There hasn't been much written about making the musical box as this
was and still is a very highly guarded secret of skilled technicians.
Still there is a lot of information that exists and the subject matter
is endless.  I would recommend that you study the art of music box
repair to understand the theory of how the mechanisms work.  Ord-Hume
has written extensively on this subject as has Bulleid.

If you're interested in putting a tune on a musical box, I would start
out by saying that there are so many machine projects involved that to
produce one or a very limited number of boxes from scratch would be
prohibitive.  I could suggest the possibility of starting with a frame
from a music box that was destroyed by a run and using this for the
drivetrain, spring, comb base, frame and governor mechanism.  Most
likely the governor would need to be repaired, but this can be done
much easier than starting from a fresh start.  This would also give a
good gearing ratio for an average song length of around 50-60 seconds.

Your first task is to arrange the music you want to perform to see
what notes you need.  Note the repetition of notes or trills as when
you plan your comb, you'll need to know how often you repeat the notes
within 1 second of play.  A rule of thumb is that for [ editor's
note:  I think less was intended here ] more than 1 second between
notes, you'll need an additional tooth.  Now you can calculate the
total number of teeth you'll need (it's not like a piano keyboard
because of (a) repeating notes and (b) you may not use all notes so
don't waste them on the comb.

That done your tasks are numerous.  To build a comb you must take a
piece of steel in the appropriate size, slit out the individual teeth
to exact proportions and shape it to the dimensions.  I can't tell
you the physics behind this, but the following rules apply: shorter
teeth are higher than longer teeth of the same dimensions (2) Heavier
teeth (with lead after the pivot point of the tooth) are lower than
lighter teeth (3) narrower teeth are lower than wider teeth and
(4) teeth that are thinner at the flex point are higher than teeth
that are thicker at the flex point.  (I may have reversed 3 and 4 -- I
always recheck my reference books before tuning).

Also in the shaping of the comb, you should provide for dampening of
the bass and mid-range teeth, and a base to attach lead weights for
lowering the bass notes.

Once the comb has been shaped, it's time for converting it to a
musical instrument.  The process is as follows:  Heat the entire piece
to red hot (should glow cherry red).  Quench the comb in oil.  Polish
again so you can see the temperature change.  Temper the comb by
gradually heating until the comb turns evenly from silver to brown to
yellow to light blue to purple-blue.  Allow the comb to come back to
room temperature before mounting it to the comb base.  Next, solder
lead weights to the bass notes and tune all notes to the correct
relative pitch.  In planning the comb, you should take into account
that you'll need several teeth of the same pitch to repeat notes.  I
believe that the manufacturers of the 19th century allowed 1 second
between repeats.

For simplicity sake, I will discuss one tune per cylinder although
the early makers used as many as 12 for a cylinder.  To make a
cylinder, you'll need to form a sheet of brass to a perfect seamless
cylinder.  Mark the position of each note and calculate the distance
turned for your musical intervals.  Mounting the cylinder on a
controlled rotating mechanism and following your score which has been
annotated to teeth numbers rather than notes, carefully mark out where
you want the notes to be played on the cylinder.  Next drill out those
holes and place a pin in each one.

You can now edit the cylinder by playing the song on the comb you've
created.  You can break unwanted pins, drill new holes, etc.  Also
make sure that the pins correctly line up with the teeth.

The cylinder needs to be filled with a resin/cement (you can get the
recipe from Ord-Hume), spun while the resin is still soft and then the
teeth ground evenly to a constant height from the cylinder.

After all that, all that's left is to make the case.  If I've
oversimplified, I apologize.

eliyahu