The Woodpecker - Fixing our clock mechanism
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Renée has a nice old mechanical clock in her office. Maybe you remember that I've made a new case for it some time ago. But now, the mechanism doesn't work anymore.
In this video you will be able to see how I fixed it. Maybe this will help you, if you have a clock that doesn't work anymore.
If you like what I do, you can support me on Patreon / thewoodpecker Thank you.
Alain Vaillancourt 2020
Music:
Whiskey on the Mississippi - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons...
I brought in two clocks that my dad made to be professionally cleaned. Cost about $150 apiece, and that was nearly 20 years ago! Glad you were able to figure it out.
Nice job on the Clock case Alain.. I have used brake cleaner on my grandfather clock also. You can also use electronic contact spray cleaner and a Q tip The brake cleaner works to dissolve the grease but the contact cleaner won't tarnish the brass movement. Use a toothpick to pick out all the greasy dirty oil first.. then clean with contact cleaner then once clean then oil. Not too much.. Don't use a lot of oil, it will run down the clock plates and draw the oil out of the pivots. They sell special clock oiling pins, but you don't need them.. Put clock oil in a clean teaspoon and use a jewellers screwdriver..the tiniest one you have and dip it in the oil.. then touch the little screwdriver to the pivot oil sync and it will suck it right in. I think you know that the best thing is to have it taken apart and cleaned but it is expensive. I just had a clock movement done and it was $220.00 but it will last another 100 years. Check out some of the clocks on my channel if you like.. I live in Ottawa and grew up in Montreal.. Salut.
Thank you,
I thought of using contact pray, I have some at home. I didn't obviously, but one thing I didn't know, was the fact that contact cleaner won't damage the lacquer.
If this wouldn't had worked I would had took it apart, but it would had been my last resort. Checking around I realized that getting it cleaned from a real watchmaker would be more expensive that this China made clock mechanism. But still I had it and it was worth the effort to try something.
You seem to have quite a collection of old clock, this is great, I only have this one.
I'm glad I don't have to go to Montreal every days now, Working at CBC downtown was a 50Km trip from my house to the building and another 50Km to come back home. 7 days a weeks. Yes Renée also worked at CBC and our days off were almost never on the same days...
I’m glad it surprised you and started working after only a couple parts removed so you didn’t have to go deeper!!
I was lucky and super happy :)))
I’ve seen same movement that are made in 1993 and later. They switched the plate from brass to aluminum and it’s even worse! One of worst movements I ever worked on!
I'm not surprised. This is far from being an antique mechanism. It's a bit why I tried myself to fix it, Even I coud see, it was not the greatest. But after cleaning it the way I did. it's working #1 again
I've used WD-40 to clean LOTS of things people tell you not to use it on, and have never had any issues. It's not a good long-term lubricant for a lot of things, but as long as you clean off the excess and follow up with the proper lubricant it does well.
I was a clock repairman for five years and used to charge $40 additional per clock if it had WD-40 or brake cleaner residue on the movement. It meant that the laquer on the brass plates was now partially dissolved and that it would ruin the expensive ($40 a gallon) cleaning solution I used in my ultrasonic cleaner. You can do whatever you like because it’s your clock, but when the day comes to take it to a professional you may have increased the cost of repair. Also, none of this actually “fixed” the clock, any more than rinsing off your engine replaces the spark plugs.
Thank you for the tip. I will never send this mechanism to a professional, it's not that valuable. It would be like my old camera that I paid for a quote and the repair was double what I paid for the camera and less then a new one. But you might be on to something, maybe you can give me advice, I'm having the hardest time to set the pendulum to the right time, Can you give me some pointers? Thank you
Alain Vaillancourt Understood. Yes, your pendulum swing indicates that the clock movement is not healthy. The issue is likely that there is wear between the bearing surfaces in the brass plates and the steel pinions (think axel). The proper way to deal with this is to disassemble the movement and polish the pinons and drill-out and add bushings to any of the bearing services that have wear. The clock would then be good as new if not better than new. Good luck! Scott
Alain Vaillancourt Another option might be to replace the movement altogether.
Thank you very much. If I end up not being able to set it to keep the time. which I think it's what will happen, I'll probably, like you said try to change the movement all together.... Last year at a flee market we go to several time in the summer we saw a man selling clock mechanism, I think if he's there agai this summer we'll talk to him about purchasing another mechanism that will fit inside my box.
Alain Vaillancourt If you plan is to sell it I would just leave it as is. The next owner will appreciate that it is in working order, though it may need some TLC, and that way it will also be kept original.
Thanks for the tip. I have 2 wall clocks and after WD-40 on the pivot points it works after several attempts. I'll use brake cleaner next time.
But be aware that brake cleaner will peel off the lacquer on the brass.
