messed up clock

[mahlon]

Help I have bit off more than I can chew. I took apart a movement from a small grandmother clock. I cleaned it, put it back together,and now it is worse than when I started. I am not sure of the maker. it is about 5’x5′, spring wound, has a four hammer chime, and four hammer hour count. It also has a self adjusting verge. When I wind the movement, it chimes continuously, and not in the right order. If any of you have any ideas please let me know.

[david pierce]

Having never worked on a clock I am not familar with them but there should be something in Bob’s videos that would point you in the right direction. There is also a lot of information available on You Tube about clock repair and clock rebuilding. Paul and William can probably help figure it out.
david

[digitaltripper]

@mahlon wrote:

Help I have bit off more than I can chew. I took apart a movement from a small grandmother clock. I cleaned it, put it back together,and now it is worse than when I started. I am not sure of the maker. it is about 5’x5′, spring wound, has a four hammer chime, and four hammer hour count. It also has a self adjusting verge. When I wind the movement, it chimes continuously, and not in the right order. If any of you have any ideas please let me know.

First off….DON’T PANIC You can do this….

Chiming continuously means that the chime train is not timmed correctly.

There are pins on some of the wheels in the chime train that must be in the correct position in order for the clock to go into warning and then chime on the quarter, half etc. Normally when I reassemble a three train movement, the pin are usually but not always positioned at the top of the movement.

There are also some parts on the front plate that must be correctly positioned as well as the chime drum must be in the correct position etc.

There are also pins and levers and such for the strike train that must be correctly positioned for the clock to work….

Let me ask this:

1 Who is the maker of the movement?
2 Any numbers on the movement?
3 Better yet, can you upload some pictures please?

And as David mentioned, youtube can be a good source of information.

Jim
Cedar Ridge CA.

[mahlon]

I will try to get pics. loaded this afternoon, I can figure out how to do that. I took several before I started, and tried to put it back exactly the way it was.

[mahlon]

Here’s a few pics……………hope it helps

[willofiam]

If you do not have any books on striking clocks here is a good book on many different types of striking clocks, “Striking Clock Repair Guide” by Steven Conover. Just saw one on ebay for $26.00

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Mahlon,
Studying the chime mechanism and having a complete understanding of how it works will make assembly and timing much easier. The problem is that it’s difficult to figure out what’s going on with all the extra wheels and levers from the time and strike train blocking the view and complicating things. What I recommend is to remove all of the strike side components as well as the time train excluding the center wheel and center cam. The lifting cam is the one with four lifting lobes which is mounted to the center arbor and sits on the ‘outside’ of the front plate.. You can manually turn center arbor and attached lifting cam to raise the lifting lever which activates the chime side by releasing a stop pin mounted between the plates on a wheel. Getting these extra components out of the way will make it much easier to figure out how things should be set up. Also no need to worry about the chiming sequence just yet until you fully understand what’s going on. You can then make a simple adjustment to the pin drum (on the back of the plate) to adjust the sequence. I’ve recently completed some animations and tons of pics on setting the chime correction cam and how it works (mounted on the underside of the locking plate) for the British Anvil Chime Movement. I’m working desperately to get it up on the new blog by the first of the year! I wish I could put it up here right now as I’m sure it would help you but I need to put a simi transparant watermark with my name on it to protect the copyright. One thing to note on your clock is that the locking of the chime train does NOT take place on the outside of the front plate at the locking cam with a locking hook like some German clocks do but rather between the plates at the locking pin or a ledge on a locking disk and a locking lever/detent. I think if you remove those extra components you should be able to understand what’s going on. As for the rack and pinion strike which is activated by the long lever that reaches from the chime side to the slot in the plate on the strike on the front of your clock, you should find that the explanations and animations in the Clock course cover that pretty well.
If you have questions as you go just let us know. I can always put some pics/frames from the animations up here for you.
I’ve uploaded a couple of screen captures of a frame from an animation just to give you an idea of what the animations will be like. Except they move!!
Bob

[mahlon]

Thanks Bob, After I loaded the pics. I went back and did just what you said. I decided that I needed to figure out how to operate the chime side first. After a few adjustments I was able to get it to go into warn, like it should. The only problem was, it would only work on the highest point of the lift cam. Just I noticed your post, I had figured out the problem. The lift arm is not raising high enough to release the train. Any Ideas?

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Mahlon,
I may need to scratch my head on that one for a bit and get back with you. First thought though it sounds like it may be your chime auto correction feature which should be mounted on the back of the locking plate (on the outside of the front plate). The chime and hands can sometimes fall out of sync. and chime say the 3/4 hour chime when the hands shows 1/2 hour. In this case the chime is ahead of the hands by 15 minutes. Without the auto correction feature the clock would chime the full hour when the hand advanced to the 45 min. mark (15 mins before the hour) and after the chime finished the strike would then be activated striking the hour. That’s not good. The auto correction along with the longer cam lobe will not allow the final chime to activate UNTIL the hand reaches 12 O’Clock mark. The minute hand is positioned on the square so it points in the same direction as the longer cam lobe.
Let me think on it for a few minutes or possibly sleep on it to see if that might be the problem.

Bob

[mahlon]

`Bob, I figured out why it was only working on the long lobe. I was turning the minute hand by hand, and going to fast. When I slowed down, it went to warn on all lobes. I have it set up on the test stand and it seems to be working, so far. It chimed the right sequence on the 15 and 30 min. If this clock works, after I have messed with it, I think I will give my self a raise 😆 . You no what they say, you can give a man food and he will eat for a day, but if you get him to work on clocks, you’ll just drive him crazy 🙄

[Bob Tascione]

I need a Tee shirt with that saying printed on it!
Hey Congrats. on figuring it out Mahlon!
Keep us posted on your progress. I’ll post up here when I have those animations up on the new blog ( http://LearnTimeOnline.com ) . The blog is up there now but all the content is still behind the scenes awaiting the launch.
Take care and keep having fun!
Bob

[mahlon]

Bob, I set up the movement, and it ran for about thirty minutes each time. It was chimming in the correct sequence, but after several attemps, I noticed that when it stopped I could see the pendulum jerk just a round or two of the escape wheel before. So I am assuming that I have a long tooth. Why I had it a part I noticed that the top of the teeth seem to be out of square or worn to one side. SO I am going to take it apart again, and try to top off the teeth. I bought a brand new lathe a year ago and have never set it up. SO if you have any advise on to do this operation please advise. Also the chime got out of step again, so I took the lift lever, that comes in contact with the lift cam off. I found that the hole through it, has become oval. I think that this may be the problem with the chime only working on hour side of the cam. If any of this makes since, please let me know. Have A Merry Christmas, and be watching or reading too much clock porn(pics. of naked movements).

[Author]

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