Well, I never……..

[Canuck]

Spacefruit

Or an elk hide?

Now what on earth might I need an elk hide for? Or moose or caribou, even? No thanks. I’m charging the clock owner a fraction of what she was prepared to spend to get her clock fixed. The $500.00 I’m charging her will come in a lot handier.

 

[steversaurus]

Canuck

....Turns out he has only ever dealt with battery clocks!

I got a chuckle out of this. Yea, I can fix clocks. What? There's no battery? Huh... Well I'm stumped.

 

[Canuck]

All done. We had our Face Time session today, starting at 3:00 pm. He had help since someone had to lend a hand, and someone else had to control the camera. The process took about 2 1/2 hours, for a job I coulda done alone, qin less than an hour. But it all worked out well, and they have their clock operating nicely, for Christmas. She was prepared to spend whatever it took to have the job done. But any procedure other than the Face Time option would have cost her at least double, and they would have been without their clock’s chimes over the festive season. The operative who they used to actually do the job mentioned he might take a course in clock repair, and he suggested he might rely on me as a resource person. I hope that doesn’t happen!

 

[Canuck]

If you have followed this thread at all, you’ll recall how I helped a family in Whitehorse, Yukon, fix their clock. Well, it happened again! Same scenario, different location.

I got a call several days ago from a fellow about 150 miles from here who had moved his grandfather clock, and it wouldn’t run after he set it up, again. We had made an arrangement that sometime between Christmas and the New Year, that I would go down and sort it out for him. My rates on a call like that are $50.00 per hour driving time for the return trip, plus 55 cents per km, plus a minimum charge of $150.00 per hour, plus $37.50 per quarter hour if I am there for more than an hour. So, he could have been looking at close to $600.00 for me to drive to his place.

I got thinking about the success I’d had with the Whitehorse clock. I phoned him this morning, and suggested Face Time. I had a few questions about the operation of his clock before diagnosing his problem began. In short, after he’d move the clock with the pendulum OFF, he had hung it incorrectly. It took about an hour over Face Time to sort things out, but his clock now runs. He has just sent me an e-transfer for the amount of the repair. $52.50.

 

[paddymoran]

That’s a really positive outcome for all parties - including the environment. Hopefully, word of mouth will provide more opportunities.

 

[JimInOz]

Canuck

Since your problem is intermittent, any adjustments that might be necessary likely will be simple, not involving exploding mainsprings if the plates had to be spread. If the clock was on my bench, the adjustment might involve a minute or less.

I finally got around to trouble-shooting the Ansonia movement. I put the movement on my clock stand and set it up on my garage bench.
A bit of tweaking to get it into beat and I was ready to check things out.



Manually tripping the strike train over "24 hours" didn't result in any problems at all, so it was a matter of checking the movement a minute or so before the hour and half hour.

After a day and a half or so I noticed a count wheel tooth catching on the back face of the count lever and I figured this was causing binding until the next strike, which would be one notch out. I moved the count lever up and held the butterfly with a pin and then used a wire bender to bend the tip of the count lever forward until it fell into the centre of the count wheel notch.



I also checked all of the other wheels and stops (as best I could with the movement. assembled) to make sure they were all aligned correctly and weren't worn. After a few days on the test stand there were no more problems. So now the movement is out and ready to go back in the case.



One thing I found when removing and replacing the hands, was how bloody small the minute hand nut is! I had to make a tool from a hex head C/S screw as I didn't have a spanner small enough. It probably works better than an open ender anyway. If that little bugger falls of when your putting the minute hand on it's magnetic sweeper time.

 

[JimInOz]

Forgot to add a pic of the completed article.



Hopefully I won't be lifting it around much more. A solid cast iron body, the only wood is the sounding board on the base for the gong.

Nine kilos (nearly 20 lb) without the back cover (also cast iron). Phew!

 

[Canuck]

I knew you’d figure it out! Bear in mind that the makers of these Connecticut clocks never thought they’d be around in one hundred years. They were cheaply made with loose tolerances. Compared to the best clocks from U S, French, and German makers, they were primitive, but cheap! I continue to be surprised that people still want them repaired. Troubleshooting can be a challenge.

 

[Canuck]

My wife has her late grandmother’s Antonia Boston Extra mantel clock which is from circa 1890. It shares many characteristics of @JimInOz ‘s clock. Cast iron case, very similar movement. Heavy! She has had it for about 40 years, and over that time I have serviced it three times, and replaced the mainsprings. See picture.

 

[Pastorbottle]

Shitloads of Antonia clocks have been going through a local auction house lately. I suspect that they’re from the estate of some collector, probably to many to dump on the market at once for risk of flooding it.
I’ve never paid them much attention, other than to notice that there seems to be 3 or 4 every weekly sale.

 

[Canuck]

This idea of using Face Time when dealing with problems with clocks from remote locations is becoming a regular occurrence with me.

A friend who is a clock collector, and managing director of the Revelstoke (British Columbia) Railroad Museum, collects Seth Thomas railroad standard wall clocks. He has three spring driven Seth Thomas World (15-day) clocks, a Seth Thomas # 17 weight driven regulator, and several other miscellaneous clocks. The four Seth Thomas clocks are all ex-CPR. I have serviced all of these clocks over the years.

He has been gradually re-locating from his house in Calgary to Revelstoke, the recent move including a Seth Thomas World that I last serviced in 2005. 19 years ago. When he set it up at his home in Revelstoke, it wouldn’t run. He phoned me. I had some questions, and asked him to take some pictures from within the cabinet, to determine if I could see anything. Nothing conclusive, as it happens.

So, we had a Face Time session this morning (Sunday), and I tutored him as to removing hands, and dial, and to remove the movement from the case. Nothing major stood out, as it happens. However, we two came to the conclusion that, after 19-years, it was overdue to be gone through, again. It proved to be very sluggish when out of the case. I’ll strip it, clean it, lubricate it etc.

Shipping the movement by itself is a whole lot different process than having to ship the whole clock. I’ll service the movement in due time, and ship it back. When the time comes, we’ll establish the Face Time connection again, and he now has the confidence to put it all back together.