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Two days ago I got my first paper strip music box, a 30-note one. I've been playing songs in it for the past few days and it functioned perfectly, no sign of damage to the gears which some recommendation pages for buying warned me about.
But just now I made the mistake of not checking the direction of the paper strip when I pulled it into the music box, and I put it in on the flat part at the end of the strip. It made a horrible noise of the notes all tuning at once and it got stuck, I couldn't pull out the strip by cranking, and in my panic, I yanked it out. I've tried to play a strip the correct way after that, and there are no notes missing from the song but the gears now are making this awful cranking noise. I've checked the comb and the spikes and they work correctly so I'm sure it's a problem with the gears.
I'm so upset about this because I was so excited about my music box, and also I need it for a school project soon, if anyone could give any advice it would be much appreciated.
Edit: I had my father look at the box, and he said that some of the gear's teeth are skipping, and If I crank the box more it could break, problem is a paper strip is in it because I was showing him the noise it made by playing a song and midway through he said I should stop cranking it. The problems now are: 1. Getting the paper strip out without cranking the mechanism 2. Dissasemble the gears (my dad says he could do it but he's never worked with music boxes before and h'es afraid that dismounting it could break it for good)
I am not an accurate person and I had this problem too, so what I did: (sorry for my ugly text descriptions, I can't link photos there for some reason) 1. To hopefully stop gears from skipping you can try to push the gear that engages with the gear which sits on the crank shaft with your finger (you place index finger on the opposite vertical edge of the box and thumb on the part which holds aforementioned gear from the right). If you find the right position you should be able to push the gear (and hold the whole box) with your left hand and crank with your right hand. It worked for me for several days until new box arrived, it even went through the place where I taped together two strips (it is harder to crank and it still did not skip so I hope it works for you too) 2. To remove the strip, unscrew two screws on the right part of the box (they are near the crank) and gently remove the whole part with crank and two gears (it is held in place with those two screws and two pins which are facing up from the base of the box). Do it carefully, because this part also holds two main shafts (the upper one which holds the roller that advances the paper and the lower one which has the spikes that engage with the holes in the strip and comb teeth). THE UPPER SHAFT HAS A SMALL WASHER ON IT!! So don't lose it.
After you remove the crank mechanism you can remove two shafts by simply pulling them out from the holes. When you remove the shafts, there is nothing holding the strip in the box, so you can remove it (if it clogged somewhere you can cut some part of it with scissors for example).
Disclaimer: down the text directions are written under the assumption that the direction that the strip moves in when you play the music is "forward".
To install everything back, start with the lower shaft that has spikes. Put the cranking assembly back in place, but do not place the screws, just set it on the pins and slightly bend it to the right. Hold it with your right hand and try to install the shaft with your left hand. I succeeded after like 5 minutes so eventually you should be able to do it too. Then repeat the process with the upper shaft, but you need to not lose the washer and you need to bend the cranking assembly with less force (otherwise the lower shaft will come loose). When both are installed, put the screws in their places again and tighten them.
I had a similar problem the first time I used my 30 note music box. I tried to pull a strip back out of the mechanism after it got jammed. Even the awful noise it made is similar to your story. After looking at it closely with a magnifier I saw that I had stripped a few teeth off of one of the plastic gears. I spent a week trying various ways to repair the gear or to source a new one. I even tried carving one from a sheet of brass but I didn't have the correct tools. Then, I did the smarter thing and asked the internet if anyone else had the same problem...it turns out that stripped gears are a common problem and there is an easy solution.
On Amazon, there are a few listings for a complete replacement set of the gears, made from brass. They say they fit both the 15 note and the 30 note but I have no way to check that. They did fit my model exactly. I only replaced the gear that was stripped and I didn't need to take the whole mechanism apart to do it.
The brass replacement gear set cost under $10.00 and the repair took about a half hour. I was only replacing the second gear in the train (not the one on the handle but the one directly after it).
If you are going to replace the gears, which I highly recommend, you can go ahead and crank and hand feed the strip through the box to get it out of the way. I would also recommend a thorough inspection, under magnification, of all of the gears so you can see which ones need replacing and checking for any debris that might have fallen into the works during your mishap.
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in a good old way
I am not an accurate person and I had this problem too, so what I did: (sorry for my ugly text descriptions, I can't link photos there for some reason)
1. To hopefully stop gears from skipping you can try to push the gear that engages with the gear which sits on the crank shaft with your finger (you place index finger on the opposite vertical edge of the box and thumb on the part which holds aforementioned gear from the right). If you find the right position you should be able to push the gear (and hold the whole box) with your left hand and crank with your right hand. It worked for me for several days until new box arrived, it even went through the place where I taped together two strips (it is harder to crank and it still did not skip so I hope it works for you too)
2. To remove the strip, unscrew two screws on the right part of the box (they are near the crank) and gently remove the whole part with crank and two gears (it is held in place with those two screws and two pins which are facing up from the base of the box). Do it carefully, because this part also holds two main shafts (the upper one which holds the roller that advances the paper and the lower one which has the spikes that engage with the holes in the strip and comb teeth). THE UPPER SHAFT HAS A SMALL WASHER ON IT!! So don't lose it.
After you remove the crank mechanism you can remove two shafts by simply pulling them out from the holes. When you remove the shafts, there is nothing holding the strip in the box, so you can remove it (if it clogged somewhere you can cut some part of it with scissors for example).
Disclaimer: down the text directions are written under the assumption that the direction that the strip moves in when you play the music is "forward".
To install everything back, start with the lower shaft that has spikes. Put the cranking assembly back in place, but do not place the screws, just set it on the pins and slightly bend it to the right. Hold it with your right hand and try to install the shaft with your left hand. I succeeded after like 5 minutes so eventually you should be able to do it too. Then repeat the process with the upper shaft, but you need to not lose the washer and you need to bend the cranking assembly with less force (otherwise the lower shaft will come loose). When both are installed, put the screws in their places again and tighten them.
Thank you so much for the instruccions!! I will try this asap!
I had a similar problem the first time I used my 30 note music box. I tried to pull a strip back out of the mechanism after it got jammed. Even the awful noise it made is similar to your story. After looking at it closely with a magnifier I saw that I had stripped a few teeth off of one of the plastic gears. I spent a week trying various ways to repair the gear or to source a new one. I even tried carving one from a sheet of brass but I didn't have the correct tools. Then, I did the smarter thing and asked the internet if anyone else had the same problem...it turns out that stripped gears are a common problem and there is an easy solution.
On Amazon, there are a few listings for a complete replacement set of the gears, made from brass. They say they fit both the 15 note and the 30 note but I have no way to check that. They did fit my model exactly. I only replaced the gear that was stripped and I didn't need to take the whole mechanism apart to do it.
The brass replacement gear set cost under $10.00 and the repair took about a half hour. I was only replacing the second gear in the train (not the one on the handle but the one directly after it).
If you are going to replace the gears, which I highly recommend, you can go ahead and crank and hand feed the strip through the box to get it out of the way. I would also recommend a thorough inspection, under magnification, of all of the gears so you can see which ones need replacing and checking for any debris that might have fallen into the works during your mishap.