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My First Post

293 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  RoyAber 
#1 ·
Forgive me if I've got it wrong but at 86 this new technology is not for me. I'm not a watch fan but a Long Case Clock man. I bought this clock in 1953 at a farm sale, in pieces on the barn floor, 18 years old and my first time out on my own in the family van. I asked the auctioneer "Will it go?" His reply - "Aye lad when you buy it." It cost me £5. I got it home and mother said "I'm not having that thing in the house." We had a four volume series of "Practical Mechanics" with an article on grandfather clocks which I studied carefully. I was lucky the clock was complete and I got it ticking.

It moved home with me three times and continued ticking until about eight or nine years ago when it started to gain and I added 3 inches to the pendulum and then after a few months it started to gallop. The escape wheel had worn unevenly and the escapement was slipping. I replaced the mechanism with a quartz dial and put the clockwork on one side to fix one day.

Old age and lockdown forced me to give up some of my interests so I bought a couple of books on clock mending and took my old clock to pieces. Problem - how to top a scape wheel. Was partly answered when I found a sewing machine motor and then saw a chinese mini lathe online and made a "lathe" with which I topped the wheel, then soldered an extension to the pallets and cleaned it up and away it went- well not quite like that but it is back in its case and keeping good time.

I would much appreciate if any one could date it. The hands are brass, the seconds hand is new last week, there is no makers name on the dial. There is a mark on the falseplate I*H which could be for Josiah Hayes. here is a link to pictures of my lathe, the falseplate mark, the dial just before it was replaced in its case and the strike mechanism.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LvVS9svQgXJJn4wq0V91zZ8pWTy4ZEA7?usp=sharing
 
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