Setting Grandfather Clock

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:39 pm     Post subject: Setting Grandfather Clock

I just received my Grandfather clock from England that belonged to my father. I had it worked on in England before it was shipped here to make sure all was working. When I went to set it up I moved the hands backwards before knowing I wasn't suppose to. Now it isn't working. What should I do?

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:21 pm     Post subject: Setting clock

Without knowing what type of clock movement is in your clock I'm afraid it is impossible to diagnose the problem. In some clock movements the hands may be moved forward or backwards to set the time. In others the hands must only be moved forward otherwise damage may result.
Have you tried moving the hands ahead (rather than backward) to see if the clock can be started? If it is a striking or chiming clock you should pause at the quarters or half hours to allow the clock to complete the striking or chiming cycle before advancing the hands again.
Without further information about the clock I'm sorry to say that more advice can't be offered.

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:36 pm     Post subject:

The clock is a longcase model. The face indicates it was made in Spalding.

It does not chime on the quarter hour, only the hour. The other mistake I made was to advance the hands before the chime cycle completed. Consequently the clock now chimes two rings less than the hour indicated by the clock face.

The clock can be started but only runs for about five minutes and then stops.[/img]

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:34 am     Post subject: Setting clock

An educated guess tells me that this clock has count wheel striking which is why the hands and hour indicated are now out of sync. The hour hand should be a friction fit on the hour hand shaft. It can be moved (carefully) to point to the correct hour. Grasp the hand close to the hub when doing this otherwise there is always the risk of bending, or worse, breaking the hand off. Only move the hour hand, when making this adjustment, not the minute hand.

In the short duration that the clock remains running is there an even tick tock sound? If not that may indicate that the pendulum is out of beat and has to be reset.

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:06 pm     Post subject:

Thank you for the information regarding the chiming. I will attempt to correct.

There is an even tick tock sound when the clock is running. It appears the pendulum simply slows down to a stop because of insufficient torque from the wheel around which the weighted gut is wound. The weight is positioned about midway of the total travel allowed by the gut which corresponds to the amount of gut around the wheel. I am reluctant to wind the clock any more at this point because it seems the clock should run wound to the current setting.

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:57 am     Post subject:

By any chance has the 'gut' become tangled or the layers of gut overlapped on the winding drum. This could prevent power from being transferred properly to the movement, causing it to slow down and stop.

Is this a single weight or two weight clock? If there are two weights are they the same or is one heavier than the other? If so the heavier weight may be required for the time train.

Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:50 am     Post subject:

I have been able to correct the chiming - thank you.

The "gut" is wound correctly. After observing the movement further I noticed several things. The second hand advances one second on the dial for each "tick" and "tock". (i.e. Tick tock advances the hand by two seconds.) However, on the "tock" movement, the second hand would advance, bounce back momentarily, and then advance again. After watching the mechanism I experimented with moving the cabinet angle to see if it had an effect on this condition. What I found was that if I tilted the clock cabinet about 3 degrees from vertical (side to side), the clock functioned correctly and continued to operate. I did level the clock front to back and side to side when doing the initial set up. What I am unable to determine now is if there is some adjustment feature that can be made to allow the clock to be set level and still run correctly.

The clock does have two weights. One is slightly heavier than the other by approx one pound. I had already positioned the heavier one on the time train side.

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:39 am     Post subject:

The slight bounce back that you notice is due to the design of the escapement which is a recoil type and is normal.

Although your clock case may be level, apparently the movement is not since the case must be raised on one side slightly for the movement to stay running.

I believe that this is a fairly old clock judging from previous comments. The pendulum is probably the type with an iron rod and a suspension feather (spring) which passes through a slot in the anchor arm extending from the escapement. The anchor arm needs to be bent slightly to one side to restore an even beat to the movement so that it will keep running.

An alternative to this arrangement is to loosen the screws or hook that fastens the movement to the movement shelf. Adding thin shims under one side of the movement to raise it will do the same thing. Add or remove shims until the clock ticks evenly and the movement continues to run. Retighten the movement screws or hook to the shelf.

A third possibility is that the pendulum rod (if it is metal) has been bent slightly and may need to be bent again to restore an even beat.

These adjustments should be done only in very small increments to accomplish restoration of an even beat to the movement and they may have to be repeated until you reach the desired result.

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:58 pm     Post subject:

Your assumptions regarding the clock's age and mechanism are entirely correct.

I have now confirmed the reason the clock does not continue to run is due to the uneven beat, likely due to the pendulum which appears to have been bent slightly in several places.

I will continue to make the adjustments you recommend. Thank you so much for you help and information.