Reuge makes very nice modern boxes, but they want a _lot_
of money for them.  I rather like the arrangements they have
on the 72-note cylinder movements, and so I bought a couple
of these movements for about $300-something each from Nancy
Fratti (who will, I'm sure, be glad to give you the current
price if you ask) and started looking for a nice antique
jewelry box or other small box to convert - I plan to build
my own boxes eventually, but my workshop seems to move back
in time as fast as I go forward, so I was hoping to find a
couple nice old antiques that could be converted to musical
boxes with a bit of elbow grease.  As luck would have it -
there were none I could find in several days of looking.  At
this rate I'd get my own done faster, so I gave up the idea,
until I noticed a rather nice, small, cherry, jewelry box for
sale at Sears in the engraving department.  It's just a bit
large for the Reuge 72-note movement in the front-to-back
direction, but it an ideal width and height, and is a very
nice little box.  I bought two for $40 and spent another $40
doing some fancy engraving on the plate on top, took them
home and placed a Reuge movement in the center bottom.  I
scored all around the felt, rubbed the movement back and
forth on the felt to score the keyway access, and use a fine
nail to score the three mounting holes.  Then I deepened the
scores through to the wood, removed the felt, and drilled out
the holes, and mounted the movements in the boxes.  I bought
eight toy wheels from a wood-working shop spare-parts bin and
glued them on the bottom to make feet high enough to let the
key clear - I brought them in a bit so I didn't need to bother
finishing them - and then attached the tune sheet to the inner
lid, and touched up the somewhat lackadaisical job on the remain-
der of the felt.

Well, the operation was a complete success, the movement sounds
_very_ nice, and the box looks very nice as well, but the big
surprise is how much sound the movement puts out from the box
- it sounds every bit as good as the same movement in a fancy
Reuge case, fully as loud and as resonant - especially with the
lid down.  It's really quite nice with the special engraving as
well.  Very little labor and a pair of nice, personalized, boxes
for not a lot of money.  Thought some folks might still have a
chance to try it before Christmas...

regards,¶
Larry Smith