Escapement

  In our last episode your local horologist solved the mystery of the dangling mainspring in the Sessions Ramona clock .  The broken click on the mainspring wheel was a mess and researching confirmed... it needed to be replaced.  Let's review what we had in hand. The click was damaged. Its spring was broken. The spring hook was fine. The ratchet wheel was fine.  Hard to note in the picture above but the tip of that click was bent and it rode very loosely on its pivot, making it highly vulnerable to slipping. Turns out there are replacement clicks to be found from clock suppliers like Timesavers but this collector of clock bits had a couple spare clicks on hand that came from a box of clock supplies sold at a local estate sale. But to put a new click on, the old one must come off. And that means removing the rivet it rides on. A consultation with Dr. Johnson of JohnsonArts  and it was removed as seen in our opening photo above. Once removed what remained was a ...

  In our last episode your local horologist had discovered, but had yet to reveal, the underlying problem with the Sessions Ramona mainspring. It took a beat but upon examining the movement this burgeoning metallurgist was proud of his relatively quick espying of the issue. It's right there in the photo above.  See it? You do?  Very good.  You must be quite a close reader of this blog (or a clockmaker yourself) because in previous posts YLH has talked about the same type of mechanism in other clocks that ended up broken in our Ramona. You don't see it? No?  Well let's briefly review. What does it mean to "wind" a clock?  It means using a key to wind up the mainspring which, under the tension of its coils, provides power to the clock. When you wind a clock with its key why doesn't it just snap back like any other spring when you stretch or push it? Because as you turn the key a few degrees the click mechanism locks the mainspring wheel in place preventing ...

The alternate title of this post is Adventures in Haggling . Your local horologist will avoid leaning into the issues of the moment but suffice to say that Facebxxx has many, serious flaws. However, as previously noted , it seems to be on the cusp of superseding Craigslist for horological finds and thus its use is mandatory for a serious clock hunter. In the limited attempts to enjoy prison time in the Bay Area, while perusing Facebxxx YLH spied a lovely Arts and Crafts clock.  Detailing the Arts and Crafts movement is way beyond the scope of this clock blog but that era produced dramatic and often gorgeous designs in art, buildings, furniture, clocks and much more. The impact on clock design was considerable and virtually every large manufacturer of clocks made dozens of different models for many decades. Your correspondent had never seen this model before. Its oak case enticed and so an inquiry was made.  Alphonse (name changed to protect the...) replied. Asking price was $1...

In our last episode your horological historian got a bit strung out (sorry) on banjos. It is a truism in the horological world that simply oiling an unknown movement (even if it looks superficially like it is in good shape) is really not sufficient. Only a full disassembly and inspection can reveal many types of problems.  The  Sessions York  appealed to your local horologist with a host of fine features however, unsurprisingly, there were a few issues needing remedy as well.  Discussed in an earlier episode was our bent escape wheel tooth . Our York had two other problems that were revealed after disassembly.  Firstly... well... look. Did this bend of the wheel occur during that same (possible) bump that affected the escape wheel tooth? Maybe. Fortunately this repair involves just gentle bending with flat-faced pliers (a clockmakers workhorse). The next issue was trickier. Virtually all American clocks were made with a strip-styled pallet in the escapement. Ba...