Hello I am a beginning hobbyist. I have a mechanical engineering background and have begun by working on a few cheap West German clocks from the 1950s as well as a 1930s Lux Pendulette Clock and now an Endura alarm clock. They are all small and, besides the Lux, use a balance wheel escapement. I am still learning all the lingo - I apologize if I say something incorrectly or if I misunderstand.
I have repeatedly had the problem (once on the Endura I'm currently working on, once on a small Ansonia wall clock that I am also stuck on) that the pins on the anchor for the balance wheel break off. I have a set of tweezers and a set of pliers so I rarely use my hands to move pieces of the movement (besides holding the overall movement in my non-dominant hand ... I really need to get a stand or something).
Anyway here are a few pictures of what's going on. The first is just a picture of the inside of the mechanism with the escapement in the forefront and demonstrating that the anchor (just to the left of the escapement) was fine. The second picture is a closer look at the escapement.
So now I seem to have broken a pin off of the anchor.
In the second picture above you can see my attempts to super glue some wire into the spot that the original wire was. I used some wire cutters to cut it to a reasonable length and I figured that when it was dry I would cut it down to size. Unfortunately it won't seem to hold. My next step would be to try glueing a U-shaped wire instead. Maybe even cutting off the other pin and replacing both with a U-shaped wire? This is a small Endura alarm clock I'm working on at the moment, so I'm not too cut up about breaking it.
Anyway, I hope someone can offer help! And if your answer is "Buy a new one" ... I'm an engineer. I'm fundamentally flawed in such a way that I cannot do such a thing without pouring my life's blood into trying to fix it first. Hence my first NAWCC post. For the formalities: I have been doing this a few months, I have the bare minimum of tools (mostly pliers, tweezers, a crowfoot tool, metal files, multi-sided clock keys of all sizes, basic drill, dremel, and screwdrivers, and two bottles of Brasso. Let's hope that's enough!
I have repeatedly had the problem (once on the Endura I'm currently working on, once on a small Ansonia wall clock that I am also stuck on) that the pins on the anchor for the balance wheel break off. I have a set of tweezers and a set of pliers so I rarely use my hands to move pieces of the movement (besides holding the overall movement in my non-dominant hand ... I really need to get a stand or something).
Anyway here are a few pictures of what's going on. The first is just a picture of the inside of the mechanism with the escapement in the forefront and demonstrating that the anchor (just to the left of the escapement) was fine. The second picture is a closer look at the escapement.
So now I seem to have broken a pin off of the anchor.
In the second picture above you can see my attempts to super glue some wire into the spot that the original wire was. I used some wire cutters to cut it to a reasonable length and I figured that when it was dry I would cut it down to size. Unfortunately it won't seem to hold. My next step would be to try glueing a U-shaped wire instead. Maybe even cutting off the other pin and replacing both with a U-shaped wire? This is a small Endura alarm clock I'm working on at the moment, so I'm not too cut up about breaking it.
Anyway, I hope someone can offer help! And if your answer is "Buy a new one" ... I'm an engineer. I'm fundamentally flawed in such a way that I cannot do such a thing without pouring my life's blood into trying to fix it first. Hence my first NAWCC post. For the formalities: I have been doing this a few months, I have the bare minimum of tools (mostly pliers, tweezers, a crowfoot tool, metal files, multi-sided clock keys of all sizes, basic drill, dremel, and screwdrivers, and two bottles of Brasso. Let's hope that's enough!
You could also sharpen one end of the new pallet too, and tap it firmly into the hole .... but the hole would have to be smaller than the diameter of the wire. You probably should tap it out from the short side (before it broke).
