Restoring a grandmother clock...

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:56 pm     Post subject: Restoring a grandmother clock...

I am restoring a grandmother clock my grandfather made in the 40s, (I would guess, I never met him) but the cabnet is cherry and is in pretty good condition. Needs some attention, but is the least of the concerns. The movement is the problem. The movement is a (I would assume) cobbled affair, made from bits and pieces of stuff he put together. It was electric, but had copper rod chimes, and no pendulem. There was a second motor for a moving moon dial, and both the dials were hand painted by sombody. I would very much like to keep away from a speaker type of chime, but since there was no provision for a key wind or weight situation, electric would be nice. Is there anyone out there makeing a mechnical chime, electric movement? And for the moving moon dial .... welll ?
Also Im not a clock expert, but the second hand was on a seperate shaft below the hour and minute hand shaft. (more complication?)
So any help would be great, I can post pictures of the existing movement, but I would wonder if its of any help. (a good story, my grandmother would give the movement another month or so of life by spraying starter ether on the RUNNING MOVEMENT to free up the motor, and it would run fo while. Hard to believe it would not blow up!!! Found the can of starting fluid in the body of the clock.
Any help would be apprieceated.

Thanks

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:58 am     Post subject: grandmother clock

It's always possible that picture(s) would help in identifying your clock movement.
Only a few companies made electric westminster chime movements. A few others made electric hour/half hour strike movements. Just offhand I know of none that required a separate motor drive for a moon dial.
The Sessions company, however, made an electric chime movement with two motors, one for the time and a separate one for the chimes. It also had a separate seconds dial.
Revere was the only company that made an electric chime movement that drove a false pendulum. The pendulum had nothing to do with time keeping and was there purely for appearances, along with a set of false weights.
It may be possible to repair the existing electric movement, but more information and pictures would be helpful. Unfortunately, there are no companies still in business today making electric chime movements of any kind, although there are one or two companies that still make electric time only movements.