Time ticks away for antique clocks as specialist repairers dwindle

[stewartingram]

Steve Fletcher Bio, Age, Wife, Family, Sister, The Repair Shop, Instagram (fact-files.com)

[stewartingram]

Steve Fletcher Bio, Age, Wife, Family, Sister, The Repair Shop, Instagram (fact-files.com)

(fact-files.com/steve-fletcher-wiki/)

 

edited as it wouldn't copy across.

Edited January 31, 2022 by stewartingram

[Steamport Southport]

21 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

As we are on the subject of ticking things I thought we might like to see this. It’s one of my personal projects,  (not work related) a 1839 pocket watch Fusee Chain Movement made by Joseph Bretherton of Liverpool (No 2 York Street to exact!). 

 

 

 

 

Douglas

 

Seemingly now a beautician/hair salon.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.401922,-2.9830008,3a,75y,274.18h,88.72t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sW4db3ejYKvrEh9tAfbNKCg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

Definitely listed.

 

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101429431-50-duke-street-including-2-and-4-york-street-and-27-henry-street-riverside-ward#.YfgOEZrP3IU

 

I'm sure that used to be a pub or club at one point though. 

 

 

 

Jason

[J. S. Bach]

I have (for many years) wanted to buy one of those mantelpiece clocks, remove the mechanism, and install a pressure gauge or an electrical meter in the case. Someday!

 

Here is a link to the exact style that I am referring to:

http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/photosnew/dealer_masons/3-tune-mantel-clock-252437.jpg

 

However, there are many, many styles as a DuckDuckGo image search shows:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=mantelpiece+clock&atb=v170-1&iax=images&ia=images

[Velocemitch]

Living in North Yorkshire we are lucky to have a really good Horologist living close by. Lucky I say, because my Wife inexplicably decided to start collecting vintage clocks a few months back, we are up to four now!. 

It surprised us how cheaply you can pick up some really nice pieces, each of them has a name. Walter is the best one, a fairly large American made Wall clock from the 1870's, picked up for £70.00. We have a couple of smaller ones of similar vintage, which we got for a fiver each.

Currently all the clocks are working and its quite good fun trying to keep them all roughly on time.

[J. S. Bach]

15 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Yeah I'm afraid I can't help you there, my suggestion was to just buy a new clock/movement.  ...snip...

I really did not think that you could as it is strictly an electrical problem; the movement is fine, just the motor died. The motor is a hermetically-sealed 110-125 volt 60 cycle synchronous one that rotates at a very specific speed and made just for the Jefferson Golden Hour Mystery Clock. Anyway, I bought a second clock that was said to run; well it did, for a while then stopped. So I unplugged it, removed the motor, and then basically forgot about it. Just before typing this, I decided to plug the motor in; it ran #@$$#@$ but is a bit noisy! Oh well, back on the shelf .

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by J. S. Bach
To add some information.

[Reorte]

I've got a wall clock, which when I first got it only ticked evenly when not hanging vertically. Eventually it stopped altogether. Fortunately a bit of observation showed something obvious broken - the pendulum suspension spring - and it looked easy enough to replace; a bit of searching around found one that appeared to be the same dimensions, and the clock's run fine ever since (hanging vertically now too).

[Florence Locomotive Works]

9 minutes ago, Reorte said:

I've got a wall clock, which when I first got it only ticked evenly when not hanging vertically. Eventually it stopped altogether. Fortunately a bit of observation showed something obvious broken - the pendulum suspension spring - and it looked easy enough to replace; a bit of searching around found one that appeared to be the same dimensions, and the clock's run fine ever since (hanging vertically now too).

They often get kinked/broken when they are being moved, often when one is moving house. Your replacement is the correct tonic for the diagnosis though.

 

Sometimes the movements have little friction hooks to hold the pendulum in place while being moved, they are quite hard to see though. 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

9 minutes ago, Reorte said:

I've got a wall clock, which when I first got it only ticked evenly when not hanging vertically. Eventually it stopped altogether. Fortunately a bit of observation showed something obvious broken - the pendulum suspension spring - and it looked easy enough to replace; a bit of searching around found one that appeared to be the same dimensions, and the clock's run fine ever since (hanging vertically now too).

They often get kinked/broken when they are being moved, often when one is moving house. Your replacement is the correct tonic for the diagnosis though.

 

Sometimes the movements have little friction hooks to hold the pendulum in place while being moved, they are quite hard to see though. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

2 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

but is a bit noisy! Oh well, back on the shelf .

 

That's what WD 40 is for.

 

Mike.

(Hearing a muffled aaaargh from mericky!)

[J. S. Bach]

But WD-40 is not really a lubricant. I would not want to spray that $chei$$e anywhere near a good piece of equipment.

[Steamport Southport]

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

On 31/01/2022 at 10:18, Chris116 said:

Trouble is I have no clue on who to contact but if anyone can point me in the right direction would be very pleased.

Would you be willing to ship/take it to somewhere else in the UK? The Clock Workshop is quite a good place.

[Chris116]

3 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Would you be willing to ship/take it to somewhere else in the UK? The Clock Workshop is quite a good place.

