Music Box- Project Idea 1
My final product
Music Box
Description:
This would be a classic take on a music box, a system of gears used to spin a cylinder with pins sticking out of it so when they are hit with another metal part, they produce sound. Most of it would be the gear system to turn the wheel, and attached to it would normally be a Manual hand crank. However, I would automate it so the gears can be controlled by a servo motor and a potentiometer. This might affect the sound a bit, but would also add a very helpful automated bit to control the music boxes speed in a way that is much more precise than when controlled by a human.
Concerns:
Most Exciting Part:
1. The comb and the pins would be very difficult to design. While thinking about this project, I drew out this schematic as a bit of a rough draft, and I quite frankly have no idea how I would make the piece that actually plucks out the tune (comb). It has to be metal, and has to be cut very specifically to make the notes resonate, and while I may be able to laser cut it, I have no idea how I would test out the pitches before hand to actually determine how this comb would need to be cut.
2. The design I am trying to make would become very big and take up a lot of material very quickly. It also would require a lot of woodworking skills that I could probably pick up, but would place a lot of stress on the time constraints we have.
Music is something I really love, and merging my two interests of engineering and music would be absolutely phenomenal. It is a unique piece, and I feel like it would be a challenge to create- which would be very fun!