Phil, none of us are "raking in the money" -- if you believe that, you
are sadly mistaken.  More likely the true reasons for reluctance of
disclosing trade secrets are that each of us has learned MOST of what
we practice the hard way -- by trial and error, over a period of many
years.  The books make useful guides, but every machine is a unique
case, and requires ingenuity and skill to solve its particular set of
problems.

There is some justified feeling that the techniques and skills that
took years to learn and perfect should not be freely given away,
especially to those who may or may not possess the degree of skill or
integrity to effectively utilize them.  The other significant reason
many do not easily divulge such knowledge is that "a little knowledge
can be a dangerous thing".

What I mean is that we restorers all too frequently encounter the sad
and sometimes horrible results of would-be "restorers" efforts to
repair once fine quality antique musical boxes.  Probably *one-half* of
all repairs that enter my shop seem apparently to have suffered from
crudely executed previous attempts, and in all cases, these must be
corrected, adding extra cost for the customer, and often at the expense
of value of the instrument in question.

Obviously, a comb which has required 16 teeth replaced merely because
some nitwit tried to _weld_ in one or two replacements, however nicely
the final repair, will have reduced the overall value of the musical
box compared to what it would have been had it been repaired correctly
in the first place.

I don't think many of us would hesitate to give some guidance to any
_serious_ beginning repairer.  But we do shy away from giving a
one-time repairman fragments of our knowledge, perhaps just enough to
get him or herself into trouble or cause further damage.

Reginald (Reg) Smith - Sublime Harmony Music Box Restorations
Gainesville, Georgia, USA
http://www.minidisc.org/music_box.html