H.Miller mantle clock, putting in beat

[myclockrepair]

I have taken it apart, cleaned it. The balance by itself swings freely and looks fine. The time train, without the balance or verge spins freely and looks fine. When it is all put together, it runs for about 5 seconds and stops. Its has been re-cleaned and inspected and “fiddled with” for a week. What’s next? Please help!

• This topic was modified 2 years ago by Tamas Richard.

[Bob Tascione]

Hi myclockrepair,
I hate when that happens! Everything works well when separate but when assembled it dies. 5 seconds isn’t too good. If the clock is clean and oiled and bushings are good then I would probably try checking the following.
First try removing the balance and with power applied to the train check to see that the pallet lever jumps over to the other side when it receives impulse from the escape wheel tooth. It should snap over and lock the next tooth with NO sluggishness. If that looks good then put the balance assembly back in and put the balance wheel into motion. At this point you’ll want to look to see if anything is hitting or dragging in the escapement. Check that the lever isn’t hitting the roller and that everything clears. Things tend to get bent in these assemblies. If you have a beat amplifier you can usually here when things are dragging. If all looks well then check to see that the hairspring is flat and no coils are contacting each other while the balance is occilating. Setting the beat is done by turning the hairspring collet either to the right or left. I believe beat setting is covered in the Watch Course in either Video 3 part 1 or part 2. I’ll check a little later if my connection gets better…it’s really slow down here right now and I’m not able to view any video… and I’ll post the location. If anybody finds it before me please put it up here.

Let see if any of this helps locate the problem and let us know myclockrepair. If not we can try a few more things,
Have fun!
Bob

[myclockrepair]

Thanks for the tips, Bob. I’ll put those to good use. Every time I tilt the movement it tries to start by itself, but cant get going.

Richard

[myclockrepair]

I wanted to post, as a follow-up, what happened in the end. I apparently tightened the screws on the balance like lug nuts, when i loosened them to take it off it actually started to run (a little anyway). Upon inspection I discovered that at some point I had either touched the spring with the oil pen or dripped oil on the inner most circle of the spring. Of course, clock oil doesn’t move around so it was sticking the spring together just a little. After a re-re cleaning and reassembly, everything seems to be working just fine. I put it in the case this eve and its working great. Thanks again for the great advise, and the videos are fantastic!

[Bob Tascione]

Thanks for posting the outcome Richard and Congratulations!
BTW…I have the same problem when it comes to tightening screws down too much. Someone needs to come up with a torque jewelers screwdriver!

Bob

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