I have been following the development of MMD for some time now and
I guess it is about time that I officially introduced myself.  I am
a musical box restorer DBA Musical Box Restorations, Raleigh, NC.
I am a graduate of The Panchronia Antiquities Musical Box Restoration
School (3 sessions) and have been doing restorations professionally
since 1987.

My main interest lies with cylinder and disc musical boxes, and there
proper care, preservation and enjoyment.  My wife, Marti, and I have
been collecting musical boxes and related materials for about 12 years,
and our collection consists mainly of cylinder boxes and musical
novelties.

Although I applaud the desire of novice collectors to restore their
treasures, I strongly encourage that they seek professional advice
before jumping in.  Most restorers that I know, myself included, will
gladly answer questions and give direction to those wishing to do their
own work.  We will also make it clear that the proper restoration of a
mechanism is something that takes patience, knowledge, and skill and
should not be attempted by someone who is unsure of what they are
doing.

As for cylinder repinning, I have all of my work done through Nancy
Fratti (Panchronia Antiquities).  There are others to choose from as
mentioned in preceding issues, and the prices, quality, and turn-
around times are about the same.

Take note that a newly repinned cylinder still requires work before it
will be properly restored and playing.  There were most likely errors
in the original pricking, drilling and pinning, that will be duplicated
in the repinning, and can only be detected through a pin by pin, tooth
by tooth visual and audio examination of the cylinder mounted back on
the mechanism and playing.

Proper alignment of each pin with the tooth tip is critical to good
sound, as is the proper timing of the note, or series of notes.
Misplaced pins must be detected and removed, and misaligned pins must
be aligned.

All owners of, or individuals interested in, musical boxes should
consider joining the Musical Box Society International (MBSI), and a
local chapter of this organization.  Log on to www.mbsi.org to check us
out.  The cost of membership  is minimal, and the benefits of the
fellowship and knowledge of some 2700 collectors world- wide is
invaluable.

I invite any of you to feel free to contact me if you are going to be
in my area and we can make arrangements for you to have a look at and
listen to my collection.

P.S.  My previous comments about repinning were not intended to be
a complete how-to, but merely an overview of possibilities, and basic
procedures.  I agree that individual pin replacement can be tricky, and
I would only suggest it for missing pins that are absolutely critical
to the music on an otherwise undamaged cylinder.

In most cases, a note missed is much less obvious to the ear than
the wrong note, or the right note played at the wrong time, and
therefore a few missing pins is not usually that bad.  And yes, the
cement must be softened or removed before attempting to drive a pin
through the cylinder, and the cement must be re-softened and the
cylinder spun to redistribute the cement and anchor the pins.

Dan Wilson
Musical Box Restorations
Raleigh,NC

 [ Welcome 'officially', Dan !  MMDer Larry Smith took Nancy Fratti's 
 [ 40-hour Beginner's Course a few years ago and wrote a marvelous
 [ article about it for us in Digest 960726.  It left me feeling that
 [ this sort of training, under skilled master technicians, is
 [ virtually a necessity.  Thanks for writing with your advice.  -- Robbie