Installing America the Beautiful Chimes

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 12:34 am     Post subject: Installing America the Beautiful Chimes

My son is building a grandfather clock. The case is done and he is now installing the movement (America the Beautiful Hermle Movement, 13104 from Klockit).

We opened the package with the chime rods and installed them on the sound board. We have two questions:

1. When we removed the cardboard spacers that hold the rods apart, the rods on one side all converge together rather than hanging free. No obvious damage to the box. Is this normal? Can the rods be bent by hand to hang straight? (Didn't want to do this first and find out you shouldn't).

2. When the chimes sit between the hammers, the hammers barely hit both sides. Illustrations in the catalog show the chime rods to be angled vs. straight up and down. The instructions don't say anything about angling them. Do they sit at an angle?

Thanks for any help. Rich

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 4:01 am     Post subject:

can you post a photo? the rods should either flare outwards, or hang straight. Unfortunately klockit does not list the movement on the website. The hermle # should be on the back plate of the movement, so if you can tell me what it is maybe I can look up what the chime rod looks like, would be a number like 151-010.

You can always bend the striking hammers to strike the rods properly.

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 4:19 pm     Post subject:

the rods should be straight down and not touching. pull them apart .

bend the hammer rods to hit the gongs corectly.

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:24 pm     Post subject:

thanks for the help! looks like we just need to straighten out the one side (fortunately it's the side with only 4 rods). I also see that the hammers on that side have a set screw that allows us to adjust all 4 hammers closer to the rods.

on bending the hammers, any watch outs? (we've read a description in the instructions on what to do)