Reasons for Repair
Whether your clock’s “issues” are caused by age and use (normal wear-and-tear); long-term neglect; an accident, such as a fall from a shelf or wall; or improper repair methods (or poor craftsmanship) by others….JFK has decades of experience in the clock repair business, and a fully-equipped machine shop on site.
Age-and-use-related, ‘Wear and Tear’
Clocks typically operate for decades without any visits to a clock shop. During these years, the clock’s winding springs can weaken and become fatigued, due to age and use. Brass and steel surfaces within the clock mechanism wear away, due to constant motion and friction of the clock wheels (gears) rotating. This causes a tremendous amount of resistance that must be overcome in order for the clock to “run”. Rivets that hold certain components together, particularly the winding wheels and winding springs, and their ratchets….weaken and loosen with age and use. Other components can become brittle with age, and can crack.
When a clock “wears out” badly enough, as described above, the power that’s available from the winding springs (or from the weight of the weights, for weight-driven clocks), is no longer strong enough to power the clock. The clock won’t run, or won’t run well, or has to be “re-wound” with its key much more often than it used to. Often, the clock stops after just minutes or hours. It is completely normal, when any of these things happen. You didn’t do anything “wrong”. This is how clocks behave, when they’re worn out.
Neglect
A few years stored in a damp space, will put a coating of rust on every piece of steel inside of a clock. Rust can seize (or “freeze”) the clock. If a rusty clock is oiled, and then run….(if it runs; it often won’t)….the rust particles will wear out the bearings substantially faster (and worse), than they otherwise would wear out under normal conditions in a clean (no rust) environment. Rust isn’t the only contaminant: kitchen grease, tar (from long-term tobacco use in the home), pet hair, dryer lint, cobwebs, dead insects or spiders, cocoons, and mice nests (and the associated “droppings”)….are all things that long-neglected clocks have presented to JFK!
Extreme Cases
A fall off of a shelf or a wall can cause substantial external and internal damage. Or an old, damaged, or stressed winding spring (or a worn, damaged, or neglected winding ratchet) can fail with little or no warning, and release the winding spring’s stored energy instantly. This can severely damage the wheels (gears) that the winding spring is connected to, and cause substantial damage to any parts that are near it.
Faulty Prior Repairs
Clock repairs are often undertaken by well-meaning persons at small businesses (such as jewelry stores or hardware stores) that offer clock repair as a secondary service (which might be loosely-related, but only tangential to, whatever the store’s main business focus is). Clock repairs are also often performed by someone you have a personal relationship with. A neighbor. A friend. A family member who “fixes clocks”.
It’s not always the case, but unfortunately, sometimes….the repairs performed to your clock by the above persons, will be worse….than the initial problems that those “repairs” sought to correct.
I have heard many times over the years: “I took my clock to this other place, and it never really worked right after I got it back”. A similar, very-common lament that I’ve been told countless times: “This other person fixed my clock, and it worked worse when I got it back, than when I brought it to him!” Another: “My clock worked, sort of, when I brought it to such-and-such repair shop, but it didn’t work at all, when I got it back!”
If you have ever brought your clock to someone, or to “a place”….and it “never really worked right after you got it back”, you are not alone. It is VERY common.
J.F.K. Clock Repair can help, if your clock falls into any of the above categories. I welcome your inquiry.