Surprised myself - sucessful Kitchen clock preservation/restoration

[LarryAC]

This is my first clock restoration project and I'm so pleased with the unexpected final result that I hope no one minds my posting a few photos.

I didn't think when I bought the clock that it would be possible to restore it with any degree of preservation. I picked up this Gingerbread clock/kitchen clock for $20 off of Offer-up. It turns out this is an Ansonia Africa clock, but the movement is not Ansonia and while it has an alarm movement and setting dial, the main movement was not intended to have an alarm. Until I can source a replacement movement, I've left off the alarm. Also, the barrel pendulum that came with the clock appears to be Ansonia, but is too long and heavy to work with the movement so I had to get a shorter bob pendulum from Timesavers.

The movement was old and not working, but restoring the movement as a project was the main point of buying the cock and while it needed nearly all bushings, pinion trundles and mainsprings replaced, it was more-or-less straight forward, but a learning experience for me. The case was a mess when I got it and I was pretty sure the only way to "restore" it would be to build a new case. It turned out that might have been the easier path compared to the effort it took to complete this project, but there would have been little "preservation" of the case in doing so, so I went for "restoration" with a strong "preservation" bias. The only piece I had to outright replace was the base portion of the top - it was so badly broken and rotted as to be un-salvageable. The base of the case needed a number of repairs around the perimeter molding and the rear (not shown) that were either broken and lost over time or had so many nail and screw holes that it might as well have been termite eaten. There were countless nail and screw holes in places were there never should have been any.

I don't know what the finish was that was on the case, but there was something like a milk paint that was fairly easy to remove with strippers and sanding, but in many places, particularly on the base, that had a very hard dark colored finish that was nearly impossible to sand or scrape off and the paint stripper had no effect on. Some sort of epoxy finish? Who knows.

The dial was in pretty bad shape and while it would have been nice to retain the patina of an old dial, I ended up creating and printing a new dial that I think came out pretty close to the original. I also had to fabricate the missing finials on the base. I haven't yet mounted the gong as this was missing from the clock but I just found one on Ebay and am waiting for it to arrive.

In any case (no pun), I initially thought the case would not be salvageable, but for a first project, I think it came out pretty good.

 

[Dave T]

Looks good but why did you change the pendulum?

 

[LarryAC]

Looks good but why did you change the pendulum?

Because the one that came with the clock was seemingly not intended for the movement that came with the clock and it could not be made to run the clock fast enough.

 

[Thomas Sanguigni]

I see you made some changes to the clock. Most would not notice. You did a fine job preserving. Make sure you can add back the alarm at a later date. You don't have to use it, but it looks good. Did you turn the upper finials around for a reason?

 

[LarryAC]

The upper final were just screwed to a backing piece that looked newer than the bulk of the case. All of the photos I found of Ansonia Africa clocks show the finials with the large end pointing down, so I assumed that one of the previous people to work on the clock put them on upside down. Considering how poorly previous repairs were made it seemed reasonable to conclude that whoever worked on the clock just guessed when they assembled the clock. I restored them to what I think is their original orientation.

I plan to mount the alarm as soon as I can find a period-correct Ansonia movement to replace the old but un-branded movement currently in the clock.

 

[Thomas Sanguigni]

Good work and research.

 

[WRLaw57]

This case really cleaned up nicely. What did you do the the chipped front base piece? I cannot tell from the restored picture other than it appears to have been repaired.
What did you do to clean it up so thoroughy, and what did you use for finishing? I'm always looking to learn and expand my knowledge base.

 

[LarryAC]

I cut in at each end of the chip with a dovetail saw and used sharp woodworking chisels to carefully shape the chipped area to be flat and mostly square at the ends of the chip where I cut in with the DT saw. This is the skill step and it takes some patience and care to get it good without removing any more existing wood than necessary, but is very doable and uses only hand tools. I then shaped a piece of mahogany with similar grain to the area of the chip, glued it in pace, then shaped it with chisels and sandpaper wrapped around dowels of the appropriate radius. The glued in piece is mostly square and sticks out and needs to be carved to be flush with the surfaces of the chipped base. If you do this with care, you can get the piece to fit nearly perfectly and if the grain is very similar, it becomes almost unnoticeable. If you screw up making the insert piece insert, just start over until you make one that fits really well. I then stained the entire case with General Finishes Georgian Cherry gel stain. I finished it with 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal Seal Coat, which is just a light cut of shellac, to give it a protected but nearly "on the surface" unfinished wood look, and to avoid the look of a thick poly finish.

I mostly used a lot of sandpaper to get all of the previous finishes off the clock, but I had to use paint stripper (CitriStrip) on the the base because there was some sort of black finish under the red paint that would not sand off. I took the case almost completely apart (except I left the base intact) to replace pieces that were rotted and could not be restored. I used a belt sander to level the top and bottom of the base and replaced about 3/8" of the rear of the top of the base where there were so many nail holes from previous repairs, and rotted wood. I used a table saw to remove the rotten wood and provide a clean staight glue edge then, like the chip replacement, I used a piece of similar grain mahogany that was planned and drum sanded to proper thickness, then belt sanded flat to the top of the base. Like the chip repair, one would have to look very closely to notice the repair.

 

[TobyleJug]

I think it looks very good- well done.