E.N.Welch Kitchen Clock

In for repair is an E.N. Welch kitchen clock.  The clock was very dry and dusty with significant wear in the pivot holes.  A nice clock with a very upside in repair potential. For a brief history of the E.N. Welch clock company of Forestville, Conn. click <<here>> .  This clock was manufactured about 1870-1880.

Here is a picture of the clock as it came into the shop:

and the stamped manufacturer

Notice that the stop gear mechanism on the strike side is missing.  Both stop gears are present but on the strike side, not complete.  At one time, this part was removed.  I suspect that repairman could not adjust this part of the clock correctly.  Stop gears are used to maximize the best part of the mainspring in clocks.  In general, the most power is at the beginning of the wind and the least power is at the end.  These stop gears do not let the clock run past a certain point.   If the time side did not have the stop mechanism active, the clock would keep good time until the end of the wind. At that time, the clock would stop being accurate.  

The case was very dusty, as stated earlier the movement was over oiled at one time and collected vast amounts of dust and dirt.  The images below demonstrate some of this grime:

This image shows how much grime was on the 1st wheel off the time-side winding arbor

Grease from the mainspring after it was removed

Caked on dirty oil close to the count wheel.  Left of the count wheel is a pivot hole where the striking hammer is connected.  Very dirty.

Dirt is pivot holes

There were 15 pivot holes that were worn oblong.  These were rebuilt.  The hole was cut out and a new "bushing" was inserted.  

Before this work was done all the pivots were inspected for wear and those in need were polished. The suspension rod was also damaged and was replaced.  

The depthing of the pallets to the escape wheel was incorrect.  This was adjusted.  The crutch arm was loose on the pallets.  This was also corrected.  I did not get a picture of this but watching the clock run it was noticeable to see the pallets move but the crutch arm did not move as much.  A significant power loss resulted.  

This short video shows the 2nd wheel after repair but before cleaning.  It spins nice and freely.  Just think how smooth the spin would be after all that grime has been removed.

The movement was cleaned after all the work was performed.  This image shows all the clock parts nice and shinny.  Not bad for a ~150 year old clock.

This image shows the clock wheels positioned waiting the the top plate to be put on

This short video shows the clock running and testing the strike.

The case was oiled and glass cleaned.

The last step to run the clock for at least a week.  Checking the speed of the clock.  If it runs too fast the pendulum is lengthened using the regulation nut below the pendulum ball.  If it runs too slow, the pendulum is shortened.  In this case the initial testing found the clock was running too slow.  The pendulum was shortened.  I am not surprised by this.  With all the wear and dirt in the clock movement, there was a sever power loss.  Before the power loss became too great and caused the clock to stop, the clock continued to run but there was not enough power to push the pendulum to it normal amplitude, hence a fast clock.  Once the repair work was completed, there was much better amplitude causing the clock to run slow.  Long story short, this was easily corrected.

The clock is ready to come home.  Waiting to run for another 100 years.

The two images of the completed clock:

and with the door open