[Solo- Crafting] Music in a box

[Bailin]

Materials: 1 old gear, 1 old screws, 1 old coil


Crafting: wind-up mechanism
Crafting Cost: 15 gold (3*5*1 =15)

“I’m getting a bit bored… but what should I do? Don’t feel like heading out today, nor do I want to do something big… but it has to be a productive, at least a little bit and fun, yes fun is good, very good actually. So maybe a little tinkering will suffice…, yes tinkering will surely do, but what?” Bailin mumbled to himself whilst walking down one of the many streets of Londinium.

“What to do… what to do…” he kept mumbling, when he passed a little stall with some strange looking, little boxes. For some reason some of the boxes were open and a soft jingling of something that sounded like those old songs came out of those. “Eureka, I think I have found my grand to do list for today! I’m pretty sure this is just enough fun and more than enough tinkering. The worst that could happen… I mess up, find out I can’t do this and lose some money, but this sure looks… challenging.”

Walking further down the street Bailin found himself staring at some piles of well… let’s be honest and harsh, junk. Small piles of scrap metal, old screws, coils and general old metal junk. Perfect! Bailin thought to himself, smiling at this heavenly junkyard stall. Let’s see, I’d need… a coil, a gear and a screw for the mechanism, quality is… secondary until I want to do something more serious instead of just tinkering.

“Good day to you,” spoke Bailin smiling, I would like to buy some parts of you, specifically: a screw, a coil and an old gear. “After handing over the money Bailin received the parts he required and went to search a quiet place to tinker with his new toys.


WC: 290

[Bailin]

Finding a good and quiet place to work Bailin started to think how he would use the three parts in from of him to make a windup-mechanism that would function as the fuel, so to speak, for the little box. Bailin kept staring at the screw, coil and gear, taking each one into his hand and turning it around to think about the options.
“I should be able to attach the coil to the screw to keep it in place on the one end, using the gear to utilise the momentum generated by the coil when you turn the screw... that way I can use the gear to power whatever I want. However if I use the gear to power X, I would only need to use the screw to fasten the coil… which isn’t a great use of materials, unless I find something to attach to the screw, but it would power everything by hand… what to do… what to do…” Bailin pondered, talking out loud, talking to nobody in general, except himself.
“Yes, let’s do that.” Bailins said decisively to himself as he started to attach the one end of the coil to the screw and the other end of the coil to the gear. It was easy enough to create; however, he was uncertain his newly attempted device would work as it should, at least: work on its own as it was supposed to. Testing the new device, or best described as a potential new toy to waste time with, Bailin took the screw in one hand and the gear in the other. He then turned the screw to wind up the coil, followed by putting his index finger against the gear as to keep it more or less stable.

Surprisingly the system worked, it wasn’t great but it worked… in a shaky, rusted way.
Overjoyed Bailin put the new device in his inventory and went shopping for the other needed parts.

WC: 325

[Bailin]

Materials: 1 wind-up mechanism, 2 old screws, 1 old wooden box (bought)

Crafting: Basic music box

Crafting Cost: 15 gold (2*5*1 = 10. 5+10 =15)

Running back to the stall where Bailin found the other parts, old as they are, he proceeded to look for an old box, small but not too small. A little box that could hold the mechanism he had just made. He also needed some more items, though those were easier to find. Amidst the junk screws were ever present, if not, the only things present in certain piles. Bailin already had a screw that he could use as a wind-up-mechanism, as it was part of the wind-up-mechanism. That screw would be turned to ‘power up’ the music box and allow the box to play a tune, hopefully a full song, but as this was the first attempt to tinker with something, Bailin would be happy with some simple sounds coming from the box. Finally he found something that might work or function as a box, though it looked more like a thin, wooden lunchbox rather than something fancy, but it would probably do the trick.
Next up were the screws. Though the stall had a lot of screws Bailin was rummaging for two specific screws. One would function as the axle and music sheet, the other to keep both the gear and coil more or less in place. After a while Bailin found two screws that fit his wishes and paid the stall vendor for the box and two screws and ran back to his ‘workshop’.

WC: 236

[Bailin]

Getting back to his little workplace Bailin took out all the parts he had gathered and created before. It was a good thing he thought in pictures when it came to most things. Closing his eyes Bailin could see something that resembled the end product. Going backwards in his thoughts Bailin took out the screw he intended to use as the axle. He then removed the second screw which he intended to use to keep both gear and coil in place. Next he took out the wind-up mechanism, leaving only the now empty box.
“All right, I doubt that making holes in the box will be that great, what if I was to put the mechanism flat in the box and put the turning screw upwards… than all I’d have to do is make sure the gear and coil won’t shift and will hit the other screw to produce the sound. That does sound easy enough, maybe a bit too easy, but who dares who wins or something.” Bailin mumbled to himself as he started putting the pieces in the old, ramshackle wooden box. First Bailin put one of the screws sideways in the box. Then he put the teeth of the gear on it so the screw and teeth made contact, hopefully this would produce some sounds. Next up was the screw to keep the gear and coil in place.
Lastly Bailin put the screw of the wind up mechanism in place so that one could actually wind up and make the device play.

WC: 255

[Bailin]

Now the musicbox was more or less finished. However it did require one more essential part: the tune it should play… “Maybe something ancient… though I doubt it would be possible to keep it playing that long and that many notes.” Bailin said to himself, picking up the box and gently looking to the sides of it, making sure he did not hold it upside down, it being obvious that the entire interior might fall out, which would mean he had to start all over.
Suddenly Bailin had a brilliant idea, considering his knowledge in the fields of music. Softly he started humming a tune he heard a long, long time ago in one of those old movies. “Let’s see how it went again and how do we get the gear to produce the right tones…” he said to himself whilst humming the tune slowly and trying to make notches on the screw that made contact with the gear as to produce the right tune at the right moment.
When Bailin finished making the notches in the screw he wound up the designated wind-up screw and as he let it go he could hear the coil slowly unwind, making the gear turn and the soft, crude metallic clang played the tune he had thought of, though one should best not debate the quality.


WC: 223
Total WC: 1329