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I broke the cardinal rule when it comes to music boxes: I bought a broken one. The issue is a brass wheel attached to one end of the drum. It engages with the governor (although one can't adjust the speed). All else is fine, including the pins on the drum and all teeth on the comb.

I thought I'd buy the necessary tools to attach to my lathe and cut my own wheel, but I figure the investment in the tools might cost as much as paying someone to replicate the wheel. And I'm not sure I'm interested in doing this again (although I haven't ruled that out). So I'm pursuing options.

The wheel is about 1-½ inches in diameter, perhaps ¼-inch wide. It's made of brass, which is easy to turn, and has 100 or so teeth. I can pull it off the drum and ship it to someone. Any idea how much this effort might cost?

Any help would be appreciated. A PM is always an option.

Thanks,

John

You might want to contact forum member Jerryvan. I don't know if he is taking any work at this time, but he has the tools for a job of this type of job and turns out marvelous work. He made a replacement brass governor drive gear for my Amberola V a couple of years ago and it is running beautifully.

Jim

your post didn't mention it but 75% of the teeth have dampers underneath them to stop any tooth vibration prior to being plucked by the next pin.

the absents of a damper will create a buzzing sound when the tooth for that particular note is play.

PS,,, make sure to not wind your machine without the engagement of the governor or you can possibly wipe out the tips of may teeth on the musical comb as well as bending the pins on the cylinder.. AKA run...

Good luck

blizz

Blizz:

I believe the entire comb is ok. I had it off, but I will take a look again. Thanks for the suggestion.

Al Meekins replicated three major gears in my Regina Corolla changer about three years ago. Cost was around 450.00, IIRC.
Service was quick and results very good. I'd recommend him.
Bob

https://www.antiquemusicboxes.com/

cylinder assembly

blizz

barnettrp21122 wrote:Al Meekins replicated three major gears in my Regina Corolla changer about three years ago. Cost was around 450.00, IIRC.
Service was quick and results very good. I'd recommend him.
Bob

https://www.antiquemusicboxes.com/

Regina Corona
Toyota Corolla

phonojim wrote:You might want to contact forum member Jerryvan. I don't know if he is taking any work at this time, but he has the tools for a job of this type of job and turns out marvelous work. He made a replacement brass governor drive gear for my Amberola V a couple of years ago and it is running beautifully.

Jim

Thanks for your high praise Jim! Glad to read that the Amberola is doing well.
I'll leave this one for the music box guys. In general, music box gear teeth have a different tooth form than phonograph gear teeth. I don't have cutters for that type of gear.

Thanks for the diagram. It pretty much matches my machine, which has 6 tunes. I've marked up the diagram so we can see which wheel I a referring to.

the Big Wheel or Great Wheel on the cylinder is what I believe you need,, has to perfectly match up to the (first wheel) which pretty much drives the governor assembly.. beside the proper mating of the teeth, there is also a groove around the perimeter that enable the machine to shut down or auto stop at the end of the tune.. also there has to be a tapped hole which is needed to accommodate the tune changing snail which is the only way for the cylinder to advance to a position to change to a different tune on the cylinder.. will also need a small hole drilled and tapped for the drive bar which inserts into the cylinder and take the load of moving it around..

this is a project for sure and I wish you good luck.

fmblizz