To Terry Smythe:  regarding the spring of any music box.  Unless you
fully understand the lethal potential of the springs in these mechanisms
(even in a small-sized mechanism) and are equipped to do it, I suggest
you send the spring out to be pulled and cleaned and checked for tears
and re-greased and reinserted in your spring barrel or cage.  You can send
them to:

  Dennis Valente
  Route 23, Box 123
  Davenport Center, NY 13751-0123
  phone:  607-278-6218

He specializes in phonograph and music box spring repairing and
replacement.  The turn-around time is usually about four  weeks.

Yes, it can be done yourself, *but*...  I hesitate to start a 'workshop'
on spring removal and replacement.  It is rife with hazards and I don't
want to see anyone hurt.  There are commercial spring winders for sale
in the clock supply catalogs, but most are not heavy enough for taking
out musical box springs.  You can build your own spring winder based on
the clock winders, but 'beefed up'.  But, since most people are only
going to need to pull one or two springs, most won't go to the trouble
of building the correct tool for the job.

I've seen springs that people pulled by hand from the barrel.  If you
don't 'control' it, it will jump out and fly around your workshop!  In
the process it can also hurt you and/or anything you've got laying around
the bench!  Pulling springs out by hand usually distorts them too.  You
can see it when you put the spring on the bench...it won't lie flat...the
coils have a more pyramid shape.  This distortion will cause uneven
unwinding when the spring is back in the barrel.

ALL springs should be pulled and examined for tears on the ends.  This is
a cardinal rule in restoration work.  The few times I've thought about
not pulling the spring 'because it really looked like it had fresh
grease' (and because I just wasn't in the 'mood' for doing it) I've
regretted it.  Eventually, before the box left my shop, I'd pull the
spring and be very glad I did.

Usually there was a tear starting on the barrel end.  Left there, it
would eventually tear off the rivet holding it and cause much damage in
the rest of the power train when it 'snapped'.  BUT...if you don't have
the tools...don't do the job!  Leave it to someone else to put their life
on the line for you while you do the rest of the work on the movement!

Nancy Fratti - Panchronia Antiquities
PO BOX 210 - Whitehall, NY 12887-0210 USA
518-282-9770  or fax: 518-282-9800
Disc & Cylinder Musical Boxes - Musical Box Restoration Supplies