I recently repaired this walnut cased shelf clock, made in the 1880s – 1890s by E. N. Welch Manufacturing Co., Forestville, Connecticut. The movement is 8-day time and strike. The case is 23 3/8 inches tall and 14 5/16 inches wide. The original painted dial has a 4 7/8 inch time track. The hands are new replacements.
These old Welch movements are very solidly built, and this one is nice in having the extra feature of stopworks to limit the mainspring travel.
I polished the pivots and installed 16 bushings. The original mainsprings are 3/4 inch wide with loop ends. The time mainspring is about 0.0176 inch thick, and the strike mainspring measures from 0.017 to 0.0176 inch thick. These springs are good and were retained in the clock.
This Waterbury oak cased shelf (kitchen) clock was made around 1903 and is called “Amherst”. It is 21 3/4 inches tall (a small piece is is missing at the top, it should be 22 inches tall) and 15 inches wide. The hands are original Waterbury blackened brass Maltese style. The minute hand is 2 9/16 inches long from center to tip. The paper dial of this clock is original but worn.
The movement plates are 5 inches tall and 3 7/16 inches wide, and marked 5 3/8 (referring to the length of the pendulum). This movement is designed to use thin loop end mainsprings 3/4 inch wide. When the clock came into the shop, it had a strike mainspring 0.0142 inch thick, and a time mainspring 0 .0172 inch thick. The thicker time mainspring has caused significant wear to the time mainwheel teeth (the teeth on the time mainwheel are 20 % worn, which the strike mainwheel teeth are only 5% worn). The springs were slightly rusty, and I replaced them with Merritt’s Antiques part number P-1496 in the red and yellow package. I selected a spring 0.0156 inch thick for the striking, and 0.0158 inch thick for the time. The pendulum motion is excellent and the striking speed could actually be slower and still be reliable.
This was one of the most badly worn clock movements I have seen! It was very dirty when received. All of the pinion wires needed replacing. The pinion wires of the fan fly were over half way worn through! The movement must have been sprayed with something to keep it going without being cleaned for many years, and the dust adhering to the gear teeth acted as an abrasive, causing the wear to the pinions). All of the pivots needed polishing, and I installed 12 bushings. The pallets had deep wear grooves which I polished out.
The movement plates are steel (with brass plating for decoration), and brass bushings (they were made like this instead of solid brass for a few years – Gilbert also made some like this, so did Ingraham but without the brass bushings!).
This Sessions oak kitchen or shelf clock may have been made in the 1920s or 1930s. The case form has been simplified from earlier models. The label on the back says at the top:
Superior Assortment
Manufactured by
The Sessions Clock Co.,
Forestville, Conn, U. S. A.
Eight Day Half Hour Strike
A metal plate inside the clock says:
Sensenbrenner’s
“Watch Shop”
Circleville, Ohio
This clock has the usual Sessions 8-day time and strike movement. The pivots were rough, so I polished them. I replaced the brass wire click springs with steel wire for reliability.
The time mainspring was a replacement that was too strong. The end was labeled “Usibel France”. It was 3/4 inches wide by 0.018 inch thick. I replaced it with a mainspring 3/4 x 0.0165 by 96 inches from R & M Imports. The original strike mainspring of 3/4 by 0.0177 inch was retained in the clock.
Over the past several months I’ve been so busy repairing clocks and designing my Westclox history database, that I haven’t written in my blog! Here is a post about a New Haven walnut kitchen clock, and I shall post some more clocks this week.
This New Haven walnut cased “kitchen” or shelf clock from the 1880s has a fanciful case top and a multicolor stenciled glass in the door. The dial is missing some paint, but what is present is original.
The movement is 8 day time and strike. A characteristic of this movement is that the time mainspring is 3/4 inches wide, but the strike mainspring is only 5/8 inches wide. This movement, like many New Havens, has a zinc spacer between the mainspring and the mainwheel.
The time mainspring was stronger than necessary, 0.0177 inches thick. I replaced it with a mainspring 3/4 x 0.016 x 120 inches long, Timesavers #15959.
The original strike mainspring of 5/8 x 0.018 inches was retained in the clock.
The pivots and holes had a lot of wear. I polished the pivots and installed 16 bushings.
Oak and oak veneer case 22 7/16 inches tall and 14 7/8 inches wide.
The dial and hands are original (the dial is dark because it is oil soaked)
Showing the pendulum, gong and and the alarm unit.