I didn't care for the lacquer, because now our clock work fine since I did that
Good tip,about the brake cleaner!
Your videos so relaxing for me!! Great fixing proces!! Gz
I’m always supper existed for any job Alain dose.
Thank you!
+1 for Scooby Doo wallpaper! ;-)
Not bad :) so if our 30 year old daughter want to come back home, for the fourth time, she still will have her scooby-doo wallpaper :)))
@@LgosseuxDbois-TheWoodpecker yeah, we keep stuff for our kids also...
What to do if clocks runs faster? Which screw need to be fit?
the screw on the bottom of the pendulum has to be unscrew.
just turn it a bit and write down the amont of turn you did. this will become handy if you go too far.... I was unable to fix the pendulum speed, up until Renée took care of that, she wrote down how much turn she gave and now it's perfect. This may take several days...
@@LgosseuxDbois-TheWoodpecker thank you so much for your kind guidance.
I have a similar clock from my grandmother. It has the same issue. I followed your instructions; I removed the pendulum pivot and it started running but once I fix the pivot back, it stops immediately. How did you readjust the pendulum pivot to make it work?
Did you cleaned it? I know "real" clock repair person uses a special solution to remove the dirt and grease. Like you saw I've used break cleaner, I've got a lot of comments saying this removes the lacquer on the brass and this also make the special solution un-usable if it's used after a clock was cleaned with brake cleaner. I didn't care and did it like that. But I guess I was lucky it started running super fine after this, but it took us over a month to adjust the pendulum afterwards. This had changed the timing of the clock, but now it's keeping the time pretty well.
I wish I could help you more sorry...
Good luck
Is these vintage mechanisms clocks are accurate timing ?
After tuning it and cleaning it, it's quite accurate for a mechanical movement. About a minute of drift in two weeks
@@LgosseuxDbois-TheWoodpecker I have this old carriage clock and it is perfect working condition but the problem is why it is not accurate timing and I regulate the clock several times lower the speed but still its running 10 minutes in advance in each day.
It took us several weeks to manage to set the adjustment on the pendulum to the right position after I've cleaned it.
To be honest I couldn't, my wife managed to set it to the right position, by keeping a log book of how much the time was off and how much she turn the knob and in which direction. After several weeks she got it and we only set the clock when it's not at the right time or after two weeks at the cottage.
Hello, is there a code 1966-11 on the back of the mechanic. What does it mean the code?
I have no clue? I didn't notice
Cool
Thanks for the video. I will buy break cleaner and synthetic oil.
It worked for me. But be aware, I had several comments from watchmakers that said that if they get a clock to clean that was cleaned with break cleaner, like I did, would charge more to clean the clock, On top of removing the laquer on the brass.
I didn't care about all of this, my clock was not a real antique only 40 years or so made in China, but be a ware of that if yours is a real antique and you care about it.
But it worked for us, it's still keeping time and we're very happy
Super
How much and where to buy
What do you mean? Where to buy brake cleaner? I bought it where they sell car repair stuff
😍😍😍
Alain you would do anything to fixes Renee's clock, would watch a repair video, would clean the clock works and would disassemble it even. You started this episode by saying there's no wood but I disagree you used a lot of would just not the kind from trees.
💯👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏❤️
Looks like You over wound it..
I'm not sure, but it's why I didn't took any chances and unwound it but still it was not working up until I removed the pendulum rocker....
Please see my UA-cam video (technical master nadim ji)
From your video, it looks as if the clock was overwound and needed cleaning as well.
I often get notification of a video in your own language and I then know that the video will be coming soon in my language, but this did not happen with the last one, I checked and made sure that the bell was set to all, and then went back to your page and found one that had only been done in your language (ua-cam.com/video/T-OP-IwS8fM/v-deo.html) and two that I had not seen even though they were on your page. I have watched them now but I don't know why they didn't come up in my feed as normal?.
YT sometime ..... But I'm glad you were able to sort everything in the end.
Yes it was all gunky, I'm pretty happy of the result, now I need to find the new exact adjustment of the pendulum, and after 3 weeks I haven't find it yet... I have a sheet of paper and a pencil just beside the clock and write the date, exact time, the clock time and the amount of turn I made on the adjustment, now I'm going clockwise, hopefully I will arrive to the right time soon.
@@LgosseuxDbois-TheWoodpecker I made two points about the clock, the first was that it had been overwound and by taking the pendulum off it let the tension be released from the clock spring. You were lucky it did not break and cause damage. You need to keep a record of the number of turns of the key and do not wind it up too tight.
OK it's what I do, lucky for me I'm not too impatient :) And we never over wind it. it's in pretty good shape for a 48 year old mechanism, I just have a hard time finding the sweet spot of the pendulum adjustment, thank you