Antique clock repairs

[Roger Chapman]

Hi all

I have a late 18th century 30 hour long case clock in need of some TLC which might include making replacements for parts of the frame if the holes are too elongated to accurately bush.

The worn parts are made out of brass strip about 7/8" wide and a fraction over 1/8" thick (0.131" as close as I can measure).

I also need things like an elegant pin to hold the hands on (currently a safety pin) as well as a replacement post to hold the brass dial on. The broken post is currently riveted in place with a collar to provide a secure fixing but I could probably get away with a plain brass rod with a hammered end since the chapter ring covers the expanded end. There is a bit of a taper on the remaining pin and the riveted end is not visible but brass rod of about 5/32" might do. Also needed are retaining pins or some other kind of fixing to retain the dial in position.Ordinary domestic pins are a loose fit.

I would be grateful for any ideas about where I can the brass strip and proper replacements for the small bits needed or the basic materials to make the them if not available off the shelf.

On a slightly different aspect the clock (from a distant relative back in the 1960s) came with a rough cast lead weight weighing an almighty

14lbs. That seems to me far too heavy for a clock in good condition and may in fact explain why some of the holes in the frame are so elongated. So how much should a suitable weight weigh?

[ss]

Various bits are sometimes available on ebay, if not just google for them. The weight is probably correct I have a couple of longcase type clocks (stored at the moment) and from memory I reckon they are a similar weight.

[Bob Minchin]

HS Walsh and Cousins are suppliers of clock parts. Those pins will have a taper on them and possibly best measured off an existing one rather than trying to measure a locating hole at that size. For small amounts of raw materials such as your brass needs look at model engineers supplies or a surprising amount of metals on ebay. The postage is a bit of a killer for any quantity due to the weight but sounds like you will only need a small amount.

[Roger Chapman]

Thanks. I did start off with a Google but found useful information limited. Part of the problem is that in most cases I don't know the correct name for the part.

[Roger Chapman]

Thanks.

I had come across John Wardle and Co but they didn't seem to have anything I wanted except possibly replacement weights. Their weights range from 6.5lb to 12lb.

HS Walsh and Cousins hadn't come up but I will follow that up now.

[ss]

Does the clock run fast or the chimes run fast....

Quote:

1. Will improper weight placement adversely affect my grandfather clock? Yes, because the time, chime, and strike trains of your grandfather clock were designed by the manufacturer to be powered by a weight of an exact number of lbs. For example, if you hang a weight that is too light on the chime train, the chimes will run slow, or perhaps won't run at all! On the other hand, if you hang a weight that is too heavy on the strike train, the strike will run too fast, and result in movement damage and eventual failure!

[Kevin]

If in doubt, drill oversize, insert and peen over a solid brass plug, remark the centre, drill, and then finish with a clockmaker's broach to suit the size of the pivot concerned

Tapered clock pins are available in a range of sizes, with no apparent logic about the taper or increment between sizes. Traditionally, one uses a steel pin in brass and vice versa, but the world rarely ends if you don't.

The

Start with brass bar a bit oversize and turn it down, if need be by gripping it in the chuck of a drill and using a file.

Cousins or H S Walsh, as others have said, or Meadows & Passmore

Eight day clocks (two weights) often used 12-14lb, 30 hour clocks used lighter ones of say 8-10 lb. Using a heavier weight was always a quick fix for a clock so knackered it wouldn't run on any less, but in the long run, it causes more wear.

And don't forget: no oil on pinions or wheel teeth. They are nominally in rolling contact, so oil just turns dust into grinding paste. A tiny spot of oil where pivots run in the clock plates, and an even tinier one on each pallet face (the bit that releases the 'scape wheel).

Kevin (clockmaker (retired))

[F Murtz]

Get the DIY bug And make the parts yourself, work on my principal,if someone else can do something I can. In days of yore all the bits were made by hand and in the earliest days by non experts before they became expert.

[Roger Chapman]

snip

Sadly this is a simple clock from an obscure provincial maker. It just has a bell for striking the hours.

The maker is Samuel Corbett of Hadleigh, Suffolk. So obscure that the only thing I have learned about him so far is that he was in business in Hadleigh from 1766 to 1799. Anyone know anything further?

[Brian Gaff]

There is not a lot of movement in the pendulum from side to side so a heavy weight is needed to make it work accurately. Brian

[Roger Chapman]

I had thought about blanking the holes off but was torn between that and retaining the original parts as part of the history of the clock.

Another lead to follow up.

I intend to see what the minimum weight to run the lock is once I have it up and running again. It is easy enough to saw lump off the lead weight. Rather more tricky to recast it should I hack too much off.

It could easily be grinding paste that did some of the damage in the first place. I probably used oil on the pivots after I gave it a thorough clean when I first got it but it was not running long before the state of the case led to me ask my father for assistance (a much better carpenter than me) and the works were packed away in a box in

1976 and remained that way until recently after a house move put that and other things on hold.

Thanks for all the advice Kevin

[Roger Chapman]

The works for this particular clock look too uniform to be all handmade. I suspect it was more a matter of clock assembler rather than maker from scratch.

The case on the other hand is rather crude and not the work of a budding Chippendale.

As for me I have always done what I could rather than pay someone else to do what might be quicker work but not necessarily of higher quality.

The reason I have taken so long to return to the clock was because it was always third in line behind more important renovations. It wasn't until old age and infirmity convinced me that I would never finish renovating the hovel I had bought back in 1978 without the assistance of a builder that the 2nd unfinished project in the form of two classic cars, largely untouched since the early 1980s, departed in return for a significant cash payment that went some way to paying the builder.

[Roger Chapman]

Hmm. A pendulum needs a helping hand to get going but once swinging needs only a gentle nudge to keep going. Not much drag in the pivot and not much air resistance to the swinging bob.

[therustyone]

Provincial makers tended to be like modern car assemblers, not doing any skilled mechanical work but importing the works ready built from London, then putting their own case, dial and name on the front. However, if their name is tastefully engraved on the brass, it may be genuine.

[Roger Chapman]

snip

The name is indeed tastefully engraved on brass but the brass in question is a detachable plaque pinned to the brass back-plate like the chapter ring and the embellished corners. I would not be at all surprised if it turned out that the the plaque is the only unique part of the works.

This Samuel Corbett is almost certainly the man who was married in Hadleigh in 1769 and buried there, age 79, in 1821. His birthplace is uncertain but likely to have been in the northern half of Suffolk given the concentration of Corbets around Lowestoft in the first half of the

18th century.

[Max Demian]

I've got a mantle clock with "Roger Lascelles London" "tastefully" printed on it, but the movement is obviously a 20p quartz job made in China. they have the cheek to describe themselves as "UK's Largest Clock Manufacturer".

[Vir Campestris]

I did a quick google and found a Samuel Corbett, clockmaker, of Coventry... then decided it was too hard.

Andy

[Roger Chapman]

Most clock maker records in the early days concentrate on London makers almost to the exclusion of anyone else. I restricted my search to Suffolk and there is a list available for Suffolk makers. Hadleigh was a prosperous place in the 18th century, as were many of the towns thereabouts with several clock makers in business in the second half of the 18th century. My information on Corbetts in Suffolk generally came from familysearch.org, the Mormons' attempt to document everyone who can be found to have left even the faintest of genealogical traces in recent centuries,