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Recently I re-discovered the world of DIY music boxes on YouTube, but this time I got really interested on the exact engineering standing behind the music. I was unable to find anything related to this topic so went ahead and ordered 2 music boxes for myself to play with, but while waiting for delivery I thought that I will ask a question here :)
So - do you know about any reliable resources to try getting familiar with inner mechanism of paper fed music boxes? How pins on shaft operates separately and hits comb with enough force to make a sound (I suspect some spring mechanism winding up with crank movement)?
It´s a lot easyer than that. Each Note has it´s own little wheel with three pins. The holes in the paper strips are pulling the top pin, the next pin plays the note. Not a lot force needed!
Thanks for your reply @wookieehannes :) I figured out the part that you described from watching YouTube videos however... are you sure there is nothing else going on? :P I had an impression that something is "parking" the pin in the right spot after note is played on the comb. I think that if everything works simply by dragging the pin through a hole, you will end up with each single wheel set up in a different position at the end?
You´re turning the axis of all those little wheels with your crank. That rotates every wheel as far as the paper strip allows it and every wheel is in the same position so that the paper strip can pull the pin. It´ll be really obvious when you have it in your hand!
so... I received my music box and you were right - the beauty of the engineering lies in a simplicity in this case :D paper markings and tuning are 2 different things in my kit (because why not :P) but I hope I will be able to get around that ;)
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in a good old way
It´s a lot easyer than that. Each Note has it´s own little wheel with three pins. The holes in the paper strips are pulling the top pin, the next pin plays the note. Not a lot force needed!
Thanks for your reply @wookieehannes :)
I figured out the part that you described from watching YouTube videos however... are you sure there is nothing else going on? :P I had an impression that something is "parking" the pin in the right spot after note is played on the comb. I think that if everything works simply by dragging the pin through a hole, you will end up with each single wheel set up in a different position at the end?
You´re turning the axis of all those little wheels with your crank. That rotates every wheel as far as the paper strip allows it and every wheel is in the same position so that the paper strip can pull the pin. It´ll be really obvious when you have it in your hand!
so... I received my music box and you were right - the beauty of the engineering lies in a simplicity in this case :D paper markings and tuning are 2 different things in my kit (because why not :P) but I hope I will be able to get around that ;)
Thanks again!