods, you want something on the hard side to create a crisp, clear sound.

The sound board that the movement is mounted to should be between 3/16 & 1/4 inch thick.

The bottom of the sound board needs to be at least 11/16 above the surface that the box will sit on and the box needs some sort of leg design that allows air flow other wise you will muffle the sound.

The glass that protects the movement from dust and inquisitive fingers also produces the bass tones so it need to be between 1/4 & 1/2 inch above the movement.  Also single strength glass around 3/32 thick.  Thicker glass or glass with something like a mylar sandwich can effect the tone.

Because of all this and more, I decided to build a prototype from poplar.  This all when fairly smoothly with the exception of the sounding board which took three tries to get all the holes for mounting and the winding key in the right spots and also allowing the movement to line up with the on and off mechanism that mounts in a dado on the inside of the front of the box.

This shows the first base design, in the final piece I doubled the hight of the open area between the box and table surface.

When it was all finished I thought that it sounded better then the original box but it could just have been the Proud Papa syndrome.  I shipped it back to my brother and when he called to let me know it arrived the first thing he said was how much better the both thought it sounded. 

The final outcome.  Sapele and Birdseye Maple.

 

[Ronn W]

Well done.  That is a nice movement in there.  I have made 2 similar and did much of the same research that you did.  It was well worth the effort.  Nice work.

[pkinneb]

Beautiful!! Great job Chet!

[wtnhighlander]

Great work, @Chet! I never thought about how critical the box design and materials are for good sound production. Thanks for sharing this.

[Coop]

Very nice work Chet! Can we assume that the button in front is the on/off switch? If so, what are the two buttons on the top right and left edges? 

Oooops, reading back, the front one is for the winding key and the top ones are to start it??

[Chet]

On 10/6/2022 at 5:50 PM, Coop said:

Very nice work Chet! Can we assume that the button in front is the on/off switch? If so, what are the two buttons on the top right and left edges? 

Oooops, reading back, the front one is for the winding key and the top ones are to start it??

The button on the front slides left and right to start and stop the music.  The winding key is on the bottom so the box needs to be picked up to wind it.  The two brass knobs on the frame around the glass allow you to remove the glass.  Sometimes the movement may need to be adjusted or some of the parts may need lubricated by a professional clock tuner.

[Mark J]

Strong work, Chet, and interesting back story.