Friday, February 28, 2014

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Waterbury Clock: Spring-Driven Regulator

The Cuckoo clock got me started -- I'm really interested in how these mechanisms were devised and constructed, and my next chance to see this was the US-built Regulator Clock Below.


You can see the clock spring [Dark steel against the black background makes it hard to see] at the bottom of the movement.

The symptom: The clock wouldn't wind
The ultimate case: The winding shaft couldn't retain the innermost winding of the spring.
The fix: I used a file to sharpen the tooth on the winding shaft to engage the spring's innermost winding, which had a small hole to accept the tooth. I also removed some excess oil which had dripped onto the spring [probably from above when the clock was oiled] that made the spring very slippery, possibly missing the winding tooth. In the process, I discovered that the clock was a Left-Hand wind -- it seems to have been designed this way. With a full wind, it can power on for about a week! This is quite a bit more than the Cuckoo clock which needs almost daily winding.

Clock ticking well with a slight diagonal motion on the pendulum swing