Great work! Love your unhurried patience with all the ‘misdemeanours’ of prior ‘service people’. Would love to see you do a video showing how you clean the movements, as well as the cases. In this ‘modern’ world it’s lovely to see you repair/fabricate parts. Love your voice-over explaining what you are doing - most illuminating. Thank you.
David, you must have absolutely no trouble waking up to an alarm like that lol!! I loved that slow motion shot you did, reminded me of that scene where they're hoping through Big Ben in the Great Mouse Detective.
The mantle clock perched on top of your work bench, looks to be similar to a 1920 or so Ingraham. I own a1919, and a 1929 which was my grandfather's. The 29 is going to get a full cleaning And oiling but it runs ok for now with very little bushing wear. The 1919 is next. Great job on the Big Ben. Your video is calming.
Thanks John, Owner of this clock took it to several local clock shops and was told it could not be be fixed. They were very glad to get it back as a good functioning time keeper.
@@jamesmartin5370Yeah i bet they were very happy to get there colck back. Wow that's sad thst other clock shops could not repair it. Old clock repair services are getting harder to find. I love the old clock's. If I ever got the chance to be an Apprentice and learn the old ways. I do so in a heart beat.
Interesting how the bezel (etc) is polished brass. I'm thinking this was either custom or some kind of special edition release from Westclox. I know I've never seen one before.
Judging from the small amounts of nickel plating left on some of the polished parts, uncleaned buffing compound, and that run in the clearcoat on the bezel. I feel the nickel plating was removed during some sort of restoration project, the whole case inside and out was clear coated, some even over some rust on the inside. Not sure if it was lacquer or urethane but definitely clear coat to protect the buffed bare brass.
Nice work. Looks like you were able to clean and polish the balance staff pivots with the hairspring still attached? Or did you remove it and put it back on? The slow mo of the escapement towards the end was really nice.
Encore aujourd’hui je préfère les Réveils mécaniques,je possède 4 réveils qui me servent encore aujourd’hui 2 Jazz et 2 bayard des années 1950 a 1970 leur Tic Tac m’aident a dormir
Very nice work as usual James. The slow motion, especially with sound was a great effect. Almost hypnotic. How did you address the clear coat on the back and other parts, especially where there was buffing compound and gunk under it? Did you do anything with the zinc plating to slow the degradation? As always, I love to see the steps that go into rebushing, broaching and burnishing. Do you think someone intentionally tried to remove the nickel plating? Nice winding adapters for the let down handle. Made by you? Thank you for sharing these repairs and educating your followers.
Thanks David, I removed the old buffing compound with hot water and detergent, took a while but it came off. The clear coat was applied under the buffing compound so left it as is on the whole movement. I didn't take any action to slow the zinc degradation on the back of the dial. The nickel plating was intentionally removed from the bezel down to the raw brass, then buffed and clear coated to stop the brass from oxidizing. Yes I fabricated those let down adapters.
Very nice video. At 21:06 where you hammer directly on the canon pinion shaft to knock it out, is there a reason you dont use a brass or bronze punch to hammer on? It seems to me like you would have more precise delivery of the force to the shaft & not inadvertently risk hitting the pinion gear & over the years work-hardening the gear? Cnc machinery I like to press gears or bearings off a shaft with a small arbor press & then re-assemble pinion to shaft with a thin layer of copper antiseize to prevent galling depending on if dissimilar platings are used. Its wild watching this miniature work, I recently acquired a Big Ben 1918.3 back (made mid 1925-early 1926) beautiful black dial with luminescent hands, tiny chip on the #2 but besides that looks really nice, I would just like it cleaned & oiled & anything else that needs done, the bezel is dented and could use some attention but I like the patina, just anything you see.
My guess is that the clear coat was applied after a prior owner realized that the clock was starting to rust and wanted to stop it but didn't know how to remove the existing rust.
Thank you for sharing. I hope you can help me with these two questions. 1/ how would you repair rust or excess oil that have been absorbed in a paper dial without damaging the dial? and 2/ is a bend like the one of the brass bezel of this clock repairable with soft plastic jaws pliers? Basically reshape the bezel to its original rounded form. Much appreciated
You may need to experiment with the oil soaked rusty paper dial. 1st these dials were bonded directly on to bare steel with a water soluble adhesive. If the clock was subjected to a high moisture environment, the adhesive quickly absorbed the moisture and rust soon started. Underlaying dial pan will have a fair amount of rust damage on it and should be dealt with or the rust process will continue. The oil can be removed from paper by using a solvent that won't attack the inks or dye in the paper. Rust can be removed from paper by using Thiourea Dioxide. All in all depending on extent of rust and oil damage, it might best to leave as is or remove original dial and archive it with the clock and replace with a quality replacement. To repair a bend in the bezel similar to this one could be repaired by fabricating a steel die that matches configuration of the bezel, then using the die to back up the bent area of bezel material while reforming the bent material with plastic tools to match the back-up die. There are other ways, soft jawed plyers will work on small bends but if the brass becomes stretched, there is no way to shrink it back to shape. Problem with brass is that it quickly becomes work hardened and gets brittle when formed it needs to be heated to release the stress or will end up cracking, sometimes its less expensive to replace the bezel if one can be found if its too far gone.
@@jamesmartin5370 Thank you very much James for your valuable tips. You saved me from making a big mistake and permanently damaging the dial using the wrong solvent. The stain is not too big, it’s around the hour hand arbor from over-oiling of course by a previous owner. I’ll thread carefully with the repair and hope for the best. I appreciate your help good sir !!!
