Anyone a Clock Aficionado Here?

[RNajarian]

Sometime when I was enjoying my Middle East Vacation my mom put a wind up wall clock in my house that chimed every half hour.

Recently it stopped keeping time. Wind it up and it keeps time for 15 minutes then stops. I removed the movement and replaced it with a quartz movement. The swap took only 15 minutes. . . and now the clock keeps time. The only difference is no more 1/2 hour chime, which I’m OK with.

The question is. . . does anyone know if this Korean made movement is worth repairing or is it scrap? The movement indicates no jewels and manufactured by Rollens company of Korea.




Here is a photo of the clock with the new quartz movement

[carambola]

Those springs look jacked.
Please understand that I am a fool but loosen and rotate the nuts on the far end of the coil, let it find a more natural angle.
Movement on the right and chime on the left is what i see.
You were so close to keeping it.

[RNajarian]

Nuts on the far end of the coil?

Do you mean on the bottom?

[carambola]

Yes, but be careful, there is some tension on the right one.
I'm talking out my butt, but we both know i'm right.

[RNajarian]

I loosened the nut facing the camera on bottom right. No difference, the coil is NOT moving. I’ll see if I can get some movement without releasing all that kinetic energy.

[stevej37]

If you can't get the movement to work...call your local horologist.
About five years ago, my GF clock wouldn't keep running. Called the clock guy, he came out and removed the entire movement. Brought it back 3 days later and it's worked great since.
$150

[wdfifteen]

That would be so fun to dig into. Great photos BTW.
I had a Victrola that didn't work. It had similar springs. I talked to a guy who restores them. He said the most common problem is the springs wear out where they are attached. I took it apart and sure enough the spring was broken at the inner attachment.

[carambola]

I figure the right coil is the movement, the pendulum would need to swing to discharge.

[Alan A]

Take off the regulator and unless it’s overwound it should free itself.
The regulator is the two prong bit that the pendulum rocks back and forth.

[jrj3rd]

Clean all the bearing surfaces with a little alcohol and re oil with clock oil. Not much can go wrong with those movements, normally just dirt in the bearings causes drag and stops the regulator wheel from smoothly operating.

Google movement name and number and you will probably get more youtube info then you want.

[GH85Carrera]

My wife is nuts about antique clocks. We have over a dozen. She spends most of an hour every Saturday winding them and setting them and adjusting them. On Saturday at noon it sounds like a clock shop in the house. She has one small antique clock in our bedroom that when it runs I call it the Metronome. Tic tick tick tick at a very loud noise. I stop it before I go to bed. That one does not get to run at night. The rest I have learned to tun out and usually I have no memory of their chiming through the day. Sometime in the evening while we are watching TV 5 different clocks in the living room will all start gonging, chiming, dinging, donging, and ringing and we kust pause TV to wait for the clatter to stop.

She has a local clock repair guy on speed-dial and she has he come by here on occasion to play clock whisperer on persnickety clocks. I know to not touch them.

She never blinks when I buy tools, scissor lift, or a new set of tires or brake pads so it is a good trade off.

[Zeke]

If it runs out of the case then it wasn't somehow 'timed' in the case. What that means is a perfectly even "tick — tock — tick — tock." You start with the movement level using, well, a level in both directions. To restore the timing, or beat, you gently bend the verge (the rod that holds the pendulum ass'y) until the pendulum swings exactly the same distance right and left.

It's tricky and I'm not a qualified clock repair guy but I've done enough cases for people that I managed to find out how to make sure the clock will work when it gets home.

On oiling: less than a drop on each pivot and bushing. Usually a needle is dipped into the clock oi; and a tiny amount deposited at the bushing in the little cup.

[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

[red-beard]

One of my business partners is a mechanical machine affectionado. Clocks, wind up record players, edison tube playes, old music boxes (the big kind that play things that look like a big saw blade). When we have Zoom meetings and they run past noon, it gets loud.

[RNajarian]

Currently the movement is in my garage mounted to a cabinet. I’ve got a pretty good 360 degree view of the movement. Outside the cabinet of the clock it runs the same as if it was inside the cabinet. It runs for 15 minutes then stops. Currently the pendulum is not attached.

One thing I should note. . . there may be a gear hanging up. Occasionally when I noticed the clock had stopped I would reset the time and there would be resistance to moving the minute hand, a POP then the hand would move freely. However this anomaly does not occur regularly.

Currently I am trying to get some tension out of the main spring. As you can see it is wound pretty tight. Hopefully that may make things a little clearer.

I’ll be honest, all that stored energy does scare me a little.

[Zeke]

Tap the spring to free it up. It likely has some rust inside. Loosening the spring is covered a 1000 times on YouTube.

If there is rust it should come out.

[GH85Carrera]

The clock repair guy my wife uses is a meticulous clock geek that started as a hobby. On occasion we bring a clock back to him for a tune up and adjustment. I like to horrify him by saying I hosed it all down with WD-40 and now it does not work.

He has a well over 100 clocks in his shop. He is my wife's "crack dealer" for rare clocks.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

The clock repair guy my wife uses is a meticulous clock geek that started as a hobby. On occasion we bring a clock back to him for a tune up and adjustment. I like to horrify him by saying I hosed it all down with WD-40 and now it does not work.

He has a well over 100 clocks in his shop. He is my wife's "crack dealer" for rare clocks.

When I was reading your previous post, I was thinking you needed a junk clock from a garage sale that you could disassemble on the dining table one day while the missus was gone. Then you make sure you've got a bunch of tools out and spread around, vise grips, hammers, screwdrivers, etc... for when she comes home.

[RNajarian]

Some more photos, it looks like a small amount of tension has been relieved from the main spring.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by masraum

When I was reading your previous post, I was thinking you needed a junk clock from a garage sale that you could disassemble on the dining table one day while the missus was gone. Then you make sure you've got a bunch of tools out and spread around, vise grips, hammers, screwdrivers, etc... for when she comes home.

It is like a stake through the heart when our clock guy sees an pretty antique case with some modern battery operated clock mechanism in it.

I can PM him you his contact info if you really want to talk to a pro. Likely it is not really worth the postage unless it is a rare brand and the parts are usable.

Our pro goes to clock conventions and buys and sells parts so the parts are not the rare. Especially with so many antique dealers gutting the movement and putting in battery operated movements.