Introduction: Steampunk Music Box
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About: One day I'll have a secret subterranean labortory, filled with laser etchers and spot welders. Until then, the Dremel, hot glue gun, and I will continue to make a mess on the living room floor.
This is a simple steampunk music box I made for a friend's birthday. It actually plays 'Happy Birthday' when the crank is turned! This is my first steampunk project and I was figuring it out as I went. Therefore, I wasn't able to prepare a full Instructable. The music box mechanism is the most important part, and I did not make that. All of the cuts were made with the Dremel. Here are the basic steps and pieces used:
-Found the music mechanism at a toy store and removed the plastic casing.
-Had a piece of scrap oak leftover from another project. Cut a diagonal groove across the top and cut 2 notches on each corner.
-Stained the wood.
-Put copper wiring in the groove and wrapped around the base twice, setting in the corner notches.
-Drilled 3 small holes for the 'candles'.
-Traced outline for music mechanism and plastic casing.
-Routed a shallow groove for the plastic casing to fit into.
-Screwed music mechanism onto base.
-Cut out section of plastic case for mechanism to stick out of top (did not fit otherwise).
-Hot glued plastic case to base.
-Painted Roman Numerals onto face plate.
-Hot glued face plate and speakerphone piece to base (both were found on a cheap antique model car).
-Burned three matchsticks and cut to various lengths.
-Dripped hot glue on matchsticks to look like melting candle wax (real candle were too messy and not permanent).
-Placed matchsticks in the holes.
-Added rubber feet, but it still moves around too much when turning the crank.
One thing to note is that once I cut the hole in the top of the plastic, the volume went down quite a bit.
Hope this helps! It was a blast to make, and most of the time was spent thinking about what to do. The actual construction went pretty quickly. In the future, it would be amazing to drill a hole in the middle of the base and wire an LED into the hole so the entire plastic case would light up and the bulb remain hidden.
-Found the music mechanism at a toy store and removed the plastic casing.
-Had a piece of scrap oak leftover from another project. Cut a diagonal groove across the top and cut 2 notches on each corner.
-Stained the wood.
-Put copper wiring in the groove and wrapped around the base twice, setting in the corner notches.
-Drilled 3 small holes for the 'candles'.
-Traced outline for music mechanism and plastic casing.
-Routed a shallow groove for the plastic casing to fit into.
-Screwed music mechanism onto base.
-Cut out section of plastic case for mechanism to stick out of top (did not fit otherwise).
-Hot glued plastic case to base.
-Painted Roman Numerals onto face plate.
-Hot glued face plate and speakerphone piece to base (both were found on a cheap antique model car).
-Burned three matchsticks and cut to various lengths.
-Dripped hot glue on matchsticks to look like melting candle wax (real candle were too messy and not permanent).
-Placed matchsticks in the holes.
-Added rubber feet, but it still moves around too much when turning the crank.
One thing to note is that once I cut the hole in the top of the plastic, the volume went down quite a bit.
Hope this helps! It was a blast to make, and most of the time was spent thinking about what to do. The actual construction went pretty quickly. In the future, it would be amazing to drill a hole in the middle of the base and wire an LED into the hole so the entire plastic case would light up and the bulb remain hidden.