Another Welby Clock

[bernie weishapl]

I have in for repair another older Welby Clock. It has a small hairspring balance. I have went thru it, bushed where needed, cleaned and oiled. Problem I have is it isn’t running well. Very little movement in the balance. If I put just a slight amount of pressure on the minute hand it will run nicely with good balance movement. It takes just a very small amount of pressure to get it to move well. So I am guessing it is probably in the mainspring, mainspring barrel or second wheel. I have had this thing apart twice now and checked the wheels a second time to make sure the teeth, pivots and pinions are ok. When I got it together I had it on the movement assembly posts. I lifted each wheel and they fall back down with no resistance that I can see. Today I am going to get my depthing tool out and double check my bushing to see if I got any of the bushings off center but would think if I had those off when lifting the wheels they wouldn’t fall back down with no resistance. I have also thought about taking off all the wheels and lifting levers on the front plate and then check it to see if it runs ok. See if there is any resistance there causing problems. This movement is the same as the last one I had in which I had a problem with the mainspring size. Got it going and wish I had it in the shop now to compare but don’t. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Bernie,
Could just be power loss somewhere in the train or possibly even be in need of a new mainspring. A couple of things you can check first though might be to remove the balance wheel from the unit and check the lever action. If it’s not snapping over but is rather sluggish then most likely power loss somewhere. Next thing would be to disassemble the escapement cage from between the plates and clean all of it’s components with watch cleaning solution. Then lubricate with watch oil and check the lever action again. Also may want to check escape wheel and lever hole wear. Also pallet stones or in the case of the Welby the pins (?) may have wear marks worn into them which can reduce impulse problems. Would first check the previous things mentioned above though. If the lever is snapping over quickly then check that the balance wheel end shake is at a minimum. May need to adjust the end screws in a little if there is too much shake. If balance end shake is decent and lever action is good then this might be the point to deal with the lever pallet/pin wear.

Just a thought,
Enjoy,
Bob

[bernie weishapl]

Bob after closer inspection this morning I did notice under my 10X loupe that the balance wheel pivots don’t seem to have a sharp point on them like I have seen on others. They look rounded. I did tighten the cone screws slightly because I thought the slop was a bit much. I worked on a couple of big ben alarm clock a few years ago that didn’t have the balance action needed. I had at the time some of the cone screws and arbors for the balance wheel along with other parts I had bought at a auction. I changed those out and the action came up. I am guessing finding parts for these is going to be like a need in a hay stack. Thought about ebay but those would probably be wore out to. Will see what I find after doing more checking.

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Bernie,
You may be ok as far as the pivot points are concerned. In this clock your balance is suspended horizontally (unlike for example, a carriage clock platform) so I think what you will find is a small amount of wear on one side of the bearing. You do have a small amount of adjustment leeway with this escapement. If you back one of the threaded bearings out about a 1/4 turn and the opposite in about the same amount this should give you a fresh bearing surface to test on. You can’t move these screws too much though as this will cause the hairspring to cone either inward or outward depending on which way you adjust the screws. This should tell you if that is the problem though.

Bob

[bernie weishapl]

Thanks Bob I shall try that.

[arutha]

@Bob Tascione wrote:

If you back one of the threaded bearings out about a 1/4 turn and the opposite in about the same amount this should give you a fresh bearing surface to test on. You can’t move these screws too much though as this will cause the hairspring to cone either inward or outward depending on which way you adjust the screws. This should tell you if that is the problem though.

Bob

What a great tip! This type of escapement always gives me problems, any sort of help on these is always useful.
Paul.

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