Need Help

Paul Douglass

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I started this little project last week

diana-thompson-carouseljpg-913c0eac9178132b.jpeg

Project going fine, horses top and bottom pieces all cut out. Fact it is going so well I thought today I had better order the music/turn mechanism. I have hunted for hours today on the internet. but have found not found one that I feel will turn it and pay anything close to carousel music... I mean winnie the pooh or white Christmas just do to fit. Anyone know of a site that sells something that would work? I'm really not sure I am calling it the right name. Music box mechanism with turntable? Can any one send me in the right direction? When I started this I laid awake at nigh thinking up how to make this with the horses going up and down as it turns.. I think I have figured that out, and how to add lights got that.. but now I think I will just follow the plan and be satisfied. I have so many other thing I want to delve into and time is getting short. I have to try double bevel marquetry and kumiko yet. So many things, so little time.
 
Boy, tricky one!

What Darren linked is .. probably not what you want. The "Carousel" mechanism basically replaces the winding key so you'd have to rotate the whole mechanism backwards to wind it.

Disassemble one out of an existing toy maybe? I have no idea how hard it would be to reclaim the movement/music box out of one of these..


I'm thinking you want two parts, a motivating system made out of a small motor or hand cranks, maybe some gears/pulleys... and a music box that is either triggered by the same setup as the motivating system (electric), or is driven by it directly...

Interesting electric mechanism.. I think this is reproducible, it looks like something they assembled out of their gear kits.


another explanation of the "big carousel" design


A cardboard version with an variable under rod pusher.


Most of the music box movements are wind up... but there are some continuous, I believe this is belt driven

Ok.. I think we're narrowing in.. "hand crank music mechanism".. Looks like you can just snip the crank off and add a small pulley wheal..

So there seem to be two options.. "hand crank music box movement" which would be a manual setup you'd convert to a pulley..

or "music box module" which is what the electric "movements" are called.


Not sure I'm loving the selectionthere.. but... the idea seems better...

Maybe not for this, but a punch tape mechanism, cool!


The digital ones I'm finding are less cheap than I am...


Uh.. holy smokes! I dunno what kind of music box this goes in haha :oops:

 
I'm not sure what music would be acceptable here, I've never seen a real carousel... Obviously "carousel waltz" seems prefered?

If you're willing/able to take off the spring mechanism and replace it with a drive.. this might become easier..

 
Well! thanks for the help. Some of those I had already looked at but guess I did not understand what I was looking at. Also watched some the videos and know my thoughts on making the horses go up and down would work, but like I say, just not enough time to play with it now. The music mechanism are cheaper than I thought so I will order one, not be out much if it does not work..

Want to show my little herd of horses I have cut. I made more than I needed because they are fragile and I will probably break something while sanding them. Besides they are fun to make...

carousel horses.jpg
 
Yeah the mechanisms are just a barrel with nubs that rub against spring fingers to make the tones. Basically a semi-automated Kalimba (there's another one for the list haha). The trick here seems to be getting the motivating force to work with your rotational mechanism which might take a bit of modification and futzying.

People have 3d printed them



But the tone quality seems generally poor (plastic fingers, plastic tones..) and for the price I think rebuilding a premade likely gives a lot better durability.
 
Sorry, it was late last night when I posted, but meant to say that is a great looking project. I hope you can make one of those work. For the size they may not without some roller supports or something to cut down on friction.
 
I really appreciate all the help. I agree with your "over the waves' music @glenn bradley . but is that, hear me singing,,,, "when you are in love, it's the loveliest time of the year, stars twinkle above like, something something" darn that is all I remember. Is that over the waves?

So what I ordered is, I went to Cherrytree toys, which is where the author of the pattern said she got hers. I did not find one but the chat lady, suggest one they had for a carousel, it is wind up with a key, plays for 3 minutes, and has a turn table. I do not even know what tune it plays!. I will probably get something like my folks got one year, they owned a couple flower shops... the Christmas mechanize can in. they purchased one piece that was the "singing nuns". You wind it up and they sang "Dominique", a big hit back then. They decided to test them before putting them on the shelf to sell. One they wound up and it started playing "roll out the barrel"! They got all kinds of offers for that one,, but they kept it.
 
I really appreciate all the help. I agree with your "over the waves' music @glenn bradley . but is that, hear me singing,,,, "when you are in love, it's the loveliest time of the year, stars twinkle above like, something something" darn that is all I remember. Is that over the waves?


This discussion of all brings back a memory. I bought my mom a music box jewelry box for her birthday once years ago. The place I bought it from had quite a selection of tunes to pick from and I managed to find one that had this little ditty on it...


She not only recognized it, but thought it was a lot less funny that I did for some reason.
 
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