Grease!!! What grease?

[ChuckR]

HI guys,
If you remember from a ealier post, I am working on my first 8 day time and strike movement ( up to now only collected 400 day clocks). The time side is working great. But I am having trouble with the strike side. It will work for a while and then get hung up on the strike. I ran the clock thru a 12 hour cycle and it would strike at the half and strike out the time at the top of the hour. It will run for a couple of hours or for a day then the hammer gets cocked and it hangs up. I went back over the manuals on the repair of these clocks and found a section that pointed out area's on the strike side that should be greased. I tore the clock down, did a ultra sonic clean, but did not grease anything, only oiled the pivots. Everything seemed to move freely when I tested it out. Could this be my problem? If yes, then what type of grease do you recommend? If something else could be causing this, please tell me what to look for. As usual THANKS for all your help. By the way, this is a Zaandam clock, and both time and strike are weight driven.

Chuck

[Richard T.]

I never use grease in the strike train. Others may have different opinions. You may have a problem not related to lubrication.

Is your hammer "at rest" after striking.....(not loaded). (You said the hammer was "cocked" and hangs up). If I remember this movement probably has a star wheel on S3....is so the hammer tail should be at rest between points of the star. What exactly "hangs" up?

Do you have pictures?

Best,

Richard T.

[ChuckR]

Richard,
Clock is in its case right now,so no pictures. But here is what is going on.

After tearing down and cleaning, I reassembled the clock and put it on test stand.
I checked the time side and put in beat and adjusted pendulum . I watched the chime side only to the exstant (sp) that the hammer would activate on the hour and half hour. Put clock back into case and hung on wall. Seem to work ok for awhile, then noticed that hammer was getting hung up. Watched strike side thru window on side of clock and noticed that the hammer hung up on the last strike all the time. The edge of the hammer lift star was catching the edge if the hammer lift arm, this always happened on the last strike. I put the movement back on the test stand and was able to duplicate the problem. Some one had a strike question about a week ago and it was suggested that they lift the snail and rotate it CCW one tooth, that fixed thier problem. SO not finding a reason for my problem, I tried this. It seemed to work, after the hammer finished striking, the lift arm would rest between two arms of the lifting star.so back in the case it went and rehung. Now what is happening is that after the hammer finishes striking, its arm is in between two of the lifting stars arms, but the lifting star arm under neath the hammer is putting presure on the hammer. It does not have enough force to trip the hammer but the hammer is in the cocked position. Now sometimes the strike will not work until I fiddle with the hammer. And all of a sudden the hammer hitting the bell has become so weak you can hardly here it. Thats my story, hope you can help. If you want pictures, what should I photograph? Being a newbie on 8 day movements, please excuse me if all the terminology is not right.
THANKS.

Chuck

[Richard T.]

Thanks for the additional information. Did you remove the gathering pallet when you disassembled the clock? It still sounds like you have a "loaded" hammer. I don't know your skill level but I would remove the gathering pallet with a puller, (if you try to turn it on the arbor you run the risk of breaking something ) and rotate it a little until the point of the star clears the hammer lift "paddle" . Which direction..........probably clockwise. I am going from memory and could be wrong. During assembly of the strike train one tries to set up the strike gears so that everything works together. Sometimes this is not an easy task.

Others may have a different idea or more information....

As for the bell, I would check the relationship of the hammer to the bell and see if there is a problem there (not close enough to the bell etc.).

Best Regards,

Richard T.
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[Tom Kloss]

Hi,

I agree with Richard. You have a timing problem. A picture of the front and back of the movement would be helpful. If the strike hammer tail is lifted when the strike sequence stops, thats a real no no.

Tom

[colour=blue]“Sometimes you really don’t know if your being rewarded or punished”[/colour]
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[specop]

Worth remembering that you never use grease on a clock - except perhaps to ease a stuck/rusty mainspring. And you never oil a calendar movement.

Specop

[ChuckR]

Thanks to all who have answered this cry for help. Yes. richard I took the gathering pallet off during cleaning and put it back on after. I ASSUMED every thing would sync up upon activation. ( and we know what happens when we ASSUME). Also the hammer is left cocked at the end of a strike sequence. I will put the movement back on the test bench and re-examin the strike train, THANK you all for your help and I will keep you posted.

Chuck

[Kevin W.]

Specop, grease on the mainspring is a good thing. Elese where for lub on a train, not good.

[Richard T.]

I use Keystone mainspring lubricant on the springs that I do. I have never used a grease but Etsyntha B52 would probably be o.k. even though it is a bit pricey.

Best,

Richard T.

[ChuckR]

To Richard and all the rest of you guys that have help me thru this. I did what richard said and adjusted the gathering cam CW and now when the strike is over the hammer arm is resting between the stars lifting arms and has no tension on it. It has been running good for over 6 hours now and I think the problem has been solved, but will still monitor it for a few days. THANKS richard and all of you who have help me, this just goes and shows how great this message board is!!!

Chuck