RoWood Music Box 3D Puzzles for Adults, DIY Wooden Mechanical Building Model Kits, Gift for Teens Kids on Children’s Day/Birthday/Christmas – Starry Night

Music box
Good quality, works well, took about 2.5 hrs to put together, good entry level with minimal gears so should work well with no issues , plays for 3.5 minutes on a full wind

Beautiful, But A Bit Flimsy
I really enjoyed assembling this music box. It took longer than anticipated, but it was kind of therapeutic. I tried getting my son (6) to help, but the pieces were a bit too delicate to allow him to handle much of the assembly process. Now that it is built, it functions as expected, but when turning the dial to play the music, it feels as though it would break if not held in the correct position, and done so very gingerly. For such a delicate piece, one would think the crank for playing the music would be manufactured to turn very easily so as to not put undue stress on the unit, but it is actually quite stiff and difficult to turn.

Fun model
Everything fit well and was fun to build. Moves and plays nicely too.

Puzzles
This is a wonderful wood puzzle that comes with hidden features. Assembly was very easy especially if you follow a YouTube video. Only issue was the music box didn’t work well for me but seems like I didn’t use enough wax that was provided. Which was user error.

We got this for a friend and they completed it in about a week. They stated it was difficult at some parts but very entertaining. It also looks very cool and plays magical music. This was a great solstice gift!

