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I just overhauled a Seth Thomas “Giant No. 1″, having an oak case 25-1/4 inches tall (job no. 4433). The movement is marked “8 1/4″ but it is the same movement later called No. 89. It has between-the-plates escapement, and the plates measure 5-5/8 inches tall and 3-5/8 inches wide.

According to a repair label, it had been repaired in 1979. It had two of the overpowering USIBEL FRANCE mainsprings, 0.0180 and 0.0185 inches tick, for the time and strike, respectively.

Both mainwheels had quite noticeable tooth wear. The strike mainwheel had about twice the wear of the time mainwheel, so I turned the strike mainwheel over so the unused tooth surface could be employed. I judged that the time mainwheel would work okay as is. The time second wheel had quite a bit of wear, so I turned it over.

The previous repairer had installed 2.7 mm tall KWM bushings, which I replaced with 1.8 mm tall KWM bushings (except for the verge pivots, which get 1.4 mm high bushings). I polished the train wheel pivots before installing new bushings.

I discarded the too-strong mainsprings and used the following springs:

Time: 3/4 x 0.0155 x 96 inch Merritt’s mainspring

Strike: 3/4 x 0.0165 x 96 inch, from R & M (or Merritt’s brown box)

Even with this thin mainspring for the time side, the pendulum motion is excellent, the running arc being about 3 times the escape arc.

Note: I first tried a .0155 inch thick spring for the striking. The striking did run for at least 9 days, but the striking sounded slow, and the customer decided he wanted a faster strike. The 0.0165 inch thick spring should not cause excessive wear, but time will tell. It will certainly be better than the .0185 inch thick mainspring!

So far, the .0155 inch to .0158 inch thick mainspring has been perfect for the time train. For the strike train, it is satisfactory, but the striking speed may be too slow to suit some people. On a ST “Giant No. 1″ oak shelf clock I am currently repairing, I am going to try an (approximately) .0165 inch thick spring, as the customer does not want the striking to be too slow. (At this moment, a .0155 inch thick Merritt’s spring is on the strike side, and it IS strong enough to power the strike for at least 9 days, but the striking sounds slow.)

I’ll post again when this job is complete.

I just finished a New Haven oak kitchen clock (my job no. 4333). The movement has 4 pillars and the dimensions are 4-9/16 x 3-1/4. The time mainspring is held by a separate short pillar attached to back plate. This movement has thin springs for time and strike. The two springs are both old but they are different, so I don’t know which one (if any) is original. The spring thicknesses are:

Time: 0.0165 inch

Strike: 0.0160 inch

This clock has nice old thin springs, and the pendulum motion is good, and so is the striking speed.

For future reference, some of the pivot diameters are:

T5F: 1.2 mm
T4F: 1.2 mm
T3F: 1.2 mm
T2F: 1.55 mm

A customer brought me a beautiful E. N. Welch walnut kitchen clock he had just purchased at an auction. It had a fantastic original painted dial, a great looking nickel plated bezel, and a pretty case that just needed cleaning. I examined the movement and said that it needed to be overhauled because one of the clicks in the winding mechanism was very loose and needed a new rivet installed. If the click had been left as is, it could come off, letting the winding key spin backwards, possibly damaging the customer’s hand. I quoted my usual price of the time (late 1990’s), $175 - $275 with a two year warranty. The customer didn’t want to pay that much, so he took the clock and left.

A month later, he returned with the clock. He had complained to the auctioneer about the clock not working, so the auctioneer sent him to “X” who would fix it for $35.

It didn’t look like the same clock. The beautiful, original painted dial had been replaced with a new paper dial, the nice nickeled bezel had been polished so much that the brass was showing through, the clock didn’t run well, and the click was still loose. The movement apparently had been “cleaned” but no repair had been done. I quoted the same repair price as before, and the customer said he would think about it.

Seeing repair work like this makes me sad. A beautiful clock in nice original condition, that would have looked fantastic with a little TLC to the case, became just another old clock, although it still had a pretty case.