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 materials (and/or general poor craftsmanship) by others…. JFK can help.

Overwinding?

There is no such thing. It is a myth. You did not “overwind” your clock (unless, after it was fully wound, you put an adjustable wrench, a pipe wrench, or vise-grip pliers onto the key…. and proceeded to turn the key further than it could turn when you were only using your fingers).

Using only your fingers on the clock key, a clock can only be wound “fully”. It cannot be wound any more than this. There is, therefore, no such thing as “overwinding”.

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 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, and levers and cams interacting with other components. This causes a tremendous amount of resistance that must be overcome in order for the clock to “run”.

Rivets or washers that hold certain components together, particularly the winding wheels and winding springs, their ratchets, as well as the clock’s minute and hour hands…. weaken and loosen with age and use. Some of these 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: decades’ worth of congealed clock oil or airborne kitchen grease (from cooking); tar (from long-term tobacco use in the home); pet hair; dryer lint; cobwebs; dead insects or spiders; cocoons; termite frass (poop); 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

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”.
“This other person fixed my clock, and it worked worse when I got it back, than when I brought it to him!”
“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!”.
“I had this other place fix my clock, and it only lasted about 6 months and then it died. It started doing the same thing that it was doing before. I brought it back to him a few times, but he says there’s nothing wrong, that he had fixed it properly, and that the problem must be that I’m doing something wrong”.

Do any of the above situations describe your clock, or, your experiences?

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” and who “has some tools and a workshop, in his home”.

It’s not always the case, but unfortunately, it is often the case, that the repairs performed to your clock by the above persons, can be worse than the initial problems that those “repairs” sought to correct. I could fill an entire chapter in a book, with stories about the horrific treatment done unto clocks that I’ve witnessed from “repairmen”…. who had read some books or watched YouTube videos, printed some business cards, and then told the public that he or she “was in the clock repair business”. It’s the stuff of mechanical (and aesthetic) nightmares.

Most instances of poor workmanship is physically invisible to the clock’s owner, but when these “repairs” fail, is when it becomes evident.

My father had a saying:

“You can fool the customer, but you cannot fool the clock”. Meaning, any “repairman” can fool a customer with shortcuts and shoddy workmanship…. and can make a clock “run” for weeks or months with a seemingly “successful” repair. But the clock itself, cannot be fooled. After a certain amount of time, the poor-quality work, makeshift repairs, and improper materials or parts that were used…. will no longer be able to “fool the clock” into running. The “repairman” fooled the customer, briefly…. and took his or her money…. but the person’s clock could not be fooled. When makeshift repairs fail, those makeshift repairs have to be “undone” before commencing the proper repair that should have been done the first time.

If you have ever brought your clock to someone, or to jewelry store, or to “a place”…. and it “never really worked right after you got it back”…. or if it worked for 6 months and then stopped working; or if “the place you took it to” refused to make good on its work and perhaps told you that YOU were the problem…. you are not alone. It is all VERY common.

It is at this point, that the clock requires proper and competent repair, and perhaps needs custom machine shop work.

J.F.K. can help in any of the above situations.

Thank you for finding my site. I welcome your inquiry.

To see examples of “normal wear and tear” and “poor quality workmanship” that have crossed my bench over the years, and my custom-machined corrections to these problems, please see: Custom Machining – JFK Clock Repair