Antique Clock Repair: Replacing Bearings & Springs

Video Transcript

"I've seen the work of people who think that they can fix anything, and antique clocks should be among them. But, there are things either you know it, or you do it wrong probably, and in those cases, then someone like me has to come along and fix the damage you've created just by trying to fix it in a way that you really, that you shouldn't have, in anything other than a clock movement that you don't care about. I mentioned bushing, which is probably required in almost every clock that I've ever worked on, at least one, if not several of those bearings have gotten worn egg-shape and need to be, need to be bushed. Often you have mainspring breakage too, with that, there's a lot of power in that mainspring, you can end up after twenty, thirty, fifty years with metal fatigue, and suddenly one day, when you're winding the clock, that mainspring explodes, breaks, and often tears up gear teeth or bend shafts in there too. So, those kinds of things come up pretty often in clock repair. You don't need a lot of specialized equipment or tools, but you need some, and in order, particularly, do it the way that should be done right, and so that the clock's going to run for a long time afterwards, and not just get a squirt of WD-40. You need to have the right tools and the knowledge of how to do it right. I was told, when I started out, by the guy who, I guess, was mentoring me, was that the, you can plan on about ten years and ten thousand dollars, and you'll start to know what you're doing. He was probably right, or maybe even off a little bit in the wrong direction. Another way of looking at this that I've come to realize is, it happens to me too, is you know you're getting okay as a clock repairer after some years, usually, when you can fix your own mistakes."