Willard Patent Banjo clock -how repair
Jerry Powell
antique banjo clock and I need to know what to expect if it was overwound.
Thanks,
Jerry
The Baron
there is no such thing.
"Jerry Powell" <jpowe...@cinci.rr.com> wrote in message
news:hea%b.8549$OE4...@fe1.columbus.rr.com...
Trevor Jones
Firstly, "overwound" ? Is it wound all the way up? Someone didn't
convince you that the guys that designed it only meant it to be wound
halfway or it would quit, did they?
Anyway. It's an old clock. I'd bet that it's very worn from years of
use, and has, quite justifiably, quit running from the wear. That would
be in the pivots, the pivot holes in the plates, and quite likley the
gears themselves, from years of use. Clocks that do not run, do not wind
down much, tending to stay quite tightly wound, in fact, between
attampts to wind them further.
As you seem unfamiliar with how the works work, I would actually
suggest as a first step, you assess your own mechanical skills. As you
have not already ripped into it, I'd suggest that you are not terribly
inclined to do so, and are probably not well equipped to do the repairs
that the clock will likely require (dressing or replacing pivots,
installing bushings, safely removing and installing springs, possibly
making gears or pinions)
I would suggest a couple or more books on clock repairing from your
public library would be a good place to start, if you are interested in
doing this yourself. At the very least, you may well realize that this
is not a simple undertaking, though the basic tools can appear so.
If the clock is valuable to you at all, it would be best if someone
already competent should at the very least, inspect it and give you an
honest assesment of it's condition and perhaps an estimate for the
repairs. It is often far cheaper to pay for the repairs, rather than to
pay for the repairing of the attempted repairs, if you know what I mean.
I doubt that having a picture of the works in hand will help you much
in assessing the condition of your clock. The books, at least, may give
you enough information to prevent you from doing further damage, and
might well get you started on a new hobby.
There are several enough variants of Willard's clocks out there that
you would be lucky to find your exact one.
http://www.ubr.com/clocks/bib/newbk/ambanjo.html
Good Luck!
Cheers
Trevor Jones
Frank Adam
Overwound ? A loud and sharp 'kapooow...zinnnnnng' noise, followed by
the soothing sound of arbors and teeth bending over on the barrel and
the 8 day wheel. Apart from that, nothing too serious can happen. :-)
Seriously, i'm not sure where the word 'overwound' comes from, but in
real terms it can only mean one thing and that is breaking the
mainspring by winding it ridiculously too far past it's limit.
In most cases this would cause less damage than one would expect
(especially with enclosed springs), as the mainspring tends to break
on the end, and will simply slip back to it's normal position, though
still rather rapidly. If it breaks in the center however, it just
snaps back and that's a lot of energy being released at once and in
90% of cases will cause a lot of damage to surrounding wheels.
Not sure if this is what you wanted to know, but HTH.
--
Regards, Frank
R.L. Horn
<fa...@notthis.optushome.com.au> wrote:
> Seriously, i'm not sure where the word 'overwound' comes from, but in real
> terms it can only mean one thing and that is breaking the mainspring by
> winding it ridiculously too far past it's limit.
Or breaking a fusee cord/chain, though that's not an issue here.
--
If you can see the FNORD, remove it to reply by email.
Robert Feiertag
news:slrnc3r1o6...@hani.compact.bogus...
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 14:16:32 +1100, Frank Adam
> <fa...@notthis.optushome.com.au> wrote:
>
> > Seriously, i'm not sure where the word 'overwound' comes from, but in
real
> > terms it can only mean one thing and that is breaking the mainspring by
> > winding it ridiculously too far past it's limit.
>
> Or breaking a fusee cord/chain, though that's not an issue here.
>
the idea of "overwinding" a mainspring doesn't really apply here.
However, I have a banjo clock from the same era (but definitely not a
Willard) which can be overwound. If the weight is wound up too far, the
pulley hits the bottom of the movement and the weight is forced forward just
enough to rub against the pendulum rod. I get the clock started again by
moving the pendulum back and forth manually until the weight moves back far
enough to free the pendulum. A more sophisticated banjo in my collection has
stopwork to prevent this form of overwinding.
Bob, official Old-Timer