My first practice piece!–updates

[peggy332014]

Hi everyone!

A few days ago, I had posted that I got my first clock to work on! It’s 19th Century Seth Thomas Gingerbread (kitchen) clock. It’s been through some rough storage–outside in the rain! The lady is letting me work on it to see if I can get it running again, and if not–no problem, she just wants to keep it cause it was her mom’s. The clock case was stapled back together so the originality was lost. But here it is as I had first received it.

[peggy332014]

I now have disassembled the clock and have the movements out of it.

I first cleaned the alarm bell and the chime dong.

I then took the alarm bell movement apart It has a small wind spring. I cleaned it, and re-assembled it. Here is a pic of it.

[peggy332014]

Since I’m in very limited in space, and house-bound, I did my work on my bed. I have a table in front of me, with my pc.

After dissembling the clock by removing the movement, I then put the main movement in “Awesome” pre-soak. I did that because the movement was in such a sticky and rusty place, I wanted to soak it to help loosen the rust so I could dis-assemble it better.

I’ve captured the main springs with wire (due to little tools to work with) and have set it aside until the first of the month so I can get a let down tool.

I was able to release a bunch of the chime side, because it operated freely, and I just let it do it’s donging since I had the spring captured. I know there’s probably some left in it yet. so I’ll make sure the power is all out of it before removing the parts.

I did use my dremal tool carefully to help remove the rust. the pivots on the alarm bell movement was okay, so was the teeth in the escapement.

More later! Bye! 😆 😆

[peggy332014]

Oh, in case you’re wondering, no I didn’t leave the movement in the pre-soak. I did take it out of the solution and dried it to put it in a box until later. 😆

[arutha]

Nice work so far Peggy.
Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. Thank you for taking the time to post this up
With the open springs, even when you let them down there can still be a bit of power left in them so when you take the movement apart they still spring out and fling stuff around the room. The easiest way to do it is to let them part down, put a cable tie or zip tie around them, (or wire if you have some strong enough although I always found this fiddly doing it with wire) and then let the rest of the power out so it undoes into the zip tie. This keeps it small enough to not interfere with other parts when the movement comes apart. Once you have the spring out you can then hold it with a good pair of thick gardening gloves, cut the cable tie / wire and allow the rest of the power out of the spring, controlling it with your gloved hands.
Paul.

[peggy332014]

Good Morning Arutha!

Yup! I have wire on the springs, hopefully come the first I can get a let-down tool that comes with a few c-clamps from eBay. We’ll see!

I got me a possible bunch of watches, a few pocket watches, and a clock coming on the first. A girl on Facebook says she’s got bunches of them and has been collecting them. She even said she’s got a bunch of watch parts! Wow! She’s holding them for me for a good cheap price! I can’t pass that up!

[peggy332014]

Well, today I took the step to start taking my clock apart for cleaning. Well,…. I took some pics, wrote some notes, drew diagrams and now.. I got to figure where all the gears go! I tried to be so careful to study it and set the time side gears together, and in pulling the top frame off so so carefully, all the gears just fell out! Oh well, here’s what I got so far.

I had Mike make me a quick let down tool. I had him slot the end of a cheap box nut driver handle that would slide onto the winding key.. that way giving me the use of the key that fit the winding spring arbor.

The above pic also shows the small parts after cleaning.

Here are some of the close-up pics, I might be able to figure out the gearing from these, as well as a couple of YouTube videos that were similar to what I’ve got.

I’ll be getting more pics tomorrow.

[mahlon]

Way to go Peggy. Is the movement an 89a ? If so let me know and I will try to scan a pic. from Steve Conovers book ( how to repair 20 American clocks. I have a clock Seth Thomas clock just like the one you are working on, that I will be doing soon. As far as using the retainer rings, I prefer the wire. It doesn’t get in the way when reassembling. Mahlon

[peggy332014]

Yes, it’s stamped as a 89a.

I was so careful to lift up the plate a little at a time like Bob shows, and being it’s been in the weather for a long time, it was kind of stuck. I had lifted the plate just enough to start getting the time gears out one at a time, and was doing good at first, then that last little tug on the plate, it came up and the other gears kind of fell out. Well, good for me! Now I have a puzzle to put together!

Ya, i used the wire to capture the mainsprings. Overall it wasn’t bad at all, all the gears are good, just a little rusty on the pivots, but I did take a little smooth sand paper and smoothed them out. This clock has been repaired before. I saw at least 6 new bushings that someone had put in it at one time. On the back of the clock face, it says the person’s name from St Louis in 1996. That probably was who repaired it.

More later!

[davidjm]

@peggy332014 wrote:

Yes, it’s stamped as a 89a.

I was so careful to lift up the plate a little at a time like Bob shows, and being it’s been in the weather for a long time, it was kind of stuck. I had lifted the plate just enough to start getting the time gears out one at a time, and was doing good at first, then that last little tug on the plate, it came up and the other gears kind of fell out. Well, good for me! Now I have a puzzle to put together!

Ya, i used the wire to capture the mainsprings. Overall it wasn’t bad at all, all the gears are good, just a little rusty on the pivots, but I did take a little smooth sand paper and smoothed them out. This clock has been repaired before. I saw at least 6 new bushings that someone had put in it at one time. On the back of the clock face, it says the person’s name from St Louis in 1996. That probably was who repaired it.

More later!

How long have you been doing clock/watch servicing peggy?

[peggy332014]

Hi David!

I’m new at this, just started a few weeks ago with the course. I’ve had some clock shop experience many years ago. My landlord at that time was a clock and watch doctor. I would help him with his shop every morning, coming in and winding the clocks that needed winding, and I’d greet customers and process their repair orders and stuff like that. I’ve always had a fascination to learn how to repair them myself. I didn’t do repairs myself, but I sure watched him do it, and he’d tell me some things on the process and I did get to handle his parts inventory, so it was quite an experience for me.

I’m purposing in opening my own shop in the near future as part of the many shops my husband and I plan on doing. We call ourselves Great Abundance Genesis Smith Shops. Gunsmithing, metalworking, wood shop… making things, clock making, mosaics, stained glass, and jewelry making and repairs. All of these compliment each other, because we can take the clocks and set them in homemade cabinetry, putting stained glass on some grandfather clocks… the possibilities are endless!

[mahlon]

Peggy, maybe this will help. Mahlon

[mahlon]

Wow!!! that’s really big 😮 😮 😯 Mahlon

[peggy332014]

Oh Wow! Brother Mahlon! It sure does! Thank you!!! Thank you!!!!!

It’s perfect! That’s the favor of God!

Mahlon, you’re a Blessing! How may I get a hold of that book?

[peggy332014]

Hey Mahlon! I found the book on eBay for$33~I’m going to get it!!!

[Author]

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