Dirtyest movement ever?

[willofiam]

Howdy, I have worked on some pretty dirty, rusty, grimy movements but I think this one takes the cake……if you have any photos of the worst one you have worked on, clock or pocket watch, please post it here a we can see the worst of the worst 🙄

I dont know about you but I seem to get the greatest satisfaction taking a movement from this condition to a like new state.

This one appears to have been sprayed down with some kind of oil and set over the fry cooks stove for 80 years or so….the pics dont show it well but the stuff on there is really thick and gooey..nice movement though, both mainsprings are broken, at first glance it doesnt look like it is very worn (may be a different story when I get rid of all the gunk) the count lever does have a large groove in it so my thought is that it may have seen alot of run time. We will find out soon.
Having some fun William

[dulwich2410]

Hi William i thought all movements should look like that,
great forum learning all the time, looking at your workshop
pictures is there a tool you haven’t got in your collection.

All the best

John.

[bernie weishapl]

William I have had several of those come in over the years. I don’t have any pic’s but had one old Ingraham a old boy brought in that his wife told me he sprayed it down for the last several years every year with WD40. It was so bad when I pulled it out I couldn’t even tell if it was made of brass. The whole clock was black. When I delivered the clock he accused me of putting new movement in. I told him there were no new movements for his clock. Since he was in town I went back with my book to show him when the company went bankrupt. He said my gosh I swear that is a new one. I told him no it wasn’t just cleaned well and I wouldn’t do that even if I could get one without him saying go ahead. I guess he was impressed enough I have two more of his clocks in the shop now.

[arutha]

This is probably one of the worst;

I think it had been lubricated with a mixture of whale fat and rust.

[arutha]

All came good in the end, just threw it in the washing machine it came out looking like new

[Author]

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