Has anyone attempted to fix/replace the pins in one of these musical movements? The Red Arrows indicate where the holes/stubs are.

As you can tell this is one of those cheapo movements...the name on it is Sprague from Germany.

The guy recalls his mother playing this for him when she put him to bed.

Greg,
The Musical Box Society International might be of some help. Nancy Fratti is a parts seller and may help too. She can probably guide you to information. I've never repinned one.

MBSI click here.

Nancy Fratti musicbox@dreamscape.com

Andy

Made a VERY small punch...punched the "stubs" through to the inside...drilled out the holes...used Pivot Wire for the pins...soldered them in place...cut/filed the oversized pins to length and then to thickness. Works good, looks awful! I'll have to try a different solderier next time.

Thanks Andy

Greg,
I remember reading somewhere that the drums have something like tar inside, or maybe a think gooey glue. I wonder if the pins were just pressed in then glued in place? I think the message I had read, they had soaked it in cleaning fluid and that dissolved the junk inside and made a mess. (It might have been on a musical cuckoo clock, and they tried cleaning the music box movement the same as the clock movement).

I like old music boxes, and was a member of MBSI for one year. They are more interested in the big ones, though. I do know the combs can be retoothed, but it is very expensive, so it has to be a valuable music box to begin with before that is worth fixing. I don't remember ever hearing about anyone repinning the drum though. If you figure out how to do it right, let me know and I'll send you a few to repair for me!

Andy

I started by cleaning the movement(tide), didn't notice any "stuff" coming out of it. However, as the drum heated up from the soldering gun...some stuff came out of the holes.

I tried to press the pins in first, but they would just slide through. Also, when the drum became warm, I saw where the "cap" on the spring side of the drum had been soldered onto the drum.

I'll have to try to find another one to open and see what's inside.