Reply To: Clock case cleaning

[arutha]

I dont think silver soldering is going to be hard enough for that pivot, bear in mind that silver solder is composed of tin and silver – neither as hard wearing as steel. You will find it will wear much faster than using the usual method of drilling the arbor and inserting pivot steel. If this is a customers clock I would be very careful doing things like that, If the pivot does fail in a short space of time and the customer takes it to another clockmaker they will be asking why the pivot was not repaired properly, this could damage your reputation for doing good work. If you dont have the tools to do a job properly you either need to aquire them or send the item out to get it done. There is nothing wrong with a little ingenuity but it has to produce something that is fit for purpose. If you tell the customer you have made a temporary repair then you cover yourself should the worst happen. Please dont take my comments the wrong way, this is in no way personal, I just dont want to see you get into trouble.
I have not come accross that type of case before and I would be interested to hear what to use to clean it with. Wax should do no harm but I would wait and see what the other members say.
Paul.