Antique Clock Repair: Troubleshooting

Video Transcript

"Then, I can't teach you much about clock repair in a short clip, but we can talk for a minute about why a clock may not be running. Seems, as I'm doing clock repair work, people are often surprised, even angry, if their clock has stopped, and I ask: "well, when's the last time you had it serviced?" And: "Oh! We've never had to have this serviced. This clock's been perfect for years." And, that explains why it stopped now. You can't, if you think about your car, you wouldn't brag about the fact that you haven't changed the oil in ten years. You, this clock is a machine, the same way other machines are, and they require service. In this case, particularly, it's a fairly primitive machine, without sealed bearings, without a lot of fancy technology to keep it running, really unlike your refrigerator or, or other appliance in your house, which is of much more modern construction. They need service, and they will stop if they become dirty and worn, which is usually why they aren't running. You have with this here, where all of these shafts are turning inside, bearings which really are just holes drilled in the front plate of the movement. Those holes can get worn egg-shaped just from the pressure and the dirt, and eventually, if they're worn egg-shaped enough, the gears don't mesh properly, the clock stops, and then someone like me has to do what's called bushing, when you put a, a sleeve back in that worn bearing, so that it turns properly. Also, too, just dirt builds up, and all of these bearings, they start out with just a little bit of oil, it's open to the air, the oil dries, thickens, collects dirt, and you have too much friction for it to go. So, you talk about clock cleaning, but that really isn't as significant as what has to happen when a clock has to get taken apart, and deal with that wear and tear. The bigger issue to pendulum clocks is uneven ticking. I have a machine here that amplifies the tick. Right now, even this is a little bit out beat, but probably still working. You listen closely, you hear a short and a long. I can make that worse by unleveling the clock. If I level it better, I get a nice, even tick. The clock's in beat and it'll keep running. Many times, particularly with newer pendulum clocks, if they're out of beat, that's the only problem, and here you level the clock, or you injust, adjust it internally so the clock is ticking evenly."