Anyone a Clock Aficionado Here?

[SCadaddle]

Originally Posted by gregpark

I bought this damaged box and non working clock at a garage sale for 5 bucks. It didn't look like this. I transferred the clock works from a plain Jane oldie I had, replaced missing inlayed pieces, replaced old velvet background with burl veneer, added finials, re-stained, re-laquered and added a crow

I see your stuffed crow and raise you a live Jaybird.

[stevej37]

[RNajarian]

I did a little research in my clock. It is worth $200 used. I’m going to see if any simple fix on my end may get it up and running .

Thanks

[SCadaddle]

This clock was given to my Grandparents as a wedding gift in about 1905 or so. It's a common kitchen clock of it's time (pun intended). It sat on a shelf in my parents home for nearly 50 years until I took it upon myself to get it running. The dial is incorrect and was created by my brother probably sometime in the 50's.

My Dad told me that his Dad's routine yearly cleaning of the clock was to soak the movement in water and lye soap on the wood burning stove. He would then very lightly oil it using a chicken feather. I decided to carry on the tradition of cleaning the clock, and soaked the movement in a pan of hot water and a little bit of Dawn dish soap. I then shook it dry and oiled things with a Radio Shack tape deck needle point oiler. Good luck finding one of those today! I managed to get the clock and chimes working and had it adjusted to about a minute in 24 hours. Close enough for me.

Funny thing, as apparently this was a very common kitchen clock from the day, and very frequently seen atop the fireplace mantel at just about every Cracker Barrel restaurant I've ever visited.

[masraum]

If you guys are just looking for a "cool clocks and people that like clocks" thread here, we've got one.

Pelican Clock Club

[herr_oberst]

Wow, I'd forgotten that my parents had a big ol' grandfather clock in the TV room. When the executor asked "who wants the grandfather clock," all five of us kids walked up, stared at it for a few minutes and declined. I don't know what happened to it. It looks very similar to one of the clocks in this post.

I hated that thing. Even when the chimes were off, it would "clack" really loud instead of chime. Since I always had trouble sleeping at their house, I would be reminded every 15 minutes that I was still awake and at the top of the hour I would learn how much tempus had fugited since I had gone to bed.

[mjohnson]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Wow, I'd forgotten that my parents had a big ol' grandfather clock in the TV room. When the executor asked "who wants the grandfather clock," all five of us kids walked up, stared at it for a few minutes and declined...

Yup. My grandparents had one too - that I think came from their quite well-off parents. Cleaning out the house after gma died at 97yo produced huge piles of very nice stuff that nobody wanted. Whole lot of "wow that's cool but... nah" from the grandkids, all of us who have too much crap already.

If you're handy, why not dig into the thing and fix it? It's just a mechanical device.

Or if you're quirky it might make a good fish tank...