I would be happy to take it somewhere that I can get to by train. I would never trust it to a courier service or Royal Mail as I don't think it would survive. Where is The Clock Workshop?

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 minute ago, Chris116 said:

I would be happy to take it somewhere that I can get to by train. I would never trust it to a courier service or Royal Mail as I don't think it would survive. Where is The Clock Workshop?

Here you go,

 

http://www.clockworkshop.co.uk

[Chris116]

38 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Here you go,

 

http://www.clockworkshop.co.uk

Many thanks. I have found a bus service from Oxford that would be easy to catch after taking Chiltern line from Marylebone which is a lot cheaper than from Paddington on GWR and more fun as well. I will contact them later this week to arrange when I should take the clock. I expect to have to leave it with them and return a few days later depending on how long it takes to get the clock working. The return journey will be a real nightmare making sure I don't do the clock any damage!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, Chris116 said:

Many thanks. I have found a bus service from Oxford that would be easy to catch after taking Chiltern line from Marylebone which is a lot cheaper than from Paddington on GWR and more fun as well. I will contact them later this week to arrange when I should take the clock. I expect to have to leave it with them and return a few days later depending on how long it takes to get the clock working. The return journey will be a real nightmare making sure I don't do the clock any damage!

Your welcome! However before go I would call them to ask about how long it will take. You may be waiting a long time depending on whats wrong, their rebuild waiting list is 10 months I believe. 

[woodenhead]

Isn’t Kier Hardy of this parish one of said clock smith’s, don’t know if he is retired though 

[Chris116]

I fully intended to phone them to ask about time scales and possible costs. Although the clock is special to me, I don't have unlimited funds so need to know what I am potentially looking at time and cost wise. 

[kevinlms]

Sounds like a good job for someone keen and a career for life, if that's what they want.

 

Young watchmaker far from alarmed by the changing times for his industry - ABC News https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-16/meet-victorias-only-apprentice-watchmaker-tim-stewart/10981922

[Ohmisterporter]

I know someone who made a Congreve clock from monthly plans in either Engineering in Miniature or Model Engineer. EIM regularly had clocks under construction; obviously I have no idea how many readers were actually making one. 

[BR traction instructor]

I accompanied the then girlfriend (trained by her father) to some lovely old houses in 2017/18 to find how many folk had added more and more weight to the top of the pendulum to adjust the timekeeping of their historic time piece, elongating the bearing locations and hastening the need for bushing/re-bushing of damaged mechanisms as a result. She was always polite but none the less pointed out the need for regular maintenance of historic timepieces.

 

Reluctance to maintain these heritage items properly plays a big part in lack of work for skilled staff and hastens the demise of rare timepieces.

 

Less common but much more appropriate for the heritage involved was the idea that the then owner was simply a custodian attempting to pass on a historic relic in better condition than they received it in.

 

BeRTIe

Edited February 3, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[J. S. Bach]

41 minutes ago, BR traction instructor said:

I accompanied the then girlfriend (trained by her father) to some lovely old houses in 2017/18 to find how many folk had added more and more weight to the top of the pendulum to adjust the timekeeping of their historic time piece, elongating the bearing locations and hastening the need for bushing/re-bushing of damaged mechanisms as a result. She was always polite but none the less pointed out the need for regular maintenance of historic timepieces.

 

Reluctance to maintain these heritage items properly plays a big part in lack of work for skilled staff and hastens the demise of rare timepieces.

 

BeRTIe

My answer to her would have been something like: "Well, when it stops working, I'll just toss it out and get something else." That should wind her up! In reality, I would NOT "toss it out" but would either have it repaired or give/sell it to someone who would.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, BR traction instructor said:

I accompanied the then girlfriend (trained by her father) to some lovely old houses in 2017/18 to find how many folk had added more and more weight to the top of the pendulum to adjust the timekeeping of their historic time piece, elongating the bearing locations and hastening the need for bushing/re-bushing of damaged mechanisms as a result. She was always polite but none the less pointed out the need for regular maintenance of historic timepieces.

 

Reluctance to maintain these heritage items properly plays a big part in lack of work for skilled staff and hastens the demise of rare timepieces.

 

BeRTIe

Yes adding weight to a pendulum is huge no no, but is standard practice if you have a watch running exceedingly fast. My personal 1884 pocket watch (not the one pictured earlier) is running 1.5 hours fast so the balance needs a weight. 

 

The Georgians counteracted the expanding of pendulums in the summer and opposite in winter by inventing the mercury pendulum, which has a mercury filled bob which expands/contracts contrary to normal thermal expansion. They are often made as fakes now in carriages clocks but I have seen a real one and we used to keep vials of mercury at the shop to replace broken ones (that's a bad day).

 

 

I wouldn't say its reluctance to maintain them, but I would say its the ignorance of the owners who often seem to assume that, "well, its been working for 150 years, should be fine for another 100." Without stopping to think it probably had a rebuild every 30 years before they owned it. There is also the fact that people don't even think clock-makers exist any more, something I've experienced first hand.

 

Douglas

[BR traction instructor]

…a distinct watershed moment Douglas…those wanting the economy and ready disposal of mass produced items versus those wishing to maintain our heritage.

 

BeRTIe