PENDULUM CLOCKS

There is something about clocks and mechanical clocks in particular I find fascinating. I think its the craftsmanship involved. All those wheels of various sizes mesh together to track the passage of time. When you are able to watch the inner workings of a clock you will find yourself mesmerized by what you see.

I made this back in 2017 after seeing a wooden-geared clock on YouTube. I wrote about it in an earlier blog. So I have a fascination with clocks of all kinds.

Now fast-forward a few years wherein I came into possession of two mechanical geared clocks neither of which worked. I decided to see if I might get them running. I had no idea where to start so I turned to YouTube where I found many videos providing insight. Since all of these called for expertise I didn't have I decided to seek out face-to-face help. I went to a meeting of the NAWCC Chapter 21 meeting with my two clocks in hand. NAWCC stands for National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. 

At the meeting I met about a dozen mostly men but a few women who are interested in all aspects of repairing and collecting clocks and watches. There was a program and a sharing of news about upcoming events, etc. 

My two clocks created some interest and some comments and some contacts. Mike Korn, the president, offered to work with me on repairing my clocks. I met up with him at his shop two different times where he guided me repairing the simplest of my clocks. He had me disassemble and reassemble my clock numerous times at home after guiding me through the process. I actually got pretty good at it but it was not without challenges.

I took off the back plate and this is a view of the insides with each of the gears in place. This picture does not show the mainspring which I removed earlier. There is a pendulum also missing in this view.

At one point when in pieces I cleaned each gear, pendulum, main spring and front and back plates with a toothbrush and cleaning fluid.

After the cleaning I put things back together. There is only one way to put it together so it works. A few times it went together easily then there were a few times I really struggled. It is especially difficult to put the back plate back on since each of the pinions (points) of each gear have to fit in a specific and very tiny hole before the plate snaps into place.

The final day with Mike Korn involved rewinding the mainspring, inserting it and all the gears and pendulum in place then oiling and getting it ticking.

It took a few hours.

This is a picture of that clock ticking away in our living room.

This clock is next. Mike said it is three times more complicated than the other one. It gongs and has two mainsprings with one controlling the time tracking part and the other controlling the gongs.