How do you disassemble this clock for cleaning?

[Probedude]

Hello,
A co-worker's girlfriend owns this Postman's clock that she'd love to have working again. The main problem is it appears the entire case is now a parallelogram, and not the square kind, so the gear shafts are binding.

I'd like to take this completely apart to inspect/replace the bushings, clean and polish the pivots etc, but I don't know how to get this apart! It's mostly wood and not brass plates!

Are these capable of being disassembled and re-assembled?

In regards to the out of square case, I read in another post that it's recommended to support this clock on a shelf instead of the original method of mounting from the rear cover. That's a great idea!

TIA,
Dave

http://www.dschmidt.com/images/PostmanFront.jpg
http://www.dschmidt.com/images/PostmanSide.jpg
http://www.dschmidt.com/images/PostmanSide2.jpg
http://www.dschmidt.com/images/PostmanLabel.jpg

 

[5piet1]

Hello Dave, in this type off clock you can dissambled the plates by removing nails ( pull out) at the top off the plates .
The bottem and top plates ar glued togetter, mayby they becom to loose that you have to glue them again.
Don't put the movement in an cleaning bath, keep the wood as dry as you can.
There ar special buchings for this wooden movements they have ridges on the outside.
I saw in some wooden klocks that the pivots where not flat but curved a bit, this for the reason that the movement bends a bit ( like yours dit to mutch) by the weights.
That's why the idea to support this clock on a shelf instead of the original method of mounting from the rear cover verry good.
nice klock,hope this coulth help you a bit.
greetings piet

 

[Bob Reichel]

You have whats called a Postmans Alarm clock. The theory was that the inkeeper had to prepare the mail for the next coach going by. He would set the clock for the stop time, in hours with the center disc, when he would no longer accept mail for the next coach. Its a rattle-down and will not stop alarming without the chain reaching the floor or end of chain, or removing the weight.
They are fairly easy to take apart. One or two of the plates are held into the frame by pins. Disengage the hooks of the chains and remove the chains out of your way first. Study it a little and it will give you satisfaction as you understand the way it was put together.
I notice one chain is not aligned with the frame holes. Someone would enlarge these holes-not me. Its been running for many years this way. Unless of course the sprocket has moved on its arbor.

 

[PaulFaf]

"In regards to the out of square case, I read in another post that it's recommended to support this clock on a shelf instead of the original method of mounting from the rear cover. That's a great idea!"

Then put holes in the shelf to have the weights drop.

I would try screws to see if that tightens the box up which it probably won't. Go to X reinforcement if needed.

Then Hang with pride. ( it just needs a knee-brace not a wheel chair)

 

[eskmill]

The upper and lower horizontal flat plates are joined with the four corner vertical pillar posts and the center post. They are not glued in place. Instead, the vertical pillars have an inverted conical taper at the ends. The upper and lower horizontal plates have matching holes to receive the rounded conical taper of the vertical pillars. Normally, the four corner pillars and the center post are never removed for service. Instead of glue, the tops of the pillars are slotted with the grain to receive tapered wedges.

If you remove the bell or look carefully underneath the movement, you will see the rounded ends of the fixed pillar posts. Clean off the surface and you will begin to see that the pillars are round and have a wedge. You may wish to drive the wedge in a little deeper using the end of an ice-cream stick for a punch. In many, just a little tap on the wedges will bring the movement back in to square.

To service the movement, remove the back board. Yours has been handy-crafted with a glue block. Once the back board has been removed, you will observe one or two removable pillars with the brass bushing bearings.

The removabel pillars fit into a matching slot in the lower horizontal plate and slide into a slot in the upper plate. A nail or wire with a loop end is pressed into the upper plate at an angle to retain the removable pillar.

I have photos of their construction but unfortunately, can't locate them.

 

[eskmill]

Black Forest movement frame construction detail of pillar post attachment to upper and lower plates.

 

[Probedude]

Very nice pictures! Thank you so much!
We'll take a harder look at this next week at work.

Dave

 

[Kevin W.]

Thanks for posting Eckmill and others.I have a similar clock and was going to ask this question about disasembly.Now i should not have too.Great pictures and now i understand why this was called a Postman,s clock,

 

[timeandagain]

Hi,
I've worked on a few of these clocks, and it seems that in all cases, the frame seems to sag from the constant tug of the weights. The complaint from the owner is always the same. The clock will not stay running. Most of the time, the "fixed" tenoned frame members have loosened in their corresponding mortise. It doesn't appear that glue was intended in the construction, just wedges as shown in the earlier comments. All the clocks I've seen show signs of various previous attempts at preventing the sag. Most commonly, glue and screws in or around the mortise joints appear popular as well as added side bracing members, but, since I'm seeing the clock, it means none of those methods were permanent fixes. I suspect that the act of rewinding puts extra stress on the frame and eventually re-loosens the joints.

All the clocks I've worked on have side doors that are held in place with wire hinges and a hook lock. I reasoned that both sides don't have to be easily opened, so with the owner's permission, I affixed one side panel with four screws. to the squared up frame. This has proven quite effective in keeping the frame square while not being too obvious a fix. Of course, this is a practical fix and does effect originality, but in every clock of this type that I've seen, previous attempted fixes had already compromised the originality. (Finally, I recommend that the owner support the weight during winding to minimize stress on the frame).

One question that I have about these movements: Every bushing that I've seen on these movements has a brass insert. Was that the original design, or, have worn original wood bushings been replaced with brass over the years?

 

[eskmill]

The question, ".......Every bushing that I've seen on these movements has a brass insert. Was that the original design, or, have worn original wood bushings been replaced with brass over the years?"


The wood plates are fitted with made-up brass "bushings." I say "made-up" because the bushings were/are not made of brass tubing, hollow-wire or bushing wire. Instead, the crafty old men simply took a strip of brass and rolled it into a bushing with a "key" to secure it in the wood hole.

The long bushings and the long pivots are, as you observe, not ameniable to a movement frame that doesn't stay square. But....if you carefull examine the pivots of many of these old relics, you may find some that have a slight barrel shape; not a pure cylinder. I believe that on many BF clocks, the long pivots were barrel shaped so as to reduce friction and....tolerate a little misalignment.

Not every bearing hole was necessarily bushed. Notably the front (2) hour wheel hole. The pivot area of the arbor on many is very large in diameter. That hole isn't always bushed.

'Glad you asked.

 

[timeandagain]

Thanks for that explanation. I have one of these clocks in the shop right now and I had considered removing the brass and replacing a badly worn (and binding) split brass bushing with an oak plug bushing. In fact it is the hour wheel bushing and the pivot surface is barrel shaped. I won't do that given your information. I had noticed that these brass bushings where split "tubes" and not Bergeon-style inserts. Having replaced my share of bodged brass bushings in early 1800's American wood movements with oak plug bushings, I wondered if that was de rigueur with all wood plate movements.

The only dumb question is the one not asked....
timeandagain

 

[eskmill]

The front bearing for the time sprocket arbor, actually the two-hour wheel bearing isn't always bushed. On some, it's simply a smooth hole in the beech-wood plate.

A hard-wood plug align bored with the rear bushing in the middle plate would, in my view do well.

The highlighted area in the photo is the only place on these BF clocks that isn't always bushed.

 

[Mike Phelan]

Great pictures and now I understand why this was called a Postman's clock,

I thought the jury was still out on that one.