A puzzle? Hardly. Puzzles don’t have detailed assembly instructions with them! This is a kit of 315 pieces. Most of them in VERY high-precision laser-cut thin plywood. The wood parts can be assembled into a very well-designed and beautifully intricate 5.4″ diameter and 5.6″ high music box that plays “Swan Lake.” You can make it how you want it — making it into a “one off” unique thing. Don’t kid yourself… with some patience and attention to detail you can do a better job than any profit-driven assembly-line manufacturer could ever do. The pieces are surface-illustrated by laser and laser-cut into thin plywood sheets of varying thicknesses from about 1/16″ to 1/4″. Larger pieces are numbered as well. The end-result is a music box that defies logic — it could never be made by a human being. From a technical standpoint: It is almost unbelievable these wooden pieces could be laser-cut so well. It isn’t clear how even a high-precision CO2 CAD laser cutter with a superbly focused point could control the burn so well. Even the thickest panel (~1/4″) is cut all the way through with no appreciable lateral burning. The cuts go all the way through the plywood panel but leaving 0.25mm wood-bridges to keep them held in place in the panels until you snap them out. Not sure how they do it, I am guessing that it must be done while flooding an enclosed laser-cutter with an oxygen-free gas to control the burning (no fire). ###THE WOOD: It isn’t balsa-wood but something stronger and denser akin to plywood (birch maybe) and thicker pieces have laminated cross layers just like home construction plywood (to increase strength and reduce warpage). ###INSTRUCTIONS: Each piece is laser-numbered (except smallers wood-nails/joiners) so you can find the exact part for assembly referring to a single page 34″x22″ (front & back) sequential graphical instruction sheet in perfect English. It is in only English — but very few words — 99% graphical using exploded views and varying perspectives in very fine resolution black vector drawings. The instructions couldn’t have been done any better — very well designed! Suggestion: The instructions say to snap all the pieces out of the larger plywood sheets. I recommend you snap out only the pieces you immediately need or you may lose track of parts or get the very small wood-nails/joiner pieces confused and make mistakes (those smaller pieces are not marked) ###GIFT FOR A CHILD: It could be a gift for a child <12 if an adult assembled it first (or with the child). My observation (from experience with my 5 kids and 5 grandkids) is they are likely to apply too much force during assembly and break things. I would recommend you (an adult) doing the project with them and showing them how to read the instructions an follow them and prevent them from making mistakes and step into to press the parts together but still allowing them to do most of the work so they honestly have the "bragging rights" and it will help them to build confidence in themselves. Ask them to track the step you are on and find the necessary parts and have them spatially orient the parts like the instruction diagram to verify their work before moving onto the next step. ###MISSING PIECES?: There are about 290 wooden pieces and there is NO CHANCE for any of the wood pieces to be missing (assuming you get all the plywood panels). This is because they are computer-CAD laser-cut into the sheets. There are some small screws and thumb-nuts though only a few. Also, a couple of acrylic cylinder- windows. A total of 25 non-wood parts -- but I had no pieces missing. ###BREAKING PIECES OUT OF THE PANELS: I have knowledge of lasers and 3D printing and I am still amazed at the accuracy of these laser-cuts. The pieces are held in place by 0.25mm wood-bridges evenly spaced around the outer circumference of each piece. They do snap out nicely without use of anything but your hands and very little force. Suggestion: You can weaken the wood-bridges on the front and back of the panels by scoring each side of the bridges with a razor. This may be useful on the thickest panels or where thin parts seem very fragile. ###ASSEMBLY: I think assembly is more suited for adults. You will do find if you don't force anything with more than a few ounces of pressure you will be a resounding success! Pieces that don't break away easily can be loosened gradually by working them slightly back-and-forth repeatedly to weaken the wood fibers in the small bridges holding the piece in. Then the piece just about falls out of the panel. Pieces should assemble snugly but without having to force or hammer anything. Just take your time. Build this with a kid and make the build experience and relationship bonding last -- go for quality. If it is possible to fail it will be because something was forced (even apparently very fragile parts are amazingly stronger than I expected). Before you consider using more force just use the provided sand-paper to smooth (polish) the way just a bit for a snug fit. ###A LEARNING GIFT: I believe today, kids grow up on video gaming and so are conditioned to expect immediate gratification. They may generally lack the patience to assemble this alone without breaking something. This could be a good learning gift for a child to help them to develop the patience to delay gratification (of the finished product) and study the instructions and build a quality music box gradually over a week or so. A parent or grandparent or other adult who has patience needs to be involved -- it could be a cooperative project in which you teach them and hand-off more of the tasks to them as they learn and become more confident. When they find parts will not go together coach them not to use force but analyze the problem and come up with a solution to try and re-test the fit. Get them to verify the correct parts by referring to the instruction diagrams and part numbers. Get them to understand that just polishing off the rough edges of a wood-nail/joiner with the sand-paper might work and get them to do that and test the fit again. Get them to stop and analyze the problem determine what the likely obstacle is and come up with a solution. Get them to develop their own strategy to overcome obstacles (to work smarter -- not harder). Maybe after a successful build they would have the skills to build one of the ROKR kits themselves and give it away as a gift? I was a diesel mechanic in the US Navy and learned early on that if you need to apply "muscle" to force something then you are doing something wrong and very liable to damage something (maybe your knuckles). Stop and carefully analyze what the problem may be and come up with a workable strategy for moving forward. ###YOU COULD PAINTING IT: You could paint it. But then it loses the mystery of it being made of wood. If you do paint it I would recommend painting it with a light coat (small sable brush) using non-toxic acrylics (true Artist acrylics are made of toxic pigments). There are also non-toxic fluorescent acrylics (Amazon) that you could use that give off their own light and seem to glow in very bright saturated colors when exposed to ultra-violet (UV) light (from sun or electric UV lights). There are phosphorescent colors as well that glow in color in the dark after UV exposure. If you paint it you should paint the pieces as you assemble it (this could prolong the project if you are after bonding time with your kid/grandkid, etc.) You could also fill the wood-nail holes visible with wood-filler or CA + Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) paste and sand smooth for a more finished look. However, it looks great in just raw wood too and a bit more mysterious because it is obviously wood. It is beautiful. Looking at it actually, begs the question: "How is it possible something so intricate could made in wood by human hands in the first place?" It looks impossible. If you are a laser CAD techie, "How could a laser be used to cut something so intricate while controlling the