Lamar:  You wrote in MMD 981022:

> I have the springs out, cleaned and ready to restore them to the
> housing.  Now what method is suggested in getting them back ... ?

I have removed and replaced a number of springs from both cylinder and
disc musical boxes.  You should be aware of the *extreme danger* to
yourself when working on springs.  If a wound spring lets go it can
strike any one of your body parts and, if you're lucky enough not to
lose a finger or hand, it will leave a significant impression in you,
literally.

Whenever I work on musical box springs, I use a spring winding tool.
The one I use is called a Keystone CMW-2 Clock Mainspring Winder.

The concept that the tool uses is a spring retaining barrel that fit
inside the spring barrel just inside the inside diameter that is used
to hold the spring to remove or replace it from the spring barrel.
They spring winder comes a set of graduated spring retaining barrels
so that one of them should be just right for any one spring barrel.

I have managed to work on springs up to the 15-1/2 inch Regina
(although that one was very tight to work with and likely exceeded
the tool's stated limit).  It also comes with six pages of instructions
and diagrams, too long to reproduce in this forum.

There are other manufacturers of Mainspring winders besides Keystone as
well.  These are very useful tools for this purpose, both removing and
returning mainsprings from the barrels, and are safer than not using a
tool.

I don't know how you managed to remove the mainsprings from their
housings, but I would highly recommend that you obtain one of these
tools before you try to do it another way.

Any clock supply company, such as Timekeepers or LaRose carries them,
as does Nancy Fratti.

Good luck, Larry, and BE CAREFUL!

Musically yours,

Bill Wineburgh
http://members.aol.com/mboxmuseum/museum.html