Escapement

As noted in earlier episodes, your (ever learning) local horologist will often effect repairs even in the early phases of the examination of a clock. Pleasingly more of these have become regular parts of basic maintenance.   Amongst the many efforts made by this lover of brass in the early phases of examination of Charlene's Ingraham regulator clock was the quick identification and gentle straightening of an errant escape wheel tooth, hopefully preventing  the problems that can result .  Subtle, yes, but that tooth is bent forward which can upset the beat of the clock. The awake... woke... er... reader might recall a similar issue with the Sessions York banjo clock .  While the condition was visually subtle YLH did spy that bent tooth right after disassembly of the movement and while evaluating each wheel.  YLH really enjoys no longer being a clock freshman.  However, the errant tooth was not the source of the double tick / noise that was vexing this hor...

The pendulum regulates the speed of a clock and without that pendulum a wound clock movement can run mighty fast. In our last episode  your local horologist was wrestling with making fine adjustments to the pendulum of  Charlene's Ingraham Regulator clock . That effort was not about the speed of the movement rather the noisy nature of the pendulum swing.  However, as we saw in the last video of that episode , the pendulum adjustments did not address all of the noise emanating from... somewhere. Probably the escapement. Why there you ask? Because this clock doc addressed the other likely sources of trouble. First was the wiggling pendulum bob as explained last time. Second YLH examined the gap in the crutch loop. Que? It has to do with the pendulum.  Technically the pendulum is more than the shaft and the bob. It also consists of the pendulum rod and the suspension spring right up to the top where that spring (ribbon of steel) slips through and hangs from a brass ro...

Behold an animated gif made by your local tech geek horologist of the escapement in  Charlene's Ingraham Regulator . And, as discussed in our last episode, something was amiss with the ticking of this clock. When visiting Charlene at her home YLH noticed that the clock, as it ticked, was making a few extra noises. Instead of the simple tick-tock, it sounded like it was clanging, with lots of extra clicks in each swing of the pendulum. Regular readers [crickets] will know that this horology student is... no longer a freshman.  Somewhere between a sophomore and a junior clockmaker would not be an unfair assessment. Knowing where all the classrooms are, which bathrooms are trouble, the hallways that ok to traverse and those to avoid...  Ahem. That ticking didn't sound right to this clock doc. Take a listen / look at the video below. Turn up the volume and loop the video if you can (right click on it and hopefully there's a loop option). What you will hear / see is the ...