Weights

Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 4:59 pm     Post subject: Weights

We have a Howard-Miller grandfather clock. The center weight falls faster than the other two. We have oiled it, but nothing has helped. It keeps perfect time.
Thanks

Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:39 pm     Post subject:

where have you oiled it?

Does it chime and strike as normal?

Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:55 pm     Post subject:

I did not take the movement out of the case and oil it properly, just a drop on the exposed points. Before oiling, it would'nt chime at all unless you put slight pressure on the weights, so the oiling did help. Yes, now it seems to work ok but the weights still don't drop the same.

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 1:54 pm     Post subject:

does it have automatic shut-off for the chimes?

if it does then this operates between 11 at night and 7 next morning.

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 5:50 pm     Post subject:

We can manually shut the chimes off

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 8:34 am     Post subject:

that's what i mean...when the chimes are not 'on' the weights won't drop...

Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 6:55 am     Post subject:

does it have automatic shut-off for the chimes?

if it does then this operates between 11 at night and 7 next morning.

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:33 pm     Post subject:

It doesn't sound like you have a problem at all! On a triple weight clock, the right hand weight (as you view the front of the clock) usually operates the chimes you hear every 15 minutes. The center weight drives the pendulum (the speed regulator for the time) and gives you the proper time, and the left hand weight operates the hour chime telling you what hour it is if you can't see the face for visual confirmation. The center weight runs continuously at a given speed. The right hand weight only operates every 15 minutes and gets progressively longer in operation as the hour progresses, ie., it runs a short time on the 15 minute chime, twice as long on the 30 minute chime, 3 times as long on the 45 minute chime, etc.. The left hand chime will chime one time for one o'clock and advance one additional chime for each hour up to the final 12 chimes for noon and midnight. As you can see, the only weight to drop consistently is the center weight, the other two vary in operation depending on their placement in the time sequence or the hour at hand. So, in a 12 hour period, if you wind the clock at noon with all 3 weights equal, by midnight everything has gone through a complete 12 hour sequence and the weights should be pretty close to even at that time.

I sure hope this makes some kind of sense to you, it is much easier to see it happen than to try to explain everything ............. picture worth vs. words and all that, doncha know! Pull all of your weights up even at noon and then watch as the day progresses, you will see the left hand weight lag behind the center weight as it starts out at 1:00 PM, and the 15 minute side will start out slowly and get closer to the center weight as it approaches each hour. By the time you reach midnight, the hour side (left hand weight) of your clock has cycled a total of 78 times chiming each hour as it arrives. The 15 minute side (right hand weight) has cycled a total of 120 4 note cycles for most Westminster chime sequences. And, during the same 12 hour time span, the center weight controlling the actual time being recorded by your clock has plodded along consistently at a predetermined speed. Each of the other weights are geared to coincide as close as mechanically possible to "even out" eventually over those same 12 hours.

You are looking at 3 completely different small mechanical machines, each driven by its own weight, integrated together in one place to do 3 different things and they don't always happen in equal ratios at all times.