Community Stories

My wife asked me how my day has gone.

Canuck
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Well, it’s a long story. Our 110 year old sandstone City Hall has just undergone a 34 million dollar upgrade. As part of the job, our 110 year old Seth Thomas 16A tower clock was sent to a U S based restorer for a bunch of work. The clock was shipped back in pieces, and it was re-assembled by novices (NOT including me!) Two months has elapsed since re-assembly, and they haven’t been able to make it run. I looked after this clock from 1992 until 2010. I wasn’t about to call and offer my services because I have NO use for City bureaucracy! My plan was to wait until they called ME! They called me out of desperation, on Tuesday of this week.

City Hall here says they believe very much in cutting red tape! As long as you cut it lengthwise!

A lot has happened to this clock since I last worked on it, ten years ago. Today was our third day of diagnosing why it behaves the way it does. Lousy cell phone photo, but I forgot my camera.
 
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janice&fred
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Did they send it to Connecticut? I know there is that huge clock museum and workshop here in that clock factory town. I also wouldn't be surprised that they screwed it all up.
 
DaveK
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This is hysterical “City Hall here says they believe very muchin cutting red tape! As long as you cut it lengthwise!” 😀

Good luck with the rest of this project 👍
 
Canuck
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janice&fred janice&fred
Did they send it to Connecticut? I know there is that huge clock museum and workshop here in that clock factory town. I also wouldn't be surprised that they screwed it all up.

It wasn’t done by anyone in Connecticut. Cosmetically, they have done a splendid job. The restorer sent videos of it running, so it appears he tested it. The situation here is that it has run for up to a WEEK, then quits! An ideal scenario would have been that I would have preferred to be involved in re-assembly since the day it arrived back in pieces. But I chose to let them come to the conclusion that they needed my help, rather than for me to OFFER to help them. I know this clock like the back of my hand. But for reasons I have yet to discover, it is fighting me. Like with many time pieces of the vintage of this one, there is not just ONE reason they can be troublesome. Especially considering what has happened with it in the last year. It’s a process of elimination.
 
Canuck
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This is a picture of the clock taken at 9:15 on Thursday night at which time it was running. It quit at 12:25 A M on Friday! When it quit, it had run for 11 hours and 40 minutes. It’s not a question of IF, it’s a question of WHEN!
 
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janice&fred
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Canuck Canuck
An ideal scenario would have been that I would have preferred to be involved in re-assembly since the day it arrived back in pieces.

Yep seems they should have reached out to you before they attempted to reassemble it. Now you have to retrace everything done before you got your hands on it.
 
Canuck
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janice&fred janice&fred
Yep seems they should have reached out to you before they attempted to reassemble it. Now you have to retrace everything done before you got your hands on it.

Exactly! I have already corrected several things that were done incorrectly. But I am keeping track of the hours spent. This building was officially re-opened about two weeks ago. This clock is important to the locals. City Hall is barraged with phone calls about the clock not running! And I’m laughing all the way to the bank! 😁 ::psy::
 
arturo7
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Old clocks are cool as hell.

Please keep us posted on the progress.
 
roman9662
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Well I think the best thing to do is completely disassemble the clock and then reassemble it correctly to avoid patching one problem and getting two more for your effort. Of course this would be at their cost. 😀
 
janice&fred
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Hey as long as you don't have to go out on that ledge to mess with the hands it's all good! They couldn't pay me enough to stand out there!
 
Canuck
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janice&fred janice&fred
Hey as long as you don't have to go out on that ledge to mess with the hands it's all good! They couldn't pay me enough to stand out there!

What you do when accessing the hands is to call a crane service. They put you in a bucket and hook you in with safety belts, and up you go. I did that 25 years ago when we replaced the hands. No other way to access them.
 
JimInOz
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I'm sure you'll figure it out Doug.

Can you explain the function of these paddle wheels (govenor)?

calgary-old-city-hall-clock.jpg
 
pdxleaf
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Canuck Canuck
..The restorer sent videos of it running, so it appears he tested it. The situation here is that it has run for up to a WEEK, then quits! ...

Those old tower clock automatics never did catch on...


(Come on, I couldn't have been the only one.)
 
Canuck
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@JimInOz . The rate at which chime or striking clocks “bong” is governed by those paddles. By turning the paddles full broadside, the striking can be made to slow down. Turn them 90° so they are not broadside to the air, and the clock would “bong” unreasonably fast. This clock uses a double three -legged Gravity escapement (as on the one in the Parliament Buildings at Westminster, erroneously called “Big Ben”) Which requires the use of a second, smaller fan as shown in the pictures you uploaded. Thanks for putting that article up. That's the very clock.
 
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