Well, after some soaking the parts in kerosene, a lot of fun with steel wool, 600 grit wet/dry paper, toothpicks, and anything else I could think of, followed by citric acid baths for the plates, brass decorative parts, pendulum parts, thorough rinsing, then another thorough scrubbing in hot water and Dawn for all, inspection under magnification of all pinions, wheels, pivots, and pivot holes to make sure I got all last vestiges of unwanted detritus removed (a few fibers of steel wool were really tenacious... I missed some during first assembly and had to take the clock apart again to find one tiny little strand that was embedded in the escape wheel pinion).
She's back together and running like a champ. Some things I had to do, which I hadn't done before, included adjusting the pallets on the adjustable anchor. The eccentric on this clock didn't show any evidence of ever being tinkered with in the past (no gouges, scratches, etc.), but the escape was way too deep.. totally locked up and wouldn't allow any teeth to pass. Oh well... gotta learn sometime, right? Backed both pallets off a bit, reassembled... escape pallet looked good, but the entrance pallet was too high and not locking reliably. Lowered that one (all by eyeball... all I have.. and a good bench-mounted lighted magnifying glass on an arm) a smidge, reassembled... and it looked great! Drops are equal, although entrance lock is every so slightly less deep (but where it should be not on the face of the pallet at all) than the exit lock.
Another issue which I haven't run into before, discovered while testing for power prior to adding the anchor. The movement would take off fine after two or three clicks, but would run silently (as expected) then sort of groan/whine/chatter and slow down slightly.. then be silent.. then whine.... and it got worse with more clicks, not better. Also, although it ran after two or three clicks fine without the hands, once I added them it took about six clicks to get going, and if the minute hands was stopped at the "45" (15 minutes before the hour) position, it didn't have enough power to restart on its own unless I got up to about ten clicks. A nudge sent it going fine, but I know that wouldn't be enough if the escape was in there. I took it apart (probably did seven or eight full disassembly throughout the day.. got pretty good at it!) again, re-pegged all the pivot holes, re-checked all the pivots, pinions, and wheels, then reassembled the train with the anchor OR escape wheel. Ran much better, much smoother (although a bit louder than when the escape wheel was in but NOT whining.. in between the whines, as it were...), and no problem with the hands, so I figured the issue was somewhere in the escape wheel. The pinion of the escape wheel was the ugliest part of the clock to clean.. it was really rusty, filthy, and generally awful when I first took it apart. I gave it one more deep clean, reassembled and hoped for the best. Gave it 1.5x turns of the key, put it in beat, then gave it the minimum amount of rotation to get a tooth to unlock. Overnight, it's gained rotation and it's swinging 360 degrees now, and even keeping pretty good time. Very excited. This was the toughest one yet for me.
A couple questions... what would cause that whine intermittent whine during the power test? A depthing/teeth mesh problem? It was really amplified when I set the movement directly on my kitchen countertop.
Also.. I had NOT intended to do any stripping/polishing, as this clock has a painted base (with decals?) and enamel (porcelain?) columns and face and not in terrible shape, so I was going to leave it in "original" state other than the movement. However, the back plate was soo awfully corroded, with visible rust and black spots, that I had to strip it... so I had to strip the plate posts... so I had to strip the front plate... so I had to strip the arch.. then the pendulum looked awful, so I took THAT apart and polished it (on this clock, the pendulum arms (legs?) are PINNED in, not screwed... hadn't seen that before either...so I left them attached and cleaned that part as a unit). It all came out pretty nice, but now I've got bare polished brass in spots, with a lacquered base in average condition inside the dome, a lacquered trim ring around the face, and paint and decals on the base outside the dome in average, slightly worn condition with bits of bare brass showing here and there through it, and the brass trim ring between the painted parts looking pretty bad. The overall effect from across the room is fine.. I think it's a nice looking clock. However, up close, it looks like someone tried to restore it and gave up. I'm inclined to leave it as is, but if anyone has any tips for improving it, PLEASE let me know.
Here's two pics. Thanks again for all the encouragement and help these past few months!
After pic of movement interior... the top of the anchor is still pretty unattractive, but I didn't work on that part much. Concentrated on the parts that touch other parts and the steel parts...
And the clock as a whole showing the cosmetic issues mentioned above...
