# American Clocks



## antony (Dec 28, 2007)

Picked up a very unloved & neglected americam Waterbury mantel clock at the weekend.

Could`nt belive my luck, another project to fill my winter days, this mrs seamed to think i was mad , so did the seller,

should hands bought the clock.

The reason solely i bought it is the fact that it was all there

I have to say , things always look different once the rush of buying these things wheres off but , i do like a chalange.

Not being an expert on these things some times can be quite interesting , all is not what it seams on these Americam clocks.










For a start its all made of wood, all of it, the top sides & every thing & onece you get the back off it all becomes clear.

No glass , hands are all rusty, but are still there, thank god.










I do love the movements on these clocks , although every body po poos them, the clock is probabally 1900 , so some thing in my books that has survived that long is worth doing up.










Now i don`t no anything about old wooden cases so i will have to take a a good old fashioned wet cloth, a brush & some elbow grease lots of spit & some good old fashioned boot polish.

I have to say that the good old fasioned boot polish is not what it used to be , not being the good old fashioned wax any more,i have my doubts that it contains any wax at all, still slap it on & will get some proper stuff at a later date.










I Can`t belive my luck, stuck in the botton of the clock case is the original pendulem, how cool is that.










more as i work on the clock


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## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

Marvellous find, so good luck with your restoration.

Mike


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## Thomasr (Oct 11, 2011)

this is mine, i dont really do clocks but this came up as a restoration project and i had to give it a go, works now, runs like a train


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## clockworkorange (Jan 9, 2012)

antony said:


> Picked up a very unloved & neglected americam Waterbury mantel clock at the weekend.
> 
> Could`nt belive my luck, another project to fill my winter days, this mrs seamed to think i was mad , so did the seller,
> 
> ...


very nice find !,i dont mind the american movements plenty of parts available and easy to work on


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## antony (Dec 28, 2007)

Lovery clock Thomas, love the visible escapement.


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## antony (Dec 28, 2007)

The clock has bell & a gong, passing strike for the half hour on the bell & counting the hours on the gong..

The movement looks like it could do with a good service & a clean, although at the moment i will leave it as its not doing any harm, the amount of oil it contains means it won`t get any worse, and it can wait till i fancy a chalange, as the two 6/7 foot mainsprings always are a pain to deal with.

I took the bezel off, cleaned off all the lead solder & flux that someone loved so much, cleaned it all off .

I got a new glass cut ,using the inner bezel for the size, all of three pound, i glued the brass & bezel & rim back togeather, i know i should have lead soldiered it back, but with the dial fixed to every thing i did not want to take the risk.










I next had a look at the sides to see about bringing them back to life.

I found that i had some liquid leather die that quickly was soaked up by the wood , i waited to that to dry & then i black boot polished it & finially some proper wood wax.

An hours work that i`m chuffed at the out come.

Before picture.










After picture.










more as i work on it.


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## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

Well done - keeps us informed, very interesting project.

Mike


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