burn down to a resolution of 0.25mm?" It looks like something possibly carved piece-by-piece in wood by some poor schmuck serving out a life prison sentence maybe... the "Musicbox Man of Alcatraz" perhaps? [LOL-See movie: "The Birdman of Alcatraz"]. There is no rule you have to put the ROKR panels on the box or divulge any details about how you made it. That could be part of the mystery. "Yeah... that's the ticket." Just say "I made it out of wood" and leave them bewildered. The movement plays one bar of "Swan Lake" and repeats. It sounds amazingly good. I do wish it played the next bar though. The winder is under the box. The musical chime movement has a vertical drive shaft that connects to a main wood gear in the box to mechanically turn other wood gears making it have some mechanical movement you can see from the outside. ###CHILDS GIFT: It would make a great gift for a young girl maybe 6 years old to 12 (guessing) after if is finished or as a cooperative project. My 6 yr old grand-daugher is watching me build it. I keep telling her it is for someone very special in my life... leaving the person as a secret (till she gets it). I can get some input from her on how it should look in the end (painted, varnished, etc.). She said it would be better in raw wood but then when I showed her the fluorescent colors she went for that. I am building it to cut some of the COVID cabin-fever boredom I am experiencing and maybe to cut my grand-daughter's boredom just a bit too. Will post a photo when completed but taking my time.###Recommendation (Update): The instructions say to snap the pieces out of the large plywood sheets. I would recommend you snap the pieces out as you need them. They will be easier to find and less likely to get lost if you do this project over time. Also, the large plywood sheet keeps the pieces from warping if your location has a difference in humidity and the wood absorbs moisture or dries out. Also, the very small wood-nails/joiner in the kit are not individually marked with a code so you could confuse them and assemble incorrectly. You can score (slightly cut) the wood-bridging holding the pieces into the larger panels with a razor to make them come out even easier. The thicker ply is a bit harder to remove the pieces but no big deal.###Main Gear Warpage (Update): I noted the main gear (that connects to the vertical drive shaft of the chime-movement) has bowed (warped) slightly perpendicular to the direction of the wood grain. This is because a single layer of the thinner plywood was used for this rather critical piece and the relative humidity where I am is 39% and so the piece warped while drying out. ###My Recommendation: Seal the back and front of this large gear with a couple layers of a non-water-based polyurethane (liquid plastic). Keep it off the gear teeth while the gear is still in the panel. Then let it dry out completely before removing it from the panel (then coat the gear teeth too and let dry). This sealant may help the gears resist warpage. It will also improve the strength of the gears (you could coat all the gears in the kit as well). You could also possibly clamp the gear (still in the panel) to something flat that spans the gear and larger board to help it to maintain its flatness. [FOR ROKR: May I suggest a change to the instruction sheets to tell assembler to remove pieces as they are needed instead of all at once. This will prevent them from confusing the small wood-nails/joiners. It will also slow them down and so lessen the possibility of mistakes.]The large gear in my kit warped cause I snapped it out of the main board and it apparently dried out and developed a bow. It is important this piece is as near to perfectly flat a you can get it because it meshes with 5 other smaller gears around its circumference. So I clamped it to a flat surface using small wood/craft clamps. I got most of the warpage out but may have to try to warp it in reverse to get it perfectly flat. Then I will assemble the hub of it (connecting to the vertical drive of the movement) and re-inforce it with a circular piece of wood (cut separately) or plastic. Possibly adding the reinforcement to the top and underside of the gear. Flowing a thin viscosity cyanoacrylate adhesive between the gear and the reinforcement and clamping it flat while it sets for a few days may be optimal. The thicker and wider the reinforcement the better. It just must not interfere with the gear-teeth or the spring that goes around the wood hub (in later steps). Here, the added weight will not interfere with the operation of the music-box at all. [FOR ROKR: May I suggest a design change: Instead of the thin plywood cut this main gear in the thickest plywood. This would add more dimensional stability and prevent humidity changes causing warpage. Warpage here with 39% RH was about 6mm! ]###Cyanpacrylate Adhesive (CA) Update: I am only a bit of the way through and found the main-gear warp problem I am fixing. In the mean time a jumped ahead to work on future steps that are sequentially independent (don't have to be done in order). The following steps can be done out of order: Step 3: Building the 6 small gear sets (B5+B7+C5) and side panels (C1+D18+B3+C2+C3) and set aside (if you are painting these pieces they should be painted before assembly). Step 5 & 6: Installing columns (A4) and finals (B10) on the frame (D12) & trim (A3) on roof-frame (A8) & brackets (A9) onto roof-frame (A8). [There a larger pieces that can be assembled out of order.] I decided to dismantle, paint elaborately with fluorescent acrylics and re-assemble using a very thin Cyanoacylate Adhesive (CA). RC hobbyists building balsa-wood aircraft models us a very thin (thinner than water) CA to fuse parts together and strengthen the balsa (soaking it into the wood). I used "StarBond Super Fast THIN (about $10 for 2 oz on Amazon -- you use just a dab here and there so would last through many ROKR wood projects!). You can assemble and double-check your work and then using the micro-fine applicator tips (that come with Starbond) flow some CA into the seams between pieces. It will wick into the seam between pieces though capillary action after pieces are assembled (and/or you could clamp pieces you are fusing if you are that obsessed). Once the CA cures (it doesn't "dry" -- it cures hard by reacting with water moisture in the air). The pieces are then forever fused together (the joint is stronger than the wood) -- which is a good thing and makes for a very solid and strong final product but a nightmare if you made a mistake (there is no re-do). Note: If you make a mistake there is no re-do so assemble, check carefully and then fuse the pieces together using CA. You can also use this CA around the few metal screws in the kit as a quasi-thread locker (prevents the screw from loosening over time). You could flow a drop of CA around the 3 screws holding the main-gear to the hub, the 3 brass thumb-nuts underneath, and even the 3 screws under the base that attach the music-movement to the base. Wouldn't hurt to put some on in the winder (reverse threaded) so that will never come off... and heck... the main-gear hub as well (or you could use a permanent Thread-Locker product -- many on the market. I have used the LocTite product).

I saw that there were a few reviews on people not getting the gears to work correctly to play the music box. I had that issue as well. After messing around with it I found that it was the outside walls pushing in too far inside. I took the secret top off to were I could see the gears running and use a chop stick with the music box running started push the walls back out a bit until the gears were able to move more freely. The each piece I assembled back I kept the music box running. The music box was pretty neat to put together. Just be patient when working on it. It does work you just need to make sure the gears are moving freely. Also, I was very impressed on how well all the pieces fit together. Good Luck