Rube Goldberg award finalist

[Karl Thies]

I have never seen such a botched job on a clock as this. To add insult to injury, this tinker also ruined the case as well.

 

[Carl Bergquist]

It wasn't due to lack of effort.

 

[Uhralt]

Was it all done in order to avoid splitting the plates to replace the mainspring? Wow! And did the clock run with this construction?

Uhralt

 

[Karl Thies]

I imagine it was done because the brackets which hold the mainspring had broken, and this was their solution. Besides the mainspring wheel they moved wheels around to adapt to the new configuration. This type of repairs I am not surprised with, but to adapt the case to this I am amazed at how much time they spent working on this. Oh well this is my new project to restore the clock and case. This was not done to save time or for not splitting the plates, they had to disassemble the clock to do these changes. It is only attributable to a total lack of knowledge of clock repair. Strangely enough, the clock ran though poorly and the chime worked for almost a day.

 

[Schatznut]

Man, that thing deserves the "Bodge of the Month" award. Good luck!

 

[Vernon]

Oh well this is my new project to restore the clock and case.

I tip my hat to you sir. It would be interesting to see which of you enjoyed the project clock more.

Vernon

 

[Karl Thies]

The difference between us is he had a simple repair that he turned into a project, and I have a project that I have to figure out how to turn this once beautiful ships clock back to what it once was.

 

[JimmyOz]

I would not fix it, better value to show customers how some repairers work or give it to the NAWCC to show in the Museum as it is a classic!!

 

[Firegriff]

Some poor shipwrecked sailor still had a shop on the part of the ship the ended up on land and no access to parts along with several years to complet the “Project”.

 

[JimmyOz]

If he was the ships engineer maybe that is the reason they were shipwrecked?

 

[Karl Thies]

If I was doing this for profit, I would have told the customer that it would cost too much to repair. I am now however retired for several years. I grew up repairing clocks and watches and have a small collection of clocks that i keep running. I love a challenge and since it is now an item I purchased, it is irrelevant if it is worth repairing, it is a challenge. I have been repairing clocks since I was 11 an am now 73. It keeps my mind active and I enjoy working on these "shipwrecks".

 

[Uhralt]

Looking closer at the pictures I think this might have been an attempt to convert a 30-hour clock to an 8-day clock. The strike mainspring seems to be a 30-hour spring and the new mainspring looks like an 8-day spring.

Uhralt

 

[Karl Thies]

Looking closer at the pictures I think this might have been an attempt to convert a 30-hour clock to an 8-day clock. The strike mainspring seems to be a 30-hour spring and the new mainspring looks like an 8-day spring.

Uhralt

Although the spring was twice as strong as the correct spring, it was not any longer. The clock as it was barely ran for a day. I think this was a case of try to get the clock to run and failing.

 

[Karl Thies]

Replaced the mainspring wheel and arbor from another clock that I found and repositioned the lantern pinions back to where they belonged. Then got the case back to reasonable condition. The restoration is done. I think it came out fairly good, and it has a good beat. Other parts required were two new mainsprings, and multiple bushings. All the pivots needed to be polished and some straightened. Balance wheel straightened and pivots polished.