| Project by Dave Rutan | posted 278 days ago | 860 views | 1 time favorited | 7 comments |  |
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We recently visited a museum pertaining to a collection of musical machines, anything from a hurdy gurdy to a nickelodeon. In the museum shop my daughter and mother in law bought small hurdy gurdies. The differ from music box movements in that you have to crank it to make it play. There’s no spring movement to wind. The last picture shows one in its native form.
So I was asked to build a box around my daughter’s and later one for my mother in law. My MIL’s plays ‘You are my Sunshine.’ Not much I could do with that, though I did the ornamentation myself with a wood burning pen and my daughter’s paints.
My daughter’s plays the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. I was thinking that a submarine would be long, so I made a ‘secret’ drawer in hers. It’s held in magnetically. I used a decoupage technique to decorate hers with the submarine in question plus the four beatles’ simulacrums from the movie.
They were fun little projects. They’re made from 1/8 inch plywood from an old doll house and are held together with glue alone. I finished them with polyurethane.
(a note on the decoupage. Ink jet prints will run. I got a color photo copy made and cut our the individual parts from that.)
-- Beware the flying swarf!
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7 comments so far
Arlin Eastman
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1312 posts in 732 days
#1 posted 278 days ago
Dave
You did an awesome job buddy. I loved the one I had when I was a kid 50+ years ago.
Arlin
-- It is always the right time, to do the right thing. Lovinghandsmemoryboxs.com
Boxguy
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925 posts in 438 days
#2 posted 277 days ago
Dave, do you have a site or source for the mechanisms? It looks like you had way too much fun making and decorating these. Thanks for sharing the idea.
-- Big Al in IN
Jamie Speirs
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3680 posts in 1027 days
#3 posted 277 days ago
Dave those are great
How is the sound?
jamie
-- Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dave Rutan
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122 posts in 359 days
#4 posted 277 days ago
BoxGuy, These were bought in a museum shop in Morristown, NJ. I just looked around on the internet and found some available from Amazon. Search for ‘hurdy gurdy.’ Amazon’s are in plastic cases, but you could always remove it.
-- Beware the flying swarf!
Dave Rutan
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122 posts in 359 days
#5 posted 277 days ago
Jamie, They sound good, very much like a music box except that you can alter the speed by cranking faster/slower.
-- Beware the flying swarf!
clieb91
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2675 posts in 2105 days
#6 posted 277 days ago
Those are really neat looking little things. Nice job on the Beatles one.
@boxguy.. I just found this site for them
http://www.thewoundandwound.com/
They have a bunch of tunes available.
CtL
-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."
workerinwood
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2491 posts in 1238 days
#7 posted 277 days ago
Nice work, great idea! Thanks for sharing, I have some grand children that would love to have one of these.
-- Jack, Albuquerque
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