The first thing I worked on today was prototyping the teeth for the music box. Skunk, Dan, and I welded a spoke to a segment of metal piping to see how it would sound. Unfortunately, the sound is not very loud or clear. This is likely due to the fact that we are working with steel instead of titanium. To make this design, we will have to amplify the sound greatly. Another problem I have been ignoring is how I will mount the pipe to the box, but everything about the teeth is uncertain now. The teeth and their mounting should my focus tomorrow, because it is very important and very hazy.

Another aspect of this project that took up a large portion of thinking time was the rotating PVC pipe, the second functional part of the music box. We are at a point in the design where the mechanical challenges of the gears and wheels meet the workings of the music box. Some of the issues I (and Dan) had to think about were mounting the pipe, supporting it, and making sure the pipe was properly attached to the axle. We also thought up solutions to how to attach the bike wheel to the axle, and how support the axle on the other side, but I was less involved in that. Right now the design is going to involve two felt/foam rimmed wheels locknut-ed onto the axle with threaded holes in the wheels. The pipe will fit snugly over the wheels and there will be holes in the pipe to match the holes in the wheels; when a screw is fit into the holes, the pipe will be firmly fitted to the axle. This makes for easy production (laser cut wheels, double-wide thick wood) and easy interchangeability for the songs in the music box.