06-01-2013, 12:22 PM
I've always liked British-built items from brands like Westclox who continued to use metal and glass in their clocks after others had turned to plastic wheels and gold spray paint.
This clock was one of four different clocks found in a box of bric-a-brac at my local house clearance auction for £2. The clocks were retrieved and 'porcelain Fido' and the rest of his bric-a-brac friends consigned to the bin. The clock was examined and found to have been near a heavy smoker for a long time. The drab brown appearance of the nicotine had been improved with splashes of white paint during decorating.
This clock is of the ATO type where a pair of coils (sense and repulse) act on a permanent magnet attached to the balance wheel by means of a single germanium transistor circuit. The negative battery terminal was covered with bluish-green crud from the leaking battery of the old 'Never Ready' type with the blue paper label and rotten-from-almost-new zinc casing. I removed the corrosion for testing, but the clock only ran for 30-40 seconds before stopping. At least the transistor was OK; likewise the pair of coils.
I then removed the movement and put it to one side while I cleaned the rest of the clock ready for reassembling. The gold painted back was actually silver painted (once the nicotine had been removed).
The parts are shown here.
The movement was dismantled and cleaned. This type is protected by a perspex cover so dirt is excluded. I don't lubricate movements with nylon gears, but this one was all-metal so I sparingly applied some of the correct grade of oil to the pivots (not the gear teeth).
The dirty battery terminals were cleaned with a solution to remove the copper corrosion deposits. The movement was reassembled and tested with a new battery before being fitted to the clock.
The movement is shown here. If you look carefully, you can just see the black, germanium transistor in a TO5 casing in the middle picture.
You can also see the magnet attached to the balance wheel in the same picture.
The clock is now running well and keeping good time.
This clock was one of four different clocks found in a box of bric-a-brac at my local house clearance auction for £2. The clocks were retrieved and 'porcelain Fido' and the rest of his bric-a-brac friends consigned to the bin. The clock was examined and found to have been near a heavy smoker for a long time. The drab brown appearance of the nicotine had been improved with splashes of white paint during decorating.
This clock is of the ATO type where a pair of coils (sense and repulse) act on a permanent magnet attached to the balance wheel by means of a single germanium transistor circuit. The negative battery terminal was covered with bluish-green crud from the leaking battery of the old 'Never Ready' type with the blue paper label and rotten-from-almost-new zinc casing. I removed the corrosion for testing, but the clock only ran for 30-40 seconds before stopping. At least the transistor was OK; likewise the pair of coils.
I then removed the movement and put it to one side while I cleaned the rest of the clock ready for reassembling. The gold painted back was actually silver painted (once the nicotine had been removed).
The parts are shown here.
The movement was dismantled and cleaned. This type is protected by a perspex cover so dirt is excluded. I don't lubricate movements with nylon gears, but this one was all-metal so I sparingly applied some of the correct grade of oil to the pivots (not the gear teeth).
The dirty battery terminals were cleaned with a solution to remove the copper corrosion deposits. The movement was reassembled and tested with a new battery before being fitted to the clock.
The movement is shown here. If you look carefully, you can just see the black, germanium transistor in a TO5 casing in the middle picture.
You can also see the magnet attached to the balance wheel in the same picture.
The clock is now running well and keeping good time.
