Help Magnetic chime rods

[cjer]

I delivered and set up an '80's era Howard Miller single chime GF clock at a lady's house recently. When I set the new time, the westminster chimes sounded terrible. The chime hammers were affixed to brass bars instead of wires and were easy to bend laterally to line up with the chime rods, but very hard to bend for the correct distance between the hammers and the rods. I was perplexed and couldn't find any reason for the muted sound of the chimes. Finally after a lot of time wondering what had happened, I noticed that the ends of two sets of the rods were stuck together. I thought they must have been bent, but when I separated them I noticed that the rods were very magnetic. I could cause the end of any two rods to stick together just by touching one to another. Once the rods were separated they would stay in the proper position and deliver a normal sound.

I'm a learning amatuer clock person, so I'd like to hear from anyone that might know how these rods became magnetic.

Thanks, Jerry

 

[J. A. Olson]

I have never seen or heard of chime rods touching due to magnetism. Sounds like someone tried cheaping out at the gong factory that day, the best rod gong sets were never like this.

 

[THTanner]

Good sleuthing - Any steel that is constantly hammered will become magnetized fairly quickly. When you move a GF clock it is important to secure the rods so that they cannot bounce around and touch each other. I use 1/2 round short strips of a pool noodle and slip them over the rods piercing the noodle keeping them stable and apart. These rods can even break just bouncing down the road in the vehicle. Once they are separated as you did they should stay that way unless someone reaches in and bumps them.

 

[Rod Schaffter]

One can demagnetize steel by putting it in the loop of a soldering gun, turning the gun on, and pulling it out slowly. Continue moving it to arms length before shutting the gun off. Works great on my tweezers, which often pick up some magnetism...

 

[THTanner]

One can demagnetize steel by putting it in the loop of a soldering gun, turning the gun on, and pulling it out slowly. Continue moving it to arms length before shutting the gun off. Works great on my tweezers, which often pick up some magnetism...

Yes that works great - but within a few weeks the hammering on the steel rods will re-magnetize them quite strongly. Which is not really a problem as long as they do not touch.

 

[Rob Martinez]

Showing my ignorance here but aren't the typical chime rods brass.... or is that just brass coloring.....

 

[THTanner]

There are brass chime rods and they are quite common. Steel are also common.

 

[Rod Schaffter]

Yes that works great - but within a few weeks the hammering on the steel rods will re-magnetize them quite strongly. Which is not really a problem as long as they do not touch.

I checked a broken chime rod I had in my scrap bin, and the long rods of a GF clock I just brought into the shop with a small steel washer, and they aren't magnetic. I doubt being tapped with a plastic hammer would magnetize hardened steel; I think the batches of raw stock used to manufacture the rods in question are the source...

 

[J. A. Olson]

The steel rod chimes are made of hardened steel, this is a requirement for both tuning & structural stability. This is also why they snap like cookie sticks if provoked by sympathetic vibrations. The rods are not magnetic enough to stick to one another - you may get a magnet to provide some pull on each rod but never the rods magnetically touching each other on their own.

For more guidance we'd have to see a clear photo of your clock's gong rod block and see how it compares to the norm.

 

[THTanner]

The steel rod chimes are made of hardened steel, this is a requirement for both tuning & structural stability. This is also why they snap like cookie sticks if provoked by sympathetic vibrations. The rods are not magnetic enough to stick to one another - you may get a magnet to provide some pull on each rod but never the rods magnetically touching each other on their own.

For more guidance we'd have to see a clear photo of your clock's gong rod block and see how it compares to the norm.

Correct - hardened steel is not that easily magnetized, But somehow these rods were. So I suspect demagnetizing them now would only be a temporary solution - but still worth a try.

I received a used 5 rod chime base with steel rods from a purchase at auction. the rods were slightly magnetized for some reason. they were short rods -11 inches for the longest - and did not stick together, but they did deflect a thin piece of steel. These came from a Seth Thomas 124 mantle clock according to the seller and I have no idea what kind of hammers (likely leather) so I suspect they became magnetized some other way.

 

[J. A. Olson]

Seth Thomas did not normally use steel chime rods so this is interesting. It looks like a later gong block pattern after Seth Thomas became part of General Time.

 

[THTanner]

Seth Thomas did not normally use steel chime rods so this is interesting. It looks like a later gong block pattern after Seth Thomas became part of General Time.

It is marked ST 124 on the bottom, but I have little faith in the vendor in regards to their knowledge. They were cleaning out a bunch of clock parts and relied on the notes and markings as found. It has reasonable tone and is on key, but I would not be surprised if it is marked incorrectly.