eliminating cuckoo half hour strike

[Davido]

I'm completely new to this world but I'm hoping to build a modern cuckoo but the documentation for cuckoo mechanisms (even on the Youtube) is somewhat lacking so I thought that I would try my hand here before my opportunity for trial and error arrives in the mail. My plan is to build a clock with a Regula 34 and get it to skip the half hour chime/coo and also to always chime two on the hour instead of the actual hour count, (I think the cooing becomes a little tedious at ten or eleven). thanks all.

 

[Schatznut]

There's a cam on the minute arbor that triggers the rack and snail strike mechanism. The shorter lobe on that cam trips the call on the half hour. If you were to file back that lobe so that it didn't trigger the rack, that would accomplish what you want.

 

[dickstorer]

Doing what Shatznut says will eliminate the half hour but what are your plans to make it always strike two on the hour. And, BTW, your clock strikes, it does not chime.

 

[Davido]

Thanks Schatznut and dickstorer, I'm not sure that I have a plan for that yet as I've never even seen a rack and snail setup in person before. There will probably be a fair amount of head scratching and ordering of spare parts.

 

[Mike Mall]

The half hour is solved with the above suggestion.
I would imagine it would be fairly easy to make a stop for the rack that could be adjusted to only allow 2 strikes. Even a bent paperclip, bent over the top of the front plate, and hanging down as a stop would work.
Only problem would be the 1 O'clock would still be in place, unless you removed, or filed down the snail for that position.
Or a disc to replace the snail that's the correct diameter (measured off the snail), and installed in the place of the snail, or soldered to the back of the snail.

 

[Mike Phelan]

More or less what Mike says:

• Move rack away from the snail so it strikes two at 1 o-clock.
• File a pin on the front plate near the rack so it cannot strike more than two.
• Remove the half-hour lobe on the cannon pinion.

Or, move the clock away from the bedroom with no butchery needed

 

[Willie X]

Or, save yourself a lot of trouble and just remove the strike weight, or push the silence lever up, if it has one.
Willie X

 

[Willie X]

Or, save yourself a lot of trouble and just remove the strike weight, or push the silence lever up, if it has one.
Willie X

 

[R. Croswell]

Like what mike said, place disc overlay on the snail the same diameter as the "2" notch on the snail and file down the "1" notch to the same as the two. But while a lot of cuckooing at 10, 11, 12, may seem ridicules right now, that is what cuckoo clocks do. Do you really want a cuckoo clock that doesn't do what it is supposed to do? Do you want to be forever explaining to guests that your cuckoo clock isn't broken but you made it sound like that on purpose? I hope you think this through before altering your new clock, some of the suggested changes are not easy to reverse. It is also going to look strange at the end of the week when the time weight is near the floor while the cuckoo/strike weight will still be pretty high up, something else to explain to guests who (if they are at all familiar with cuckoo clocks) will assume that something is wrong with your clock.

RC

 

[Mike Phelan]

... or don't have cuckoo clock at all?

 

[wingardclocks]

So used to chimes and cuckoo's I don't even hear them.

 

[Mike Phelan]

We have five clocks in the house that strike or chime - we don't hear them unless they are stopped!