Hello Don! I've got the same problem with the hour tube hole on the movement I'm working on. I was just planning on bushing the hole. What made you decide to solder the ring on as opposed to bushing?
It's a large hole and badly worn. Finding the exact center is very difficult. As with all "bushings" the real purpose is to make sure that the wheels (gears) are meshing properly. Bushing for the sake of bushing is meaningless if it results in the teeth of gears clashing because they mesh too deeply or literally strip their teeth because the mesh is too shallow. The purpose is to get meshing gears to have their pitch circles be tangent, and that is what I did. An alternative would have been to drill a larger hole, fill it with a blank piece of brass and, then, with lots of tedious measuring, find the original center. You got a better method that doesn't take all day, please share it.
@@dperry428 After looking again at my movement, I can see yours is much, much more worn. The wheel in mine isn't shifting enough to cause meshing issues; even if I were to put a bushing in false center, it would still run for a while. I was just curious to see your thought process and if I should do the same instead of trying a bushing. Great video like always! I hope to be as skilled as you one day.
On most clocks, the motion works has so little forces applied that the looseness of the hour tube in the center hole makes no difference, but in this movement, the motion works is powered by the second wheel and looseness in the motion works becomes much more critical when it comes to the meshing of the gears. The collar I applied keeps the meshing of the gears correct.
Nice job. When you soldered the ring on the plate to bush the center wheel, did you do anything to prevent the ring from moving while it was being soldered? Or was that not an issue?
It's not an issue. I "tinned" the ring, put flux on the area of the plate where I wanted the solder to flow, placed the ring on the plate exactly where I wanted it and heated the brass until the solder melted. Done. As long as you don't put the torch right on the object, it won't move. Sometimes, where it's possible, such as on the cracked gear in another video,, I use hemostats to hold objects in place.
Another great informative clock repair/service. Mr Perry can you please describe the “stoning” steps you took to address the issue of raised bushings and how to polish the brass surface plate. Thank you as always.
I have a set of very small fine (#4 cut) files that are somewhat flexible. I use the flat one to carefully file the bushing down, filing with the grain of the brass plate in case I mar it. I then use a fine-grained Arkansas stone to further flatten the bushing, followed by removing marks with a fingernail filing and polishing board, the kind with about 6 or 7 levels of grit, finishing with the "polish" side. Finally, to polish the brass surface, I use an acrylic shower cleaner that polishes and leaves an acrylic film.
