Hi Matthew - thanks for your excellent channel. I am a volunteer at my local repair cafe. We try to repair items for residents free of charge to save the items ending up in landfill. I have some clock experience and am currently dealing with a non working 2 weight Vienna Regulator. I have disassembled it, cleaned the parts in an Ultrasonic bath, reassembled and oiled it but the issue I have is the unreliability of the gut line. This springs off the drums and sometimes wraps around the drum spindle when there is no weight or pressure on the line. That makes installing the clock into the casing difficult and is a problem that will reappear when the weights are taken off to move the clock. I have tried twisting and taping the lines together when installing or when taking the weights off but it is difficult to keep the lines in the right place when they are so 'springy'. I have seen advice that suggests leaving the line unwound or half winding it around the drum and taping it in position or replacing the gut with a corded line which does not 'spring when the weights are removed. I favour replacing the gut with a cord but the only cord I have found so far is 0.8mm and the existing gut width and barrel spacing seems to nearer .3-.4mm. Any advice would be much appreciated if it would enable me to return the clock in working order..!
Great video, I am looking into doing my first ever service on 1930 Westminster mantle clock and did not know I had to fully release all springs before any disassembly, got the fully synthetic oil and hope to do a full clean and service if it needs it.
I'm usually pretty good at this sort of math, but I have to admit I got lost at about 5:32. I suspect you're calculating something about a theoretical wheel that has the CD as its radius, which has the sum of the two wheels' teeth, and which meshes with a wheel that has zero teeth. Is the sum of the two wheels' diameters divided by the sum of their teeth a constant for a given center distance? Thanks for this thought-provoking and informative video.
My clock has a KSU movement. Everything works great except that at 9 it gives only 8 gongs and at 10 it gives 9 gongs. After 10 the number of gongs corresponds to the hour. Could this be corrected with just a drop of oil between the rack and the snail?
Matthew, I noticed that the first pencil in your stack of pencils was a drafting/artist(?) pencil, "B" hardness if I remember correctly. You might want to get a drafting "lead holder" and several different hardnesses of lead to see if there is another hardness that suits you better. Since "drafting" is mostly a thing of the past, an art supply store ought to have a good selection of leads/pencils of the various hardnesses -- if you find a hardness that suits you better than the ones you've been using, you could then get a lead holder and a box of lead of your chosen hardness. (I still have my drafting equipment, lead holders, & different hardnesses of lead from when I made "mechanical" drawings as a Mechanical Engineer -- and still often used it up until retirement in 2020! ;) Many small drawings/sketches were still *much* faster by hand than by wasting time with 3D CAD!) Also, is your book "How to Repair Pendulum Clocks" still available in print? I don't have a Kindle. Do you still plan to write Volume 2?
Thanks Bob for your thoughtful message, really appreciated. That is a great idea re the lead holder. I may actually have one somewhere. I remember we used those on an engraving course I went on for holding blued steel for marking out. Will dig it out and give it a try! As for the books... yes we are still writing Volume 2, we have just signed off the main chapters from layout and have a relatively small amount of work to do on finishing the appendices. Volume 1 will also be re-printed. One of the chapters needs a bit of work. Maybe both out by Christmas? Hang in there and agin, thanks for the message. Matthew
As usual, meticulous detail and most enlightening. I need a date wheel for my latest purchase (1760 Welsh longcase), but I don't have this standard of equipment! Where do these date wheels disappear to! There must be a huge stash somewhere 🤔.
Thanks for the video. Very interesting, especially when comparing it to what i have in my box. Some very good pointers here, thank you. I noticed you skiped suspension springs. I wonder what you useually take with you, and if you take a selection of spring steels to match the clocks you are working on.
Do you mean the piece of brass that holds the great wheel on the fusee arbor? A circle of brass with a key-hole shaped hole in it? Great wherl slip washer. M
Thank you for this highly instructive video - I never would have imagined a person could get all this together! One question: how did you choose the angle between the gathering pallet and the warning pin? ...or doesn't it matter? thanks again!
Thanks Bradford for your kind feedback. With a French clock, when the train is locked by the stop piece, the gathering pallet is fitted at 90 degrees to the rack, facing outwards with the train locking as soon as is possible once the hammer lifting piece falls off the hammer pin. Yes the position of the warning pin is important. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 from the face of the warning piece. More than half a turn and there is a risk the next pin wheel pin will begin to lift the hammer when on warning. Hope this helps. M
Hi Matthew an interesting list of travel tools. What I wondered was how do you mainly get to and from sites when you are working. Presumably by car because of the range and bulkiness of the tools you are carrying. Do you ever use the train with a slimed down version? One thing I always carry with me especially if I have to refit a 30 hour chain is a stiff piece of wire with a small hook bent on the end. This is useful for feeding the chain back through the movement. I also always carry a mini spirit level.
