Jess19721
NAWCC Member
Hi all,
My friend at work brought me in one final clock to have a look at, a ST 120k banjo made in 1940. It is from a clock makers estate, and she said it used to be on the wall in his shop, running. There was a slip of paper inside noting it was was cleaned/oiled/adjusted in 1968, 1978, 1981 and bushed and serviced last in 1999.
I tested it on the wall and noted that it had low amplitude and struck like it was rubbing on something during the strike. Pulled it out and the hammer wire was bent out a little too far and interacting with the pendulum leader so that is an easy fix. It looks good but there is a lot of black gunk in all of the pivots so I’m going to pull it apart and clean it.
As I was looking at it I noticed the screws holding the mainspring plate were loose. I turned it over and saw that it was missing the spacer on the center post, so on one of those dates it got left out.
I don’t know if the past solution was just keeping the plate loose in the center. Seems like it has been running like that, but I want to try to rectify it. What are your thoughts on a few turns of wire, or should I take out my ST 120 that also has the one spacer in the center configuration and measure it and see if I can find a copper tube at the hardware store to try to cut one with my Dremel? Or stack a bunch of flat thin washers (if I can find some that would fit the threaded post)?
Thank you for reading!
My friend at work brought me in one final clock to have a look at, a ST 120k banjo made in 1940. It is from a clock makers estate, and she said it used to be on the wall in his shop, running. There was a slip of paper inside noting it was was cleaned/oiled/adjusted in 1968, 1978, 1981 and bushed and serviced last in 1999.
I tested it on the wall and noted that it had low amplitude and struck like it was rubbing on something during the strike. Pulled it out and the hammer wire was bent out a little too far and interacting with the pendulum leader so that is an easy fix. It looks good but there is a lot of black gunk in all of the pivots so I’m going to pull it apart and clean it.
As I was looking at it I noticed the screws holding the mainspring plate were loose. I turned it over and saw that it was missing the spacer on the center post, so on one of those dates it got left out.
I don’t know if the past solution was just keeping the plate loose in the center. Seems like it has been running like that, but I want to try to rectify it. What are your thoughts on a few turns of wire, or should I take out my ST 120 that also has the one spacer in the center configuration and measure it and see if I can find a copper tube at the hardware store to try to cut one with my Dremel? Or stack a bunch of flat thin washers (if I can find some that would fit the threaded post)?
Thank you for reading!
