" The punchers "

In a previous post I showed how the pivots sometimes wear in clocks.  This isn't that common, but it happens.  In most cases it's the hole in the softer brass plates that wears.  Being spring, or weight powered, the "push" or load on the pivot is only in one direction.  This means the wear in the hole is only on one side, so the hole doesn't get bigger it gets more egg shaped. This plate shows 2 bad ones. You can see how the end of the shaft is off center.

The proper way to repair this is to install a bushing.  It's not that tough.  The hole is brought back to center and then opened up to accept a bushing. These can be purchased in specific sizes so they will be a pressed fit, or made in a jewelers lathe pretty easily.  They can't be soldered because this would soften the brass and it would wear out even sooner.
Now here's the rub.  In order to install a bushing, you need to separate the plates.  Now you have a bench full of gears, and depending on your skill level, or laziness level, some don't want to do it.

Now come the punchers.

" How about if I just smack this brass with a punch to close up this gap ".  Problem is that it works to an extent, but it is short lived because there is not enough surface area against the pivot to last. The biggest isuue is that it permanently ruins and disfigures the clock plate.  I don't care if somebody does it to a cuckoo or modern clock, but having seen it on 19th and even 18th century clocks it breaks your heart.  On some of  these clocks you actually try to make the bushing invisible when you need to install one.  This isn't necessary when doing the more common american clocks where you can just press it in and leave it.

This is a punch job on a 1840's tall case clock movement.  These are permanent scars.

As I said before, all of the wear in the holes in only on one side so the punching is generally only on the wear side.  Whoever got their hands on the 1890's ansonia shown below, really took punching to a real art form.

Here's one more pitiful excuse for a bushing repair.  Take a piece of who knows what, put a hole in it and solder it to the clock plate over the pivot.  As bad as this is, at least it's still reversible.  All of this poor work  is done only because somebody didn't want to pull the clock plates apart.  I've even heard it referred to as "tricks of the trade". 

Well that's a load of crap.  Someone told me one time, "instead of learning tricks of the trade, why not just learn the trade ?"

Bad teeth

Bad teeth:

Maybe it wasn't enough flouride when they were baby gears but sometimes the teeth in a gear can break off.  This of course will stop the clock because the gears will jam when trying to mesh together and spin.  It's not all that uncommon in the wooden geared clocks because of the grain in the 150 year old gears just cracks and a tooth shears off.  It happens in brass wheeled clocks too though.  It could be just from a weak spot in the brass since new, or with cast gears, a flaw in the original casting, but with brass gears it is usually from forcing something.  This could be pushing the minute hand that is stuck for one reason or another, or forcing the strike gears by pulling on the weight or something.
However it broke doesn't matter, I'm just showing how I repair them.
On a wooden wheel a piece of oak or maple or birch or something hard is dovetailed into a notch filed or saw cut in the gear.  Even a perfect tight fit should still be glued as a safety measure.  Not shown is a final picture of the tooth stained to match the gear.  Forgot to take that pic.
Before and after

It's pretty much the same process on a brass gear although the blank isn't dovetailed into the wheel.  Once a nice fit is attained, the blank is soldered into the gear with a low temperature solder.  Higher temperature would soften the brass with no way to re-harden.
Pictures of before, ready with blank, and finished.  Replacement tooth is at 12 o'clock.

The Locke project (Not clock related)

The Locke project.

My 1970 Locke lawnmower.  Gotta love the thing.  In many circles believed to be one of the sturdiest, and finest cutting machines ever made.  For years they were the only machines used on the White House and Capital grounds. Unfortunately, the high maintenance costs and fancier commercial machines available have thrown them by the wayside. Not mine though.

I guess it's been 2 years ago now, but my winter project was restoring this beast.  Every single nut, bolt, spring, gear, blade, everything, taken apart, hand cleaned, wire brushed, primed and painted the original colors.  Lastly, using original pictures and other machines that still had some left, it was pinstriped the same as each machine built at the factory.

There's nothing that delivers a cut like a reel type machine.  I have been using this machine for over 25 years, and although even  in it's previous rusty condition, it cut just as well as it does now.  It's just more fun to use looking pretty.

Here it is before.

Here's 2 after.

This was the first day.

Before and after of one of the clutches.

Partial assembly

Be careful who fixes your clock

You never know what you/re going to see when you pull the dials from clocks, but I'm not even shocked at some of the messes I see anymore.  One thing you can be sure of is that if your clock is 50 years old, somebody's had their fingers in it.  Get to 100 years and many hands have been in it.
Hopefully they have been skilled hands, but very often it's been " my uncle that loves to tinker " or "my neighbor can fix anything " hands. 
It doesn't bother me too much on the common American 8 day clocks, but to see it in a 19th century highly crafted piece, it just breaks your heart.
Here's a beautiful repeater carriage clock that possibly a plumber tried to fix.  Can you tell where ?



 



 The picture below shows the new drop piece that had to be made and fit to the arm.

What is a pivot ?

The pivot is the end of the gear arbor.  It's kinda like an axle.  The pivot, which is steel,  rotates in a hole in the clock plate which is brass.  This is also where the clock oil goes.  over time, dust and dirt sticks to the oil, and now you have an abrasive mix that wears the hole in the plate larger.  If you think dust isn't abrasive, get a tiny bit in your eye and let me know how that feels.
Occasionally the grit will get imbedded into the softer brass and instead of the hole wearing out, the steel pivot will actually get scored. If worn badly enough like this one, all that can be done is to replace it.

First it is cut off flush to the end of the arbor.  Then in a small lathe a hole is backdrilled into the arbor at true center.

What I do next  is to take the next larger size drill bit and press it into the hole.  You don't want to solder it because the heat is liable to soften the steel. The excess is then cut to length and shaped.

All thats left to do is fit it to the hole in the plate.