Grandfather Clock

[Vinny]

I kinda figured a heat gun would be involved, didn't think about the squeegee.

[Highpower]

(02-12-2019, 10:05 PM)Vinny Wrote: I recently (read: yesterday) acquired a Grandfather clock.  The cabinet is in pretty good shape for sitting around in the guy's garage for the last couple of years.  All the parts are in great shape and only needing some time with the brass polish.

Sitting for a couple of years? Definitely going to need a proper cleaning and oiling of the movement before running it. Having to replace dirty worn out bushings and pivots is no fun (for me at least).

[Vinny]

Yeah, and sitting in a garage no less. Just cleaning how? Ultrasonic bath is the common way, but I don't have one big enough to put the whole movement in and a clock shop wants WAYYYY to much to do it. I do have the oil coming, it should be here Saturday, had to order some, thought I had it.

[Highpower]

(02-14-2019, 12:01 PM)Vinny Wrote: Yeah, and sitting in a garage no less.  Just cleaning how?  Ultrasonic bath is the common way, but I don't have one big enough to put the whole movement in and a clock shop wants WAYYYY to much to do it.

Yeah, tell me about it. ($$$)

But then I found out WHY it costs so much. It's because the "right" way to do it is to disassemble the entire movement and clean, inspect, and burnish each part individually. And that takes a lot of time and work to accomplish. Putting the entire movement in an ultrasonic bath will clean the outer portion of the parts, but inside the bushings and around the pivots - not so much. That is where the most wear occurs due to dried out oil and dirt creating a black slurry that is very abrasive.

I tried cleaning my mom's cuckoo clock movement as a whole in my ultrasonic cleaner, but later discovered after completely disassembling the entire movement that the inside of the bushings were still filthy. That clock was never cleaned or oiled the entire time she owned it, and 75% of the pivots and bushings were worn/wallowed out and had to be replaced.

You can see the telltale black rings around the small holes in this side plate that is the abrasive goo that needs to be cleaned out, and then any wear between the parts addressed.

   

[TomG]

What Willie said.

And you also need to use an oil approved for use in clocks that won't gum up over time.

Tom

[Vinny]

I cleaned it the best I could, put as much as would fit in the ultrasonic at a time and kept putting other parts in. Then I put the entire thing in a tub of the cleaner and scrubbed and used a syringe to force the cleaner anywhere and everywhere I could.. Then rinsed it real good, blew it off with compressed air then into the oven it went (the oven I use for curing plastics). Did all that last nite, then today I got it out and made sure I didn't miss anything and put it back together and oiled it.

There are a couple of bushings that will have to be replaced but I'll give it a year or so and see how it does. Then either I'll replace the bushings or replace the whole movement.

Currently I have it assembled and working in a jig (so to speak). I leveled it and make the tick-tock adjustment. It seems to be keeping time. One thing that went wrong, I had one of the weights in a box sitting on a stool. It rolled and the whole box landed on the floor. Of all things to land on, it landed on the hook nut and broke it. I have a new set of 3 on the way, but I made a temporary one so I could make the chime adjustments. Also lost one of the hammer tips, took a couple of hours but I did find it and put it back in.

One of the chime bars were missing, I found it in the bottom of the cabinet.with a lot of dust and dirt on it. Turns out at one time it broke off, so I put the threaded part in the lathe, drilled it out and pressed it back in. The pitch is a little different, but it's for the hourly chime so it's not noticable.

Here's the clock in that jig.

[Vinny]

Forgot to add, the bottle of clock oil showed up today just in time to oil the clock. I also needed a key for the door so I got both from a clock shop.

[TomG]

Be very frugal with the clock oil, using only one drop in the sinks around each of the pivots. Excess oil will only attract dust.

Tom

[f350ca]

I cleaned mine a couple of years ago, used this as an excuse to buy an ultra sonic cleaner big enough to get the whole movement in. Mine uses cables to hang the weights, there is a plastic shield that wraps around the cable drum to prevent the cable from tangling. Somehow the one cable managed to get a wrap over another when in the cleaner I guess. Never noticed it, the clock ran for a couple of days then quit, found the bind, tried to straighten it out but managed to break the plastic shield, Now need to tear the movement totally apart to replace it with a metal one I guess.
At least they're big enough parts to see, can't imagine tearing down a watch.

[Highpower]

Plastic parts.... Bah! Humbug!