Home › Forums › General Discussion Forum › Brocot escapement repair – help!
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April 22, 2014 at 5:49 am #49006
Hi All
Well I`ve been lucky so far in that all my non running clock purchases have required no more than dismantling the movement cleaning and putting back together.Recently I bought an Ansonia slate clock with open escapement, it looks a great clock BUT both the pallet stones were snapped off . Now I am a novice , no lathe or expensive tools just small toolbox and lot of enthusiasm. I suspect this is a repair beyond my abilities but have been reading a lot and I think understand the basics of what needs doing.
Has anyone replaced these ” stones” , I read they can be carnelian or steel but can only see the stone ones for sale at a rather expensive price – can you but steel ones anywhere cheaply so I can give it a go.
Moving on , I understand you set the stones in shellac. Can anyone give an idiots guide step by step how to do this – how do you heat the shellac ? do you put shellac on rear of the holder or front to hold the stone ? if you need to slightly tweak the stone how do you heat it to make it workable.
Thanks for any suggestions .
MalcolmApril 22, 2014 at 8:50 am #57342Hi Malcolm,
I don’t know offhand where steel pallets are available now. Maybe someone up here has a source? I know that Timesavers carries the jewel type. When ordering from Timesavers you can use a numbered drill set to determine the diameter that you’ll need by choosing a drill that just fits into the jewel hole in the anchor. Then order using that drill number.Shellac is the way to go when cementing these jewels in. You would need to line up the flat faces of the pallet jewels parallel to a line extended out from center of the escape wheel and then place a little piece of shellac on the back of the jewel. You can then apply ‘indirect‘ heat near the jewel (careful not to put the flame on the shellac) until the shellac begins to melt and spread into the hole. It doesn’t require much heat and it’s important not to overheat the shellac. You can apply heat using a small flame applied to some type of small clamp or even an alligator clip that’s clamped onto the anchor near the jewel or a soldering iron touching the side of the anchor next to the jewel. You can make future adjustments by reheating the shellac using the same method as long as it didn’t become too hot during the installation.
You may have already read about the pallet thickness to tooth space requirements necessary for sufficient lock and drop. I won’t go into it here in case you already have covered this. If not and you would like info about it then please let me know.
Hope this helps Malcolm,
BobApril 22, 2014 at 9:04 am #57343Thanks Bob thats makes it a lot clearer on how to use shellac, I have some on order.
I have made up 2 temporary pallets out of a steel nail , I dont know if they will work but if I can be sure the clock will work I will get the correct red stones – they are very expensive in UK , over £25 ($42) for 2 incl postage! Almost what i paid for the clock.
One last question , I understand how you must line up the flat of the pallet with the centre of the escape wheel but it also says tip of tooth must be roughly contacting the radius of the pallet. If the tip is too low on the pallet I cant work out how you adjust it other than bending the arm of the carrier but worried that will break the arm , there doesnt seem any other way of adjusting ?
MalcolmApril 22, 2014 at 12:46 pm #57344Hi Malcolm,
When faced with this problem I usually make new steel “stones” from pivot steel, turn it to just over the correct diameter then polish to size , then you need to file exactly half way through , keep checking progress with a micrometer or caliper, stop just over and polish to size , check the hole sizes in the pallet frame, quite often they’re far too big , in which case bush to size, sometimes soft soldering the bush in is required, then line up as bob suggests,
If you’ve a tool and cutter grinder it takes minutes to make these to very aaccurate dimensions . . .
King regards daryn
P.s.am I right in thinking you’re in the UK ? If so and you get stuck I’d be happy to make some up and post yo you . . .
I’m also in the UK
DarynApril 22, 2014 at 1:12 pm #57345Ha , that should’ve been ” kind regards” !!!
April 22, 2014 at 2:19 pm #57346Daryn
That is a very kind offer indeed ,yes I live on the Kent / Sussex border . I have been trying to find somewhere that sells the steel “stones” but it seems only the real stones are available and very expensive. If you could send me your email I will forward you my details and in the meantime try to find a way of accurately measuring the hole diameter .
[email protected]
MalcolmApril 22, 2014 at 2:37 pm #57347Hi again. Tried to email you. Hopefully you got it . . .
Daryn -
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