Thanks Ian. That is a good point. In the old days when I lived in London yes, a slimmed down version was standard for the train. This is in-fact the genesis of where I am today. Nowadays, the institutions where I work are almost exclusively out in the sticks so van it is. Spirit level a great idea, especially for installation work, Longcase clocks and such. Thanks for your feedback. M
@@howtorepairpendulumclocks Sorry I meant to say that I think a really useful video would be on how to sharpen ( things) such as gravers etc. I think many people including myself have struggled with the best way to do this. Just a suggestion but thanks as always. Ian
My silver soldering technique improved dramatically after help from you Matthew. Preparation and the right selection of flux and silver solder are key issues. Thanks again for the video as always really useful.
As always, this was an excellent tutorial. You have a way of explaining things that makes it easy to understand. At some point, I'd love to see a tutorial on sharpening gravers. For some reason I can never get right
As a safeguard from the energy in the main springs of "small alarm clocks", I made a very simple tool using the smallest diameter "tough" plastic pipe I could get, I cut a length of about eight or 9 inches; and using a hacksaw cut a 1/2 inch deep slot across the diameter at one end. This I found would fit perfectly over/across the winders butterfly-wings, being held in place by the shaft, when releasing the energy of the main spring it was possible to control how fast the plastic pipe spun and the mainspring unwound and it saved a good deal of time. inconveniently something very different would be required for the larger clocks with larger/more dangerous main springs. very helpful video (this little alarm clock, my very first just needed lubricating, but I've seen enough videos on RU-vid to have a few clues as to what I was doing and to have bought the necessary oils. Best wishes to all, John, Perth, Au'.
Great video presentation I do clock repairing and think you thoroughly did a “bang up” up job with the details and showing the safety and dangers involved. Truly a no novice project !🤗
Best use a diamond 'file' or hone for that. The ones by Eze-Lap are great with the plastic handle. They come in a set so you can work through the grades to get the kind of finish you need.
If the barrel arbor is tapered where it rides in the mainspring barrel. Does the mainspring barrel bushing need to be tapered as well? I figured it would nee to be, but not 100% sure.
Te mechanizmy zegarowe (mechanizmy) powstawały do połowy XX wieku. Mechanizmy były montowane głównie w zegarach ściennych w obiektach instytucjonalnych, takich jak szkoły na dworcach kolejowych i tak dalej. Montowano je również w zegarach wspornikowych. Jeśli wpiszesz w Google „Zegar wybierania Fusee”, zobaczysz kompletne zegary. Mam nadzieję że to pomoże. Mateusz
Very useful insight :) two of the clocks I have to repair are pendulum clocks so I'll subscribe and have a look at what you can offer on repairing pendulum clocks, one is a regular French mantel clock of the last century, the other is a 1930s British Westminster chime Mantel clock. great short video thank you for posting
Good morning Do you know where I can find (or buy) a screwdriver with a wooden handle for a 4 mm pendulum key? THANKS Greetings. How do you call it? Regards Bernard.
Lovely video to watch very interesting and satisfying to see clocks repaired ill leave this kind of work to the experts😂. I have a Jmperator clock made in Brussels that appears to need a pendulum dont know if its something that i can make or rather leave to the experts but i do think it may need a suspension spring as well. How do i tell the difference
Is it a pigeon racking timing clock? It really depends how much experience you have with more straightforward clocks. If it is spring driven, you always have the challenge of getting the power off the mainspring first.
@@howtorepairpendulumclocks hi thanx for the reply. Looking at the back of clock there are 2 barrels for clock spring. There is a little swing lever through which a pendulum wire would go through(based on what i learnt from cuckoo clock.)but there is a shaft more above near top of back plate which appears to be the spot where the pendulum suspension wire would hook on. Im certainly no expert on clocks but would like to learn more. Im not finding any info on what the actual pendulum length and the size and weight of bob should be. However ive seen formulas to calculate this but no known variables to work from
Yers, to calculate theoretical pendulum length, you need to count the number of teeth on the gears between the hand and the escapement. You can also do it of course by simply beginning with a longer pendulum rod and gradually cutting it shorter. As for pendulum bob size, the mass of the bob is mostly immaterial as the mass is not part of the pendulum equation. Again, start with a piece of plasticine or similar and experiment. M@@jacqueso8424
@@howtorepairpendulumclocks thank you, the reponse and reply is much appreciated will start playing with the clock real soon as im eager to learn these things.
Hi ya! Our second volume does cover the striking Enfield. That book is being edited at the moment and will be published in summer 2024. Please keep an eye our website for updates. The first book - volume 1 - is sold out but again, we will be printing more. Again, it needs a small amount of revision so will be re-launched with Volume 2. M
Excellent, clear instructions. You mention setting the pretension on the (?) spring by tightening the set-up click screw to 1 - 1½ turns. Turns of what though? I'm new to this game, and so dismantled the clock without marking anything. Maybe you could explain a bit further or do a video showing how its done. Thanks
