Golden Historical Society - Ridgeway - Urgos Grandfather Movement

In for repair is a Ridgeway grandfather clock from the Golden History Museum in Golden Colorado.  This clock was located at the Woods Mortuary in Golden.  The clock will be on display at the Golden History Museum when completed.  Follow this link for more information about the clock and museum.

Let's start off with a short video of the old dirt and oil along with pivot wear of the back plate of the movement.  As you can see from this video the back chime and strike mechanisms have been removed.  This enabled a better look at the pivot hole wear and provided a better glimpse of the wear damage.  Check out the upper left arbor of this video.  Old dirty oil is oozing out of the pivot hole.  Notice all the pivot holes (15) that were worn were marked with a circle.  The movement was completely disassembled. All the wheel pivots were polished to make sure they were nice and smooth.

The next video shows the smooth spinning of the escape wheel after rebuilding the pivot holes both upper and lower.  Another demonstration video showing one of the lower wheels.  This is the 2nd wheel of the strike train.  The pivot hole is very loose.  This is depicted by the angle that the wheel can be rocked. Also note all the oled dirty oil at the base of the wheel.

The worn pivot holes were rebuilt.  There were 15 total.  

Here is an image of all the wheels and levers placed in the clock before the top plate was installed.

A significant amount of testing is always done.  At this point, the time train was assembled and tested.  Here is a short video of just the time train ticking away.  

During the removal of the clock movement in Golden the chime hammers were tested.  The chime mechanism was very sticky.  Remember this portion of the video?  The first chime hammer was very sticky and would not fall freely.  This is caused by oiling the hammer mechanism.  As time passes, the oil because sticky needed a complete ultrasonic cleaning.  I do not lubricate this portion of the clock.

Here is a short video of the mechanism in action

There is alway interesting finds when overhauling a clock movement.

At one time two chain ends became missing.  They were replaced with two others.  The replacement chain ends are not of the style usually found in grandfather clocks.  They are usually found on cuckoo clocks.  They did work.  Sleuthing the bottom of the case was found one of the chain ends.  The other was missing.  Fortunately a replacement was found. 
The replaced ends are to the right.

The clock movement will run on the test stand with hands for a few days, just to make sure everything is working as designed.

The clock movement was delivered and installed on February 16, 2021.

The clock is located in one of the main display rooms of the museum. 
The clock can be seen at:
923 10th St., Golden, CO 80401
https://www.goldenhistory.org/

There was a little work to be completed before the clock movement was installed.  The case was oiled and glass cleaned.  Because the clock is located in a public area, the case was secured to the wall.  The movement was installed, chime hammers adjusted, and the clock was put in beat.

A beautiful clock in a beautiful setting!