Well there were a couple parts I didn't completely disassemble, yet.
The two mainsprings were still attached to their wheels and held with clamps. The springs still need to be removed from the wheels and doing so requires a terrific tool.
A mainspring winder.
And I have a fine example, custom built by craftsman extraordinaire, Scott Johnson.
The principle function of a mainspring winder is to safely control the installation or removal of mainsprings on and off their respective wheels.
A mainspring is hooked to the wheel arbor and the spring must be fully unwound to release it.
Winder made by JohnsonArts is beautifully crafted. More industrial versions look like this.
Here's one of the mainspring wheels taken off the clock with the spring wound and held by my clamp, peeking out under my index finger.
And here it is inserted in the winder which holds the spring end tightly in place while you wind or unwind the spring itself.
The winder is clamped to my bench. The pressures from a spring winding/unwinding are considerable.
Since we are removing the spring from its arbor and it is held in the clamp, we wind the spring a bit tighter, removing the pressure from the clamp.
Then the clamp is slid off of the tightened spring and then the spring is carefully unwound fully.
The winder is designed to be reversible as the two springs (one time train, the other strike train) are wound in opposite directions around their respective arbors.
Flipping the winder around I did the other spring.
The wheel of our mainspring has a very important feature not found on the other wheels.
A click.
What's a click?
Let me explain.
Clocks are wound by inserting a key over their winding arbors and turning.
Here are the two winding holes on our Adamantine with the winding arbor ends peeping out.
Now imagine we're turning the key, twisting it clockwise. There's pressure from the spring as it is tightening. The key wants to turn back in your hand but it doesn't.
It clicks and holds in place as you continue to turn it.
Click, click, click.
Now let's examine our wheel.
Looking below, there's the squared mainspring winding arbor pointing upwards. We insert the key around that arbor when we wind the clock.
Riveted to the wheel is the click. It has a point that matches the angle of the gap between the click wheel teeth. The click can rotate on that pivot but it is pressed downwards against the click wheel by the click spring.
As that arbor turns clockwise, with it turns the click wheel and that brass click wheel rides up a tooth of the click wheel and then is pressed into the gap of the next tooth.
By pressing the click downward into the gap, the click spring effectively locks the click wheel preventing it from spinning backwards.
Click.
Continue turning the key and the click rides up the next tooth and then snaps down into the gap.
That is the action that creates the click, click, click when you wind a clock.
And here's a video of the cleaned wheel demonstrating the click action.
One part of the horology hobby so enjoyed by your clock fool is the investigation of a newly found object. Who made it? How old is it? Who owned it? How to fix it? The lovely tall case this orphan adopter reported finding the other week ... is now referred to as the Smith clock and it has turned out to be a detectives delight and challenge. The kind reader may recall that the seller, Christine, had no info on it. Not a great start. Your local horologist knows a few of the backroads of internet searching and has at his disposal the incomparable resources of the NAWCC . Zo! Searching for "Smith", "tall case", "Newburg", "long case", "grandfather clock" and variations therein provided very few useful results. Newburg NY... I don't think so. Poring over the message boards of the NAWCC and tapping into their online library, which is extensive, produced very limited results other than narrowing down to the belief that this clock is Englis...
The clock was running slow. Very slow. A careful review of the escapement revealed that the pallets were not aligned correctly to the escapement wheel. Thankfully the Schatz 49 has an "eccentric" bushing that can be adjusted for just such a situation. The "lock" is when a tooth from a wheel (brass) hits the pallet (steel). As the wheel spins clockwise the tooth should his the left side of the pallet and overlap a mm or 2. when the tooth and the pallet are touching they are engaged. They alternate left and right. The "drop" is the gap between an unengaged tooth and a pallet. The drop and the the lock should be about equal for both left and right pallets. BEFORE adjusting the eccentric bushing/screw counterclockwise - Entrance (left side) lock is very shallow, hitting the impulse face (with recoil), Bad. - Exit (right side) drop large. Too wide a gap between tooth and pallet. - Entrance drop narrow. Almost touches the tooth. Bad. - Ex...
In our last episode your local horologist was contemplating Newton and how his famous force enabled was presently unsuccessful in the proper operation of the so called Gravity clock. As a brief reminder our round friend rides a metal rack and when raised to the top and released it should slowly descend along the rack over the course of a day. See the prior post for details. Except our chonky ticker wouldn't. It mostly fell (well if allowed to). This burgeoning clockmaker had a sneaking suspicion of what lay underneath the dial and the nature of the problem. No time like the present! The dial is retained with two screws (crude design says this clock snob) and when lifted up and away must be carefully snaked along the hole from which protrudes the pendulum (as there is no way to remove the pendulum first) for proper extrication. A confession. That's actually not a pendulum in the strictest sense because it cannot swing independently from the movement. It's a...
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment