Recently we restored a beautiful Swiss organocleide cylinder music box.

Here is a video of it playing prior to restoration.

 

 

The restoration process included cleaning, polish and lacquer all the parts. Heating the cylinder and re-cementing it.

The mainspring was removed checked for cracks, cleaned, reinstalled and re-lubricated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The governor was checked for wear and any worn bushings were replaced.

A new escape gear was manufactured and installed. Also the endless screw was repointed and polished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The musical combs had their tuning recorded. They were then cleaned. Several broken tips were replaced. Three of the missing tips were on one comb as shown below. The arrows point to the missing tips. Wear was removed from all tips of the teeth. Then new wire dampers were installed.

The tuning scale was analyzed. Mistakes were corrected and all comb teeth were re-tuned to the correct scale.

The zither was recovered also and reinstalled.

click on image to enlarge.

The music unit was then assembled. The cylinder was checked for proper alignment.  The retuned and re-dampered combs were reinstalled. They were then adjusted for volume and synchronization.

Please listen to before and after the video. You will note a considerable difference.

The sound is now clear, rich and full.

 

 

We appreciate the opportunity to work our craftsmanship on such a fine instrument.

 

For a free estimate on music box restoration, please call 802-728-9694 and ask for Ron or Dwight.

To zoom in on pictures, click on pictures.

This is a very rare Bornand Mermod orchestra music box. It has a drum, set of tuned bells

with castanet and an 18 note reed organ.

 

restored unit with completely rebuilt organ bellows.

Hand engraved tune card made from brass and silver plated

view of the spring barrels and winding mech.

completed unit in its refinished cabinet.

The owner of this music box, purchased it at auction in Paris,

had it shipped home, and then gave it to us for total restoration.

Amazing sound with all instruments synchronized to play together

One cannot measure the satisfaction that comes from doing precise work with

magnificent end results.

At the end of 2017, we saw two automatics in our shop. The real amazing part was that they were both 27 inch Regina’s. Here we see how the second of these boxes started in our shop..

As we normally do, we started with restoring the bedplate. This included replacing the worn dampers, removing the ruts in the combs that were worn in by the starwheels, and re-tuning the combs, so that this box would sing songs beautifully again. We also replaced the pressure rollers as the old ones had signs of wear.

Before

With the bedplate repainted and reset up with the newly polished and tuned combs; we moved on to the motors. Usually we end up replacing the ribbons due to rust or to lengthen the wrap around the pulleys with most ribbon lift changers.  This insures a longer life of the ribbons. This box also had somehow broken a tooth off the lift gear. We had to surgically replace this tooth, so the lift would work right again.

The next part was to clean the motors and regrease the springs. The disc drive pinion on this box further showed that this box had been used a lot and needed to be replaced. At some point,  this box had been worked on and someone had modified the coin-op. We were lucky to have an old coin-op that we could put in

With all the parts out of the box, cleaned, polished and repainted; it was time to reassemble. This is when the fun begins of adjusting all the parts to work  together correctly. The spring barrel that powers the disc drive gear stop slots were not spaced right on the barrel, so we had to shave one to make the disc stop in the right spot.  This enables the discs  to always pick up in the same place each time. We also added fingers to guild the lift fingers to a consistent spot on the tune rack.

This is just part of what we did to make this 27 inch Regina operate correctly and sound beautifully again. As you can see there is a lot of work that goes into such a beautiful and complicated box. Here is the results of our hard work

 

This music box came from a New England collector and was in good shape.  It is quite rare and it has whistles along with a Triangle and drum to accompany the musical combs.  It was a coin-op and like so many coin-ops it did not have all the parts and so we had to figure out what was missing and manufacture those parts in our tool shop.

We rebuilt the bellows and all the whistles, which is really an undertaking in itself.

Another great job done and a Very Happy Customer!

 

So this is how the story goes, I get a call one day from a lady who has a Christmas tree stand that needs repair and wonders if we can help.  I assure her we can as we had just finished one a month or so a go.   She then goes on to say that her father had taken it during World War II when they invaded  Adolf Hitler retreat “The Eagles Nest”.   Well now she had my imagination and I said that on our next trip out to the Mid-West we would stop by and pick it up.

So we meet this lady and she show us this banged upped  Christmas tree stand that she said that was  her fathers that he took from Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest and she had other items that were most certainly from Hitler’s home (somewhere).  So we can not confirm that this item is from the “Eagles Nest” but it does make a great story.

Her father carried the stand from Germany to America in his back pack and it certain shows as it is all dented up.

Ron started cleaning it before I could get a good picture of just how dirty it was but we were able to get some good shots so you can see all the work we had to do.  The combs had a lot of damage to the leads and they needed a lot of cleaning to bring them back to a reasonable looking shape.  With all this cleaning of the combs and leads we had to restore the tuning and since this is Dwight’s specialty he had no problem with that and they sound beautiful again.

As you can see in the pictures there is only one motor and two separate musical units.  The one motor plays both instruments by moving a pinion gear from one unit to the other, and since it is all mounted on wood it is quite tricky to get them in perfect sync.  Since we have worked on several of these we have some jigs to help us with this process and it is all working perfectly now.  The cup that holds tree is not with the stand and we are not sure if it ever was.

I have spoken with the family and they are all excited to hear there father treasure once again, she was almost in tears over phone and it will be fun to see them again when we delivery it.

It is a wonderful gift that we have to give the world and we are forever grateful to all of customer who entrust us with their family treasures and for inviting us in to there lives, we are very blessed.

Sincerely,

Jim Sault

Porter Music Box Co April 26, 2013