Synchronizing cuckoo clock music box
vandallc
with the exception of getting the music box and dancers working.
Changed the bellows, fixed the wire under the bird, cleaned and oiled,
set the beat, that sort of thing all from observation and some hints
on the internet but I am stumped by the music box. The box does play
(after I cleaned it), I just cannot get it to play and stop properly.
I see that there is one bar that pushes down and releases the music
cylinder and another connected wire that works in conjunction with the
bar that apparently stops the flywheel till the right moment but I
cannot get it to work propoerly. Can anyone point me in the right
direction?
John S.
It's usually a fairly straightforward operation, about as complex as
the strike or chime mechanism on a regular clock. There has to be a
lever or cam that will trigger and stop the music box. Keep watching
it in operation and it should become clear.
Frank Adam
wrote:
IOW, you haven't done one yet, right ?
To the OP. Those can be a mongrel to set up, since you can't do it
without having the whole damn thing asembled in the case. As you've
probably noticed, on both counts. :)
Deep breath.....
Ok. Let's set some naming conventions.
There is a lever on the back of the clock movement. We'll call that
"control lever" because i haven't a clue what else to call it.. we can
call it "Sally" too if you like that better. :)
There is also the lever that comes off the music box, one end of it
drops onto the music drum(with the pins playing the music), the other
end shoots up to the clock movement under Sally<g>. We'll call that
one "the trigger lever" because that makes sense. And we'll drop Sally
as this is a public newsgroup.
The third thing will be the little off shoot, which is just a wire
attached to the trigger lever and it's job is to stop the fan while
the strike is going. It will be a "fan stop". There is a fourth part
to this, but i'll get to that later.
At first, don't worry about the fan stop, just get the trigger right.
Hang or put the clock in a suitable holder, hang the weights for the
strike and music and let both go through to finish. Use the minute
hand to trigger the strike, as the position of the minute hand is
important when setting all this up. It has to be just past trigger on
the hour.
After the strike and music stops, make sure that the music barrel is
in it's stop position with it's trigger lever's end neatly inside the
hole on the side of the music drum. There should be a little pin of
sorts hanging off the trigger lever which is touching the fan when the
trigger end is in the drum hole. It may have a plastic sleeve over it.
This that fourth 'part' i mentioned. You rarely have to adjust this,
but if it does have a sleeve, that may shift at times. you can do that
last though. You can lock the sleeve with a bit of glue when done.
Now to adjust..
When all at rest and the hands not lifting anything, there should be
an airgap between the music box trigger and the control lever, where
they meet. The music trigger should sit underneath the control lever.
The distance of that gap varies wildly and also depends on whether
your clock plays the music on the half hour or only on the hour. If
you have replaced the hands in the correct position, the minute hand
on the hour should lift higher than at half hour and you will see the
amount of this lift if you move the hands around and observe that
control lever. If you already have the hours striking properly on the
hour and the halfs on the half hour, then you have that right.
Remove the music weight.
Set about a 2-3mm gap(bend the lever or if it's adjustable use the
adjuster, but is hard to get to) and see if it triggers on the hour
when you turn the hand. ie: The trigger lever pulls out of the hole on
the side of the drum and jumps on the flat bit next to the hole. Push
it back into the hole and adjust and test until you are happy with
that.
Problem here is that, as soon as you touch the actuator lever on the
movement, it will unlock the strike and change it's position in order
to block the music fan with that little wire, so you have to let the
strike go through again before you can check properly.. did i mention
these cuckoos are pigs to do ?
Anyway, play with that gapping until you get the unlocking of the
music drum working just right. Once that is ok, usually the only thing
that may need doing is to adjust the wire to allow the fan to run when
the actuator is dropped(ie: end of strike) and just foul it when the
strike is going. The wire will move inwards on the fan with each
strike, that is normal.
If you find that the music weight will go twice as fast as the strike
weight, your clock should only play music on the hour. So, back to
that trigger and control levers and adjust the gap wider so it only
triggers when the hour is hit.
Now ask me why we all hate cuckoo clocks.. :-)
<disclaimer> The above made perfect sense to me at the time of writing
and no alcoholic beverages were used or abused.. a couple of baby
seals at best </d>
--
Regards, Frank