Although one pin missing of several thousand is not a great omission,
it can still be worthwhile to replace it.  Only when all pins are
present will a musical box will play as its maker intended.

I remember a re-pin where the highest treble note was played only
once by a pin in a small separate brass block that was riveted to side
of the cylinder end cap.  Nobody will ever miss that pin if you remove
that brass block and not replace the pin; that one pin took considerate
time but it was well worth the effort to replace.

If a broken-off pin is not blocked by one of the end caps or dividers,
it can be replaced by the method Jim Weir so excellently described.
But please be careful -- I have had my share of cylinders damaged by
good willing "restorers".

One I remember was a 6-air 44 cm cylinder with around half of its holes
damaged; some holes were so large that there was room for four pins of
correct diameter.  To get that to play acceptably again takes a lot of
time.

Niko Wiegman
The Netherlands