Clock hands

clock hands
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

A clock is a wonderful thing. Useful when working properly, nice to look at, and if it's a proper mechanical one, sounds nice. This means I own quite a few clocks and with my interests some of these were originally used on railways.

Ideally I would be able to maintain these myself. I tinker a bit but to be honest there has never been the time to learn the requisite skills. Fortunately there is a proper old-fashioned clock shop in Warwick where I can take things for repair if necessary.

A year or so ago I bought a clock from the local auction. It appears to be an LNER one and has the correct fusie mechanism. I say “appears to be” because the clock has been over-restored to remove any of the patina age gives the workaday item. Still, it didn’t cost toooo much.

It’s never kept good time though. I’ve had it nearly right but could never get things to my satisfaction – I’m really picky about these things. – so into the clock shop it went.

First time out things were improved but still not quite right. Back it went and there was a long wait for a part. Eventually this arrived and I got a call to say the clock was ready. Embarrassingly I didn’t have to pay anything toward the second repair – this is a real old fashioned shop where customer service is paramount.

Things didn’t seem quite right though still. The hour hand wasn’t moving properly when I got it home. Since all seemed fine when I had the office during the day so I concluded that something had shaken loose while I lugged it back on the bus.

Not wanting to take the clock back again I decided to have a quick look myself. The problem seemed to be that the gear attached to the hour hand wasn’t meshing. All those model railway gears have taught me a bit about gear mesh !

Getting at the gear was easier than expected although it did involve removing the mechanism with a 13mm spanner. Once exposed it was obvious that the position of an idler gear wasn’t quite right, something that was a matter of minutes work to adjust. Everything felt a lot tighter and the hands moved in sync, albeit at an increased rate since I’d taken the pendulum out.

While re-assembling things I took the chance to paint the hands. I’m sure these aren’t original as the minute one has a scribe mark on the back indicating that it’s been cut out by hand whereas I would expect a stamped out version on a clock of this age.

A quick coat of cellulose matt black did the job. Now everything is back together I just have to adjust it to keep good time. I hope.