Reply To: clock mainsprings in barrels

[oldtimers]

I recently repaired a barrel hook and replaced the broken spring with a new one. I had to remove the spring a few times since the hook wouldn’t catch the spring hole correctly. I used my Ollie Baker to install and remove the spring the first few times and then got lazy and decided to remove it by hand. I should have been more careful but at that point I was growing impatient. The spring no longer laid flat on the table but took on that cone appearance. It wasn’t bad but it was there. First and most important lesson I learned was not to work on clocks when frustrated and the second was to always use my winder. I always wound by hand before purchasing my winder but if your winder has the ability to remove the spring as well as replace then I would advise using it for spring removal. Plus as Arutha says it’s safer.
John