The movement is labeled 8 1/4 on the lower right
The movement is an earlier version of the no. 89 movement. It is marked “8 1/4″ on the front plate. It uses 11/16 inch wide loop end mainsprings (later examples use 3/4 inch wide springs. It can run reliably on thin, weak mainsprings, but was given quite strong springs originally. The original time mainspring was 0.0195 inch thick, the original strike spring was 0.0185 inch thick. The time mainspring was broken when the clock came in for repair. I replaced both mainsprings with thinner springs (time spring 0.0163 inch thick, strike spring 0.0168 inch thick). The mainsprings are part no. CML 175.3) from Mile Hi Clock Supplies.
This movement has a strip deadbeat escapement. The pendulum takes an excellent swing with this mainspring, and an even thinner time mainspring could be used (if it were available)! The video below shows the escapement motion when run down for 8 days, and fully wound:
The movie below shows the complete clock, the movement, and the clock striking the hour and half-hour:
This walnut cased “kitchen” or shelf clock was made by the Waterbury Clock Co., Waterbury, Connecticut, USA. The movement has patent date September 22, 1874. It strikes the hours on a coil gong. The case is 17 inches tall and , and 10 inches wide at the widest part of the base. The paper dial has a 4 inch minute track diameter, has a nice (larger than usual) Waterbury logo, and says “Waterbury Clock Co.” at the bottom. The pendulum has the patent date December 11, 1883.
Waterbury took the effort to add decorative touches by nickel plating the keyhole grommets, dial pan rim and trim ring, hand washer, pendulum, and gong base cover. The nickel goes well with the bluish-white pattern printed on the glass. This is a great looking all-original clock. The dial shows staining around the winding holes, but it is in excellent condition for its age. Note: don’t polish the nickel plated parts – the nickel is easily polished off – just clean for a short time in your regular clock cleaning solution to remove dirt. (Carefully use Formula 409 cleaner on a Q-tip for the rim of the dial pan if it is dirty. Then rinse off the 409 using water on Q-tips.)
Mainsprings:
The original mainsprings measure as follows:
Time: 5/16 inch wide x 0.171 inch thick
Strike: 5/16 inch wide x 0.0167 inch thick.
The mainsprings didn’t open out very far when unwound (see photo), but they are plenty powerful enough to operate this one-day clock. The time mainspring had a crack, and was replaced with a new spring 5/16 inch wide x 0.015 inch thick x 42 inches long. The replacement spring is thinner than the original (which should almost always be the case with American antique clocks) and provides plenty of power to operate the clock. It runs at least 2 days on one winding.
This is a great little clock! One-day clocks are overlooked by many collectors. I like this clock for its lively American coil gong sound (see first video below), attractive walnut case, nice original dial (and everything else). The movement is well-made, beautiful (but hidden behind the dial) and has a nice loud tick tock!
I recently repaired this Ansonia walnut cased shelf clock. Case height 22 9/16 inches, width at base 14 1/4 inches. It was shipped from overseas, and so the door with glass was removed and not sent, to avoid damage. The main problem with the clock was that the strike mainspring was broken, and the click on the strike mainwheel needed a better rivet (it had a previous replacement rivet, that did not fully cover the hole in the click – see photo below). The click is also a replacement, but it functions well.
Ansonia clocks such as this have mainsprings that are thinner than used on many other clocks, and a thin replacement mainspring should be used (of course, original mainsprings should be retained unless there is a good reason for replacement).
The original mainspring measurements are:
Time Mainspring: 3/4 inch by 0.0155 inch.
Strike Mainspring: 3/4 inch by 0.0158 inch.
The time mainspring was in good condition so it was retained in the clock. The replacement strike mainspring is Empire Clock 280-19-009, measuring 3/4 inch wide, 0.0146 inch thick, and 120 inches long. It is a quite thin spring, but it is powerful enough to run the striking for 14 1/2 days.
I recently repaired this clock. The movement was ugly to start with, because a previous repairer had soldered bushings to the front and rear escape wheel pivot holes (see slide show below). The pivots were bent in the process.
I removed the unsightly bushings, removed the solder and straightened the bent pivots. The pivots were polished, the worn trundles on three pinions replaced, and the necessary bushings installed (I use KWM size American made bushings, friction fit). I made and installed new click rivets, and replaced the unreliable brass clicksprings with spring steel wire.
Time mainspring is quite thin at 0.0168 inches, yet the escapement takes great motion (in the escapement closeup movie the clock is 7 days run down).
