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tips & faqs

Judging from the problems I've seen over the years, what sometimes seems pretty obvious to me as an enthusiastic hobbyist repairing clock movements, is evidently not always so obvious to others. So here, I list some simple tips for owners of faulty antique clocks.

Bear in mind that these tips could save you a lot in repair costs, so don't be surprised if your local retailer does not approve of what I say. Many of them are good salesmen but don't understand the science of clocks; they simply contract repairs out to specialists so they may see these tips as depriving them of their margins.

 

  1. How frequently should my clock be oiled or serviced is like asking "How long is a piece of string?" - there's no single definitive answer. Amongst other things, it depends on the type of clock, the environment in which it works, the quality of the oil used, the age and condition when acquired, and the standard of previous repair work. Some repairers will say every three years but this reminds be of the Profumo court case in 1963 and Mandy Rice-Davies' famous testimony "Well, he would (say that), wouldn't he". I'd say a clock needs servicing as soon as it starts playing up, or every ten years, whichever comes first, and that it needs oiling at least once every five years. In ten years, a grandfather clock will tick over 300 million times, a typical dial clock over 750 million times and a carriage clock even more than that! So they don't have as easy a life as you might think.
  2. I am often asked "Can I oil my own clock?" Of course, but clock oil is special; even different parts of the same clock require different oils. So if your clock is struggling to run, never be tempted to use ordinary 3-in-one oil - it's much too thick (viscous) and you'll just make matters worse - the additional drag of thick 3-in-one oil will stop almost any clock, so a clock that was already giving trouble is bound to stop. I once received a movement literally dripping oil - it looked like it had been plunged in a bath of Duckhams. I kid you not. Sewing machine oil is thinner but if you must, use it sparingly on the tip of a needle and only on the pivots, but never on the wheels or pinions - they don't need oil. That said, the tiniest touch of oil on the pallets will help lubricate the tips of the escape wheel but better to have it properly cleaned first and then oiled by an horologist. And finally, avoid WD40 like the plague! Ask any horologist about the number of clocks he sees drenched in WD40. It contains chemicals that don't mix well with brass and it will do more harm than no oil at all. See my March 2011 blog for a story about this.
  3. If your clock makes a loud unexpected sound and stops, and you then find that there is no resistence when you try to wind it up, the mainspring has either broken or come off the winding arbor. If it's housed in a barrel then no harm is likely to have been caused but replacing a mainspring is not something for the amateur to attempt. Apart from usually having to dismantle the movement completely, you'll need to open the barrel, remove the broken spring, measure it to ensure you get a replacement of the correct strength and then de-grease it, re-grease it and worst of all, fit it. One slip and the spring could slash your hands so please don't attempt it. Call me (or go and see an horologist local to you) for a repair quote. If it's broken at one end, it can sometimes be repaired but many springs usually cost less than £20 (although fitting will cost twice that and more, unless it's a German movement). And while it's stripped it would be a good time to consider a full service if the movement has not been overhauled within the past five years.
  4. When you need to reset the hands on your clock (perhaps on return from holiday for example, or to change from BST to GMT in the autumn in particular), never never force the minute hand backwards. First make sure the clock is wound up and then gently turn it forwards. If it is a striker, pause just after each hour and half hour (and quarter too if it's a quarter-striker) to allow the clock to complete its strike sequence, or you could put the strike out of synchronisation. Safer still, allow the clock to stop by restricting the pendulum swing, and then leave it (for up to eleven hours) until real time catches it up.
  5. If your clock has stopped just before 12 o'clock and you feel some resistance when you try moving the minute hand forward to correct it, the strike mainspring may have run down and lost power before completing its strike sequence, locking the movement. Very gently, try turning the minute hand back two or three minutes and then wind the strike side (usually the one on the left but wind all the winders if you don't know which is which) to allow the strike to complete its sequence. You should find that the minute hand is now free to turn forwards again to allow you to set the correct time.
  6. If you found this page too late or just ignored my two previous tips and did not wind it first, and your clock's strike is now out of synchronisation, have a look at my SETUP page (see the link at the top of this page) for how to correct it. Remember, on many clocks the hour hand is held in place just by friction - in other words it can be slipped round it's arbor to point to a different number on the dial. It's usually much easier to count the number of strikes and then position the hour hand to the corresponding number on the dial that it is to match the number of strikes to the number that the hour hand is pointing to. Indeed, on a rack striking clock, this is pretty much the only way to do it.
  7. If ever you decide to move your clock from one room to another, or even to another place within the same room, make sure you tape up the lines, and then detach the weights and the pendulum (or at least support it to stop it swinging around) while you lift the clock. If you don't, you risk damaging something - not least any glass in the clock sides. And even if you do manage to avoid breaking anything, you're very likely to cause it to shift out of beat, which means it won't run for long in its new position.
