Newbie – Syncing Strike and a Pendulum Question

[georgem]

I have acquired what is apparently a Friedrich Mauthe, Schwenningen clock that hung on a wall in an antique store for over a year. I know that it needs a thorough cleaning but was surprised when I put the pendulum on and it started running. In fact it is keeping very good time for over a week now.

However, I have a couple of questions if some of you experts can help me…..
1. The clock strikes the hour and half/hour. But over the course of a day, it will get out of sync and it might strike once on the hour and the number of hours on the half hour. Also, it will get to a point that it strikes the wrong hour, not just an half hour off but it might strike four times one hour, five the next then eleven or nine or sometimes even fourteen times. I have not disassembled the clock yet but can somebody give me an idea what to look for that would cause that.

2. The other question is simply something I do not know or understand about the pendulum. As you see from the photo, there are two horizontal rods above the bob. The top rod is attached permanently but the bottom one has an adjustment screw. What is that for? There is also a “time adjustment” screw on the bottom of the bob, which I understand the function.

Thanks in advance for your help…..
George

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

[stevefitzwater]

it sounds like it could do with a good cleaning to resolve your first question, over time the oil dries up and gums up the parts, based on the 14 strikes, tells me you have parts hanging due to dried up oil. Of course there could be more serious issues present, but going off your description and no knowledge of the movement, I am just guessing.

The pendulum sounds like it has two adjustments based on your description, the adjustment at the bottom is the “major adjustment point”, where you make large timing adjustments, increasing or decreasing the length of the pendulum will slow or increase the timing, the adjustment on the bob itself is most likely the fine tuning adjustment where you would fine tune the movement.

[bernie weishapl]

That adjustment on the top could be for putting the clock in perfect beat. You get it close with a microset timer and then fine tune it. The nut on the bottom speeds the clock up (makes it fast) when you make the bob go higher. The other way or lowering the bob slows the clock. I am guessing the clock has not been cleaned and oiled for a while. By that I mean a total tear down of every gear, nut and bolt. When assembled do not, I repeat do not oil the levers on the front. I never oil anything that doesn’t make a complete revolution and trip levers, count levers, etc never get oiled. It will just cause you problems down the road and there is no wear there anyway.

[georgem]

Thanks for the input. I agree with you that this thing needs a good cleaning, which I plan to do. As I stated in my original post, I was really surprised that it ran at all much less that it has been running for about six days now and is keeping really good time. I am hoping the strike problem is just a cleaning issue. I hope I don’t run into any major problem, but from the little I know about these things, I would imagine at the worst it might be a worn pinon gear or the strike lever being a little out of position.

Thanks again for your help. I will post when I get it cleaned and running but that will have to wait until after the holidays.

[Author]

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