Seth comes to life

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We saw the backplate... now here's the front plate


It's pretty clean overall except for that ugly, soldered "Rathbun" (hey I study!) bushing on the upper left.



But it does appear to be doing it's job fine and there's a saying: if it ain't broke...

But this does bring up an interesting story I read on the NAWCC message board where a clockmaker  replied to a request for help and shared the following:

"I have in the past repaired many botched repairs of many clock "shade tree" mechanic's soldering. I also heard stories that back in the 1900s in the rural area there were traveling "shade tree" clock repair people equipped with a soldering iron, brass material, hand drill and dipping in kerosene. They would spend a few days in small towns repairing clocks for farmers."

Shady business?

Removing the plate:



Definitely more gizmos to learn about on this one


Disassembled


This clock also uses a fairly unusual escapement: the half-deadbeat




Need that mainspring winder again!

 

Worked great. Thanks again Hondo.

Cleaning was a fairly straightforward process.

Basic resetting of the parts not bad. Definitely cleaner.



But reassembly of the plates...


I needed Mandrake the Magician.

But I prevailed and got it all back together.

Lubricated it in all the right places.

Wound her up and...

It wouldn't stop striking.

Bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, spin, bong, bong, bong, spin, bong, bong...

Sheesh.

Turns out that leaf like lever in the earlier photo above (the "warning" lever) and this lever here (the "stop" lever)...



...need to be very precisely aligned when set back into the movement.

I'm shocked. I'm stupid.

I'm learning.

Quite a few steps (hours) later and she's running like a champ now.


Comments

  1. SaknussemJuly 23, 2019 at 2:33 PM

    Good work, Spondo - the hell of it is: once the thing is done, all the fun is gone! And that is the reason we stay on the train for the next station....

    ReplyDelete

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