Hello rusty wrench. Shame, i can not download your images. The calender wheel may be awkward to find. I tend to buy total shonky rusty movements and salvage what i need for other clocks. French ebay always has a lot of stuff and if what you want is not there just wait it will pop up especially doors. Check the sizes though as i have so far worked on four different sizes of these clocks.
Hi,Rustywrench,and wellcome to this message board! Your pics show a relatively late comtoise with (recoil) gable-shaped anchor gongstrike and date-calender,IMO made around 1880-1900.Can You post a pic of the face/dial?The missing parts can be obtained either from evilbay where comtoise parts appear frequently or from special suppliers like deckert@comtoise.de . Do You have weights and pendulum for it? Best regards Burkhard
The calendar wheel and door may be the least of your worries. Finding a dial of the correct size AND with the correct hols spacing will be the trickier part. A lot of the doors are just sheet metal stampings cut to size, so if you can find one the same size or larger, it can be made to fit, you just need metal shears.
And when you find the calender wheel do not be too suprised if it does not fit the post of the hour wheel. I have done a couple and neither fitted the other yet the clocks were of the same size. This is also true of the alarm disc sleeve. A little fettling may be required!
Hi - New hobby here - that is repairing a clock.. I purchased this Comtoise on EBAy and I seemed to have done something to the mechanism while trying tpo tighten the hands. I followed a brilliant lead about the square shaft but I may have been overly aggressive . Any suggestions? At this point the clock no longer runs . It was running about two hours ago.. .
You just need to carefully turn the hour hand pipe to get it to mesh again with the motion work wheel. You may want to pull off the dial (remove screws and carefully lift upwards so as not to break the two "tabs" on the bottom corners.
I was thinking that might be the way to go except the hand pipe ( square shaft?) just spins freely while the pendulum sounds like its rubbing somewhere. Oh and pardon me .. thank you for the reponse.. I'm going to try this.
As Sooth says. Take the dial off carefully and lay to one side. You will see the gears that are not meshing on the hour wheel pipe and this is the reason it spins freely. I set mine up with hands initially without the dial fitted and let them run that way for a full drop of the weights. I do this so i can easily identify if there are any problems as the weights shift the stress in the clock as they drop and also to id any problems with the strike mechanism. I set them at 12 for ease and then turn the hands to the correct time by reaching in from the left side and turning the minute wheel. I do this so i do not stress the hands as i turn through the hours. Picture shows the gears meshing where yours do not.
Thanks both. I managed to remove the face - no damage to the tabs AND get the gears in sync.. ran for a bit then stopped- I noticed that the top cog isn't getting enough pressure to engage - see photo if it uploads. any suggestions? Thanks - excited to get this puppy running and ringing.
If you haven't done this yet, start here: Beat Setting 101 If you have and it is in beat, you will need to look for something that is robbing power. More details than "not engaging" will be needed. Let us know and we'll collectively work on it - that's what we do here. Good luck, Tom
Thanks Tom. I'm gonna run this through today.. I have noticed that if I increase the weight the cogs engage and the clock runs. My weights are likely not original they weigh -155oz each. Thom
I can't get it in beat.. Thank you for the article.. the escape wheel doesn't advance unless I pull slightly on the weight ( 155 oz). Is there something else I need to adjust ? It was running at one point before I took the hands off ( to adjust - they were loose) and in doing that I caused the hand pipe to be disengaged . I fixed that but I'm looking to see if there is something else I need to adjust. Pics Attached. Thanks TJ
If it works when you add force to the weight, it is probably loosing power. It is either dirty, worn so the gear alignment is off, or you have a bent shaft or tooth (the tooth would only be a problem when it is engaged). Are you willing / comfortable enough to take apart the time side? Tom
Where to begin...? Instruction manuals? "We don need no stinkin' manuals!". Actually this board is a pretty darn good interactive instruction manual. Probably the best way to start is for you to post a video of what you see. These are easy to take apart because you can do one train at a time and everything is relatively large. I suggest first taking off the hour cannon and the intermediate wheel (gear) that drives it and test it again (divide and conquer to isolate the problem). You will need to sync the wheels when you put them back together so the hands both point straight up at noon, but that is pretty easy or you can mark them before taking them apart. Tom
Hi Tom, OK.. I actually got it on beat and running for about three hours . It seems that at some point there isn't enough power to run the chime and the clock so it stops. I'm taking it apart.. reading many posts on the message board.. a few that concern me greatly regard cleaning and oiling... A learning experience.. Thom
Hi Tom, I have removed the hour wheel and the intermediate ( I think) gear. How do I test and what am I actually testing?
Totally strip and clean. It will run and run well if you follow beat setting 101. These collect a lot of dried oil over the years and even with the correct weight will not run well. Photograph as you go and you will be suprised how easy they are to do. Just time is involved. How you clean is a whole other conversation! I soak all In vinegar for a couple of days ( not the cage ) we have 14% vinegar here so it loosens everthing. I then clean that all off with a brass brush enery paper and a dremel for the wheels. As you take each piece from the vinegar dry well and wipe well getting most crud off with a cloth before getting at it with the brush etc. Pay attention to the pivot holes with peg wood, toothpicks and bbq skewers and chopsticks work for me and re-assemble.
The reason to remove the hour and minute motion works was simply to divide and conquer to see if there was a problem in the main part of the train or the motion works. It was an easy step without taking the whole train apart. It sounds in beat, but you should test it with the pendulum (or did you use the pendulum when it ran 3 hours and quit?). If it won't keep running, it probably needs cleaning and oiling. The other possibility is something jamming like a bent tooth or binding cable. That will happen on a regular cycle or with the weights at a certain level. For a bent tooth, you can't say 3 hours because you don't know how long prior to your starting it that it could have run, so it will be 3 + something. Run it again and when it stops, start it again to see if there is any power in the train. If it starts again, it is probably dirty. If it won't start, something like a bent tooth is robbing power. I doubt it is a bent tooth because these gears are pretty stout. Another test I like to do is, while it is running, left the weight a little bit to where it almost stops, but the pendulum is still swinging, then lower it again. If it starts, you have good power. If it doesn't, you probably have something robbing power. Tom
HI Tom, No I didn't run it with the pendulum on .. I will try as you suggest before i take it apart further to clean. There seem to be a wide range of preference on cleaning solutions .. also oiL? where and what kind.. I'm in Southern Italy and I've not found many resources for this here.. way south in Salento.. T
Thanks Carl.. I'm going to look for steps to disassemble the rest.. any resource would be appreciated. T
As a point of order, this thread is for showing examples of Comtoise clocks. We're getting pretty deep into a repair topic, so it might be best if this discussion is moved to the repair section. Maybe a moderator can branch this discussion off and we continue it there. Tom
This is our Comtoise/Morbier standing at 7'2". Dial is marked L'Huissier and a Louvigne du desert which is the province in France from which it came. I love it's simplicity...10 cogs and a piece of string. Doers the double chime and sounds like a couple of saucepan lids clanging together but keeps better time than any other clock in the house. The case itself is rather plain and battered but that adds to it's character. One of, if not the favourite in our collection.
