Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 3:55 am
Post subject:
I haven't visited here for a few weeks and it looks like the nonsense spewing SPAMMERS have made another attempt to junk up a man's thread on his clock restoration!!
4WS, you are coming along quite fine on your project, that is a good looking case and it appears that you may be in the home stretch soon! Do you have the face for the clock?
Regarding the chime rods, it has been my experience that the rods are ordered by length, matching whatever was originally on the chime block, and then threaded into the respective hole in the block. I have not had any problem with having to "tune" the steel rods with the exception of whenever I had to cut a longer rod off to make a shorter one that was not available. But most generally, they will suffice as they come from the manufacturer. I wouldn't advise mixing steel rods and brass rods though as they most likely will give you a difference in resonance and sound.
You have what is referred to as a "bim bam" chime with 2 rods being struck on the "bim" and the longer lower sounding rod being struck on the "bam"! I don't think that it will be anything noticeable if you order the same lengths of new rods as the ones you have already on the chime block although I really don't see a reason for replacing the two good chime rods. Unless they are somehow 2 octaves off, they will probably sound quite nice if you simply replace the broken rod.
Good luck and please post a photo when you get the project finished!
Edit:
OK, I just looked at a bim bam clock that I have on my living room wall which is quite similar to yours to make sure I was correct in what I am about to say. I was sitting here when the chimes struck 11 PM and the single hammer strikes the high note (shortest rod) and the double hammer strikes the two lower notes. I had this nagging feeling in the back of my brain from reading your last post on those chime rods but it didn't click into place until I heard the chime sequence on my own clock!!
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