  8. If you recently relocated your pendulum-clock to another position and now find that it will only run for a few minutes, gently swing the pendulum and listen carfully to it. It might be out of beat. You want an even and consistent beat (.... tick .... tick .... tick .... tick .... tick .... tick). All the ticks must be evenly spaced. If instead, you hear an uneven offbeat: tick ........ tick .. tick ........ tick .. tick ........ tick .. tick ........ tick, then it's "out of beat". The common cure used to be to start feeding pennies under one side of the base until the tick was more even. But if I repaired your clock, it will be properly set up for a level surface so you just need to think of somewhere else to locate it where the surface is level. If you missed my advice above (to remove or adequately support the pendulum during the move), it can be more tricky because the weight of the pendulum may have moved the crutch on the escapement arbor. The cure depends on the type of clock you have so go to my SETUP page for how to correct it (see the link at the top of this page) or give me a call and I'll talk you through it.
  9. Another problem that might cause a longcase clock (or any other weight-driven movement) to stop after you've repositioned say after decorating the room is that the lines are twisted on their winding barrels. This is very likely to happen with gut lines once you lift the weights off the pulleys if you did not tape them in position first. If the lines have become entangled, you'll need to check first that they are still completely on the barrels and not twisted round the winding arbors. Either way, remove each weight one by one, and disentangle the line before fitting the weight again. Then carefully wind them all up again.
  10. If your longcase ("Grandfather") clock stops for no apparent reason (especially halfway through its run, which is usually the fourth day for an 8-day movement), first check that the hands are not coming into contact with each other or anything else as they turn. Then open the door and check that the weight/s and pendulum are not fouling each other or the inside of the case as they travel downwards. If tilted backwards, the pendulum has a tendency to rub the back of the case and this will also cause it to stop. You may well see inverted arched rub marks on the backboard where this has happened in the past. Also, if you have wooden floorboards or the clock is standing on a carpet, look more closely and you might find that the whole clock gently sways a millimetre or two from side to side in time with the pendulum. Or just open the door and check if the weights are moving around. It's a phenomenon called 'sympathetic vibration' which also caused London's Milennium Footbridge to sway when people first crossed it (and which the Romans overcame 2,000 years earlier by marching troops out of step when crossing bridges). If your clock does move, even slightly, wedge it underneath the base or better still, anchor it to the wall to steady it. If you open the door and look inside, you'll probably find several holes in the backboard where it has been screwed to a wall before. Ideally, re-use one of those to avoid causing unnecessary damage - choose the one highest up inside the case that you can reach with a screwdriver when the door is open. First, screw a wooden batten on the wall in line with the hole and then screw the clock to the batten using a penny washer inside the case to prevent the screw head tearing through the old backboard. Don't bother with a spirit level for accuracy - there are few parts of a 250 year old longcase clock that are still square and level. Just step back and look at it from the other side of the room while someone adjusts it until it 'looks' right to you. The end result my leave the clock out of beat so check my SETUP page for the cure.
  11. If your clock is weight-driven and it stops chiming on ther quarters after you've moved it from one room to another, it might be that you have not fitted the correct weight to each train. Get some scales and weight the weights. The heaviest one should go on the right to run the chiming train. The other two will probably be about the same weight but if one should be heavier that the other, hang it on the left train which powers the striking train. The lightest one goes in the middle to drive the going train.
  12. If your 400 day clock stops, first check when you last wound it. Because it does not need a weekly wind, it's easy to forget that it will eventually run down. If a full wind does not help, don't be tempted to spin the ball pendulum in anger or you'll wreck the suspension wire that supports it. The pendulum only rotates about 270/300 degrees in normal conditions so you could easily damage the movement, too, by over-spinning it. And the suspension should hang straight and flat, not like some kinked and barley-twist ones that I've seen.
  13. Like carriage clocks, 400-day clocks are delicate instruments and most of the movement is visible so it's tempting to fiddle with it if it stops. Don't. One of the biggest errors made with 400-day clocks is incorrect repositioning the pallets, which are often adjustable and even reversible. Correct setting takes more time and effort than anything else so if a rewind does not cure your 400-day clock, and you've done nothing to it to cause it to stop, it probably just needs cleaning.

If your local dealer doesn't want to know, and many don't (or deter you by quoting too much), email me with details and I'll try to advise the best approach. If I am familiar with the problem, I'll probably be able to tell you what it will cost to get it running again. If I don't recognise the problem, and you can explain it in more detail with close up photographs, email me as I'm always interested in a new challenge; with your permission, I might even add it to this page afterwards or start a separate blog perhaps.