ClockInfo.com

I prefer American made KWM size bushings of 1.8 millimeter height for for the train wheel pivots of antique American mantel, wall and shelf clocks with open mainsprings (clocks made by makers such as Ansonia, Ingraham, New Haven, Seth Thomas, Waterbury, etc). Commonly needed bushing sizes are L-41 through L-45, and L-88. The bushing is longer than the plate thickness, which is good for this type of clock. These movements are over-powered and the plates are relatively thin, and the longer bushing decreases the pivot and bushing wear. I polish the pivots before installing new bushings.

For movements with a between the plate verge, I use 1.3 millimeter tall bushings such as L-17 or L-18 for verge pivot bushings.

Note: if a pivot hole shows very little or no wear, bushing it is not necessary (I made this note because some repairers bush everything whether it is necessary or not, a philosophy I disagree with).

American made KWM size bushings are available from many clock parts suppliers such as R & M Imports.

A customer received a new Hermle chiming wall clock, and when it chimed or struck, all the notes sounded bad because the hammers were too close to the chime rods. The fix was simple:

1. Tighten the four nuts on the back of the case,
2. Slightly loosen the two Phillips head screws on the back of the case,
3. Move the iron chime rod base so that the chime rods are about 1/16 to 1/32 inch below the hammer heads,
4. Securely tighten the two screws.

Every now and then, a viewer sees the Westclox history on the ClockHistory.com web site and assumes that we are affiliated with the maker of Westclox clocks. They then proceed to give their complaints about the quality of windup alarm clocks made today. Someone sent several e-mails to one of my co-researchers, got annoyed at no response, and finally said the following in an e-mail: “Your clocks don’t work, and apparently you don’t either!”

I can say the following about the windup alarm clocks made today: “You get what you pay for.”

For an alarm clock to be of the same quality as a Big Ben or Baby Ben made up through the 1950’s, it would have to retail for around $40 – $65 (see my post about Historical Alarm Clock Pricing). The windup alarm clocks of today sell for around $8 – $13 in discount stores. It would take a huge number of people willing to pay enough for a high-quality windup alarm clock, for the manufacturers to take notice.

• Do not use screw-in or screw-on bushings. A clock must be taken apart to properly install bushings in worn pivot holes.
• Do not routinely replace mainsprings. A new mainspring can be as likely to break as the old, original one. If the original mainspring has been operating well for 100 years, it is likely to continue operating well, as long as it has no obvious cracks or other damage, and is strong enough. For a delicate clock (such as French) a new mainspring may be necessary occasionally. For the American 8 day open spring clock, which is typically over-powered, the original spring is undoubtedly strong enough, and may be too strong!
• Do not install a .018 inch thick mainspring in an American open spring 8 day clock. Thinner springs such as .0165 inches thick should usually be used. See the American Clock Mainsprings section for more information.

Two friction bushing systems are widely available – KWM and Bergeon. The KWM is preferable due to the smaller outside diameter (less material removed from the clock plate, yet the bushing has enough material to be strong). Also, the KWM bushings for American clocks are available with longer pivot area (some of the Bergeon bushings are chamfered out way too much) allowing less wear to the pivot and bushing. Also, many suppliers (such as R & M Imports) offer KWM size bushings made in USA (called the American system) instead of Germany, that are made of harder brass.

Bronze bushings are available in some systems, but I don’t use them. I have found that brass bushings give excellent service, provided that the pivots are polished as part of the repair job.

The thing I really hate about Bergeon bushings, is that once they have been installed in a clock, you can’t easily use a KWM bushing, as the hole in the plate is too large! If every repair shop would use KWM bushings, future repairs on these clocks would be easy. Some shops custom fit bushings, which look nice, but make future repairs more difficult. KWM bushings can be chamfered to be invisible in French clocks, yet still be easily changed in the future. In American antique clocks, I prefer 1.8 mm height bushings which protrude above the plate, and give a longer bearing area to reduce future pivot and bushing wear.

I recently added chime and strike sounds of many of the Hermle and Chelsea clocks to the Bills Clockworks web site. It was challenging to record the sounds and have them sound realistic. The microphone had to be located close to the clock (about 8″ away) or else too much background noise was picked up and the recording was not loud enough, but the closeness over-emphasized the mechanical noises from the movement (such as the click made near the end of the chime when the strike is being activated). In real life, the listener is not aware of these sounds when she is located several feet or more away from the clock.

A challenge was to make the sound buttons compatible with as many types of computers as possible. I did not want a sound player window to pop up, I wanted just a button that the user can click to play the sound. On some windows PCs, the user must give permission the first time a button is clicked. Macintosh computers that I have tested handle the sound fine.

Please test these sounds on your PC and let me know if they play. Also tell me the type of PC (Mac or windows), operating system (such as Windows XP or Vista), and the web browser (such as Explorer 6 or 7). You may leave a comment below. These two links will open a new window or tab in your browser:

Hermle Chime and Strike Sounds

Chelsea Ship’s Bell Strike Sounds

Thanks!

I received a new batch of P1496 mainsprings (3/4″ x .0165″ X 96″) from Merritt’s antiques. They are made by a different supplier than the ones I wrote about recently. The ones I really like come packaged as follows: Each spring is wrapped in oiled paper, then in a plastic bag, then in a red, yellow and orange box. Six springs are contained in a larger red, yellow and orange box.

The newer springs are each wrapped in a plastic bag, and 10 springs come in a brown box. I have not tried one in a clock yet, but I did measure the thickness of one spring: .016″ which is fine, I prefer that they be thinner than .0165″ rather than thicker. You need to check these springs before use, as there were some in the past (from a different supplier) with inner ends that were too brittle.

Merritt’s has informed me that they expect to have more of the springs in the red, yellow and orange boxes by mid-July.

400 day clocks have a very thin flat wire (about 2 – 4 thousands of an inch thick), called the suspension spring or suspension wire, that the pendulum hangs from. You must be gentle with these clocks to avoid damaging the suspension spring.

This web page has some original 400 day clock instruction sheets:

400 Day clock instruction sheets

Before starting the clock, put it where it is to be located. Then unlock the pendulum (for Schatz miniature clocks and many Kundo clocks) or hang the pendulum on the pin at the lower end of the suspension spring. Level the clock so that the point on the bottom of the pendulum is near the center of the cup in the base. Some clocks have leveling feet that you can rotate, on those that don’t you can use paper or cardboard shims under the edge of the base.

Gently rotate the pendulum 1/2 turn and release it. During operation, the pendulum makes a slow motion of about one turn, first rotating one way, then the other, every 6 to 8 seconds. NEVER SPIN THE PENDULUM!

Earlier this year, a customer received a clock from me after repair, and it was working perfectly. Three days later, it stopped, and we could not figure out why. So he sent the clock back to me, and I found that the suspension spring, which should be flat, had over 100 twists in it! My customer was puzzled, but did some checking, and found that his cleaning lady’s grandson had spun the pendulum around rapidly! I replaced the suspension spring and the clock was as good as new.