Greetings,
Thanks to everyone on these forums for providing such useful information and tips on these forums, I appreciate learning from the hard-won experience of others!
Dave here, a novice to clock repair, but I'm generally pretty good at doing finely detailed work. I have a lot of tools for surface-mount electronics work, and I've been known to make my own parts and tools for various purposes using just a drill press (which I sometimes use as a crude lathe).
I was given a Seth Thomas Westminster Chime mantel clock with a 124 movement a few years ago. It had been in storage for decades but appeared to be in very nice shape. As received, the chime spring was obviously broken but the clock seemed to run OK. I was quite pleased with myself after having replaced the spring without damaging the clock or breaking my fingers! Upon reassembly the Westminster chimes worked and sounded beautiful.
Everything else worked until I realized the clock was loosing time and would occasionally get stuck at 5 minutes to the hour. The clock has a strong and regular beat and continued to run while the hands were stuck.
I decided after reading these and other forums and whatever info I could find, that the problem was a slipping clutch. Sure enough - close examination of the clutch via a surgical magnifying loop revealed the spider spring floating around loosely on the center shaft.
I found pictures of other center shafts/clutches for other clocks, but none in enough detail of the 124 for me to see how it fits together. Some clocks had pressure held to the spider spring with a washer and pin running through the shaft, but I could not see any such pin in the 124 center shaft. Hard to tell without taking it apart. And take it apart I did.
The first photo shows the center shaft assembly. The retainer (bushing) can be seen floating freely. The spider spring floats around as well when poked. The next shows the wheel, spider spring, and retainer removed from the shaft. Finally, a photo showing measurements of the shaft. There's no washer and pin. Instead, it appears that the shaft is tapered and a brass retainer (bushing) is meant to be tapped into place for a friction fit. The spot labeled "0.101 contact" is about how far I can slide the brass bushing onto the shaft before it starts getting snug.
I intend to clean up the the parts and remove all oil from the shaft and then to tap the brass retainer back into place until I feel that the clutch is stiff enough. However, how do I know it will hold and that the retainer won't just pop free again? Any advice for how stiff I should attempt to make the clutch?
If I get this fixed, I'll proceed to clean and oil the other parts. Some of the pivot holes are noticeably worn, but not severely yet. I may try to bush the clock sometime in the future as I gain more experience down the road.
…Thanks, Dave!
Thanks to everyone on these forums for providing such useful information and tips on these forums, I appreciate learning from the hard-won experience of others!
Dave here, a novice to clock repair, but I'm generally pretty good at doing finely detailed work. I have a lot of tools for surface-mount electronics work, and I've been known to make my own parts and tools for various purposes using just a drill press (which I sometimes use as a crude lathe).
I was given a Seth Thomas Westminster Chime mantel clock with a 124 movement a few years ago. It had been in storage for decades but appeared to be in very nice shape. As received, the chime spring was obviously broken but the clock seemed to run OK. I was quite pleased with myself after having replaced the spring without damaging the clock or breaking my fingers! Upon reassembly the Westminster chimes worked and sounded beautiful.
Everything else worked until I realized the clock was loosing time and would occasionally get stuck at 5 minutes to the hour. The clock has a strong and regular beat and continued to run while the hands were stuck.
I decided after reading these and other forums and whatever info I could find, that the problem was a slipping clutch. Sure enough - close examination of the clutch via a surgical magnifying loop revealed the spider spring floating around loosely on the center shaft.
I found pictures of other center shafts/clutches for other clocks, but none in enough detail of the 124 for me to see how it fits together. Some clocks had pressure held to the spider spring with a washer and pin running through the shaft, but I could not see any such pin in the 124 center shaft. Hard to tell without taking it apart. And take it apart I did.
The first photo shows the center shaft assembly. The retainer (bushing) can be seen floating freely. The spider spring floats around as well when poked. The next shows the wheel, spider spring, and retainer removed from the shaft. Finally, a photo showing measurements of the shaft. There's no washer and pin. Instead, it appears that the shaft is tapered and a brass retainer (bushing) is meant to be tapped into place for a friction fit. The spot labeled "0.101 contact" is about how far I can slide the brass bushing onto the shaft before it starts getting snug.
I intend to clean up the the parts and remove all oil from the shaft and then to tap the brass retainer back into place until I feel that the clutch is stiff enough. However, how do I know it will hold and that the retainer won't just pop free again? Any advice for how stiff I should attempt to make the clutch?
If I get this fixed, I'll proceed to clean and oil the other parts. Some of the pivot holes are noticeably worn, but not severely yet. I may try to bush the clock sometime in the future as I gain more experience down the road.
…Thanks, Dave!
