Clapped out Church Bells.

[TheOldFellow]

I seem to have become unofficial, unpaid, untrained, horologist to my local church.

The bells don't work, (well, nothing worked until I got the Victorian-mortar-filled grease and starlings-droppings out of the cogs) and this is the culprit:

connects a lever (via a pin) to a long wire rope that pulls the clapper on the hour-bell (please excuse terminalogical inexactitudes). And it's snapped. 120 years of being stretched between once and twelve times an hour have finally caused the stem to snap just below the bottle jack.

I can't get the broken bit out either.

I have made something Heath-Robinson would be proud of to make a temporary repair - mainly for Remembrance Sunday, in which the Bell is the star turn. But I ought to consider a more permanent repair.

Suggestions (of a Christian nature Please!) as to how I might approach this would be very welcome.

As always, I await your wisdom with bated breath.....

R.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The threaded part looks like a bit you can buy easily - they have a left hand and right hand thread to adjust the length. But it would be an easy job to fabricate the broken bit - any blacksmith should be able to do it from stock size rod and then thread to suit. Might be more of a problem if that's the left hand thread bit, though.

[Dieseldes]

FWIW what I would do is to take a grinder (angle or bench!) to the welded nut, removing it completely, then weld on another nut, and make up a new rod using a piece of screwed rod,

As I have access to a garage with welding and grinding facilities it looks fairly simple, but any competent village mechanic, blacksmith, engineering works (in order of possible cost!) should be able to adapt something suitable

Des

[Cicero]

================================== You might be able to adapt or use directly one of these:

[The Wanderer]

I'd echo the comments of others, look for a local blacksmith, as the original almost certainly came from a similar source.....

[Rumble]

Turnbuckle A.K.A. Rigging Screw, Barrel Screw, Bottle Screw

Available from ironmongers, farmers' suppliers, fencing suppliers, chandlers, etc.

Also, presumably, you have considered calling specialists? e.g.

[tony sayer]

In article , Dieseldes scribeth thus

Indeed .. having spent a week or so in a Belfry installing cables for a radio broadcast transmitter it seems to me that improvisation is the order of the day where this equipment is concerned.

So see if you in the 21st cent can do better then what they did in the

19th;)

[mail]

Dear R

What you have is an historic item and should be respected as such. The general principle when dealing with non-church buildings is repair not restore. Thus if at all possible to repair then that should be done. The general idea is to leave as much of the original fabric as possible

How about the following suggestions?

Try heating up the broken thread with a blow lamp and give it a slight tap as it cools and see if that will shift the stuck thread

Absent sucess there try freezing it and then put the hot part of the lamp only on the outer bits to get a differential expansion and then try to undo it How to undo such a thread? Well you could flle the top part to a hexagon or square and see if you can get a small socket on it with a rachet

or use a drill and opposite threaded bolt / screw on the broken off bit

Once out it would be a matter of determining if the original is repairable by welding or other means - it does not look hopeful so I would look to seeing if you can scarf weld on a new bit of threaded rod a real fuss pot would look at the existing thread which may well be hand made and make a facsimile

Of course only a maniac like me would suggest such a laborious conservative repair but there are a few of us around that deal with historic buildings and it is just possible you may be of a like mind! Good luck

Chris G

[nightjar]

Visit a ship's chandler or an architectural ironmonger with the bits in your hand and you ought to come away with a suitable replacement. They are known as bottle screws, rigging screws or turnbuckles. I wouldn't get one made by a local blacksmith, as that is likely to be made from mild steel, while the ones you buy should be made from high tensile steel.

Colin Bignell

[R]

Emailed

[geoff]

In message , TheOldFellow writes

did you nick that from school ?

As for the bells ...

divine intervention, leave them be

[Mark]

Agreed, especially if it's in a residential area. I remember 6 months of misery when I lived next to a church as I got worken up very early every Sunday morning with "clang, clang, clang" going on for 10 minutes :-(

M

[TheOldFellow]

My wife's name.... I nicked it from her.

It's not a residential area, the Church is in the middle of a field. And the local residents (all farmers) have been complaining that the clock ain't working, so they are missing the first pint!

The bells you are talking about are the tolling for services. We do that too, but as it takes muscle power, not for ten minutes!

Anyway, as you say, Divine Intervention - I met a local in the graveyard just after I posted (strimming his Dad's grave), and he's got the tools to fix it. In the mean time, my Heath-Robinson attempt is still holding up. Now all I have to do is get the hands to point in the right direction!

Thanks for all the help everyone.

R.

[Andy Hall]

It sounds to me that you have the basis for a barter.

You fix the bell, each farmer buys you a pint.

[Owain]

A better arrangement might be a weekly commission from the publican for as long as the bell stays in service.

Owain

[Andy Hall]

Actually, one could do both. The initial income and the ongoing revenue stream. MBA students pay a lot of money to learn this stuff.