The last stage of the metamorphosis of my grandfather’s old office desk (rescued from the real Ma Bell) is nearly done.
The first step was to clean up the desk and refinish it. From what I discovered, the desk was made from a combination of oak and/or silk wood. With 5 coats of hand rubbed [...]

The clock is home and I’m in a research and planning phase. It’s clear my clock has gone through some modifications. It’s not clear when they were done but signs indicate it was during the manufacturing process. I would not be surprised to learn the clock was under construction for the client when obstacles in [...]

I realize not everyone will want to watch the prolific blog posts about my clock restoration project so I’ve decided I will keep the excerpt of the posts short and put the bulk in the full body.
For those who are interested, you can always find the full list of posts using the “Clock” page in [...]

I have begun the restoration process for the 1880’s tower clock I retrieved from Chicago a week ago. Today I completed the disassembly (as much as I dare).

I spent time this weekend experimenting with various cleaning techniques for the brass parts of the clock.

Roy asked if a gear puller was used to separate the gears fro m the arbors. My answer grew to warrant it’s own post.

If you’ve never had the pleasure, too bad. I spend a couple hours late today using the blasting cabinet over at Sinclair Aircraft. Generically, it might be called “sand blasting” but these days, the blasting medium varies with the task. I like glass bead. I’ve used aluminum oxide and even walnut shells.

I don’t have much to show for progress on the clock. I spend a couple hours on Saturday and about 5 hours Sunday at the bench grinder with a rotary wire brush wheel.

I’ve had a long standing “equation” as a part of my projects related to furniture making / restoring / re-purposing (think Junk Brothers) as well as upgrades to the house.
If I enjoy the work, I don’t count the cost of my time.
If I need a new tool, I buy it.
If the results are of high [...]

After about 8 hours of work across two days, I have all of the gears cleaned (not yet polished) and all but one of the arbors finished and ready for lacquer.

I “borrowed back” the drum arbor from the machinist so I could clean it up a bit and test fit all of the brass parts to the drive assembly. (I still need to give the arbor back to the machinist to clean up the end a bit more.) The results are, to paraphrase Carl, “not [...]

Saturday, citizens in the otherwise quite community took note of a strange person spotted in the garage of the house at the end of the street.The person in question was wearing a orange jumpsuit causing witnesses to suspect he had escaped custody. Local police said there had been no bulletins for escaped prisoners in [...]

Often, to finish a project, you need to step back and fashion the right tool to help along the way. This was most assuredly the case with the clock. I’ve added 11 hours of labor but zero progress on the restoration. *BUT* I now have my own paint booth !

The weather is turning ugly once again and that is bringing my restoration progress to a screeching halt. I need to spray but cool damp air is nearly the worst environment for that effort. I don’t want my hard work to go into reverse so I’m moving all the parts back into the house.

My clock has a number of very worn or damaged fastening parts. The bolts are salvageable but there are a number of screws that have been been ground flat along the threads and the slots have been torn. The challenge is the parts are English (not American Standard) and most were hand made 125 years [...]

Progress on the clock restoration has slowed a bit as the machinist recreates the missing parts. I took the opportunity to build the stand. When I finished the carpentry, about the only thing I could thing of is “this clock has never had such a nice perch !”

GEEK WARNING - the following post is not for the scientifically challenged !
I started cleaning the pendulum. The clock has a 66″ compensating pendulum. The “compensating” part refers to the fact the pendulum automatically adjusts for climate changes.

I don’t talk or write much about flying because I don’t do much flying - at least I have not been. Part of it is a slight resentment that my ol’ bird has been in restoration for 8 years. Part of it is embarrassment of the same. That’s a bit long even for a 1941 [...]

While the Beatles penned the words, it’s my turn to put them into action. The clock’s gravity escapement is starting to come together.

In my post “Come Together, Right Now” I glossed over some of the gravity escapement. This caused a comment/question to be submitted …
There’s a fan-looking like assembly to the left of the escapement assembly.. Is that an air governor to slow the speed of the strike train or is its purpose to cushion the action [...]

I am on the home stretch of the clock restoration. I still have the pendulum and drive weight to paint but the weather may have other ideas. I also have some touch-up painting on a bracket as well as the new escapement stand.

The clock is back together and I’m starting to tune it. I’m laboring at the “keeping it running” stage. It is running a bit sluggish and frequently the escapement arbor does not advance quick enough causing it to skip a beat (sometimes even two).
I suspected friction so I went through it three or four times [...]

The clock is running. For me, part of the enjoyment is the sound. But for most, the initial fascination is the visual aspect of the clock as kinetic art.

More clock related news ….
The Arnold & Lewis clock had its ‘minutes’ clock face (called the pilot face) replaced at some point or it never got its final face. The clock had a simple hand stamped brass blank. This was probably not the original plan. Based on seeing an old photo of a similar [...]

Sometimes a picture is all you need …

Odds are good I’ll post more photos about the clock and I still owe a full write-up about the restoration but that might bore the majority of you so I’ll just post a few collages.

The restoration had a number of interesting twists …
I ended up buffing out the damascened that had been applied to the [...]