Custom Machining for your Clock
Repair of antique or obsolete clocks…. particularly those that are decades or centuries old…. that in addition to normal stress, wear, and use…. may have been “tinkered with” (subject to improper repair techniques) several times…. requires the ability to machine, fabricate, and custom-fit replacement parts that cannot be purchased.
This means transforming raw metal stock… brass, bronze, and steel…. into a finished part or parts, that will be fit to (and installed into) the clock (and be functional)…. doing the job that the part is required to do within the clock…. whilst also being neat in appearance and pleasing to look at.
If a clock repairman does not have at a minimum, basic machine tooling and the ability to use it…. and the patience to persevere (and even “start over” as many times as is needed) in the face of mistakes made and spoiled first (or subsequent) attempts…. that repairman will probably resort to shortcuts and improper techniques and materials…. in order to complete the repair.
Those shortcuts, and the improper techniques and materials used, can temporarily “trick” a clock into running, and can make unsuspecting customers believe that a repair was performed properly; but always lead to poor performance by the clock. The shortcuts can also cause damage (or further damage, or other mechanical degradation) to the clock…. and eventually result in profound customer disappointment when the customer realizes that he paid for a “repair” that was neither done properly nor was successful.
My father had a saying: “You can fool the customer, but you cannot fool the clock”. By this he meant that any “repairman” can fool a customer into believing that a clock was “repaired” properly. The repairman cannot, however, fool the clock into believing that the clock was repaired properly.
The life lesson from my father, was this: You must do the repair correctly, because the clock is not going to let you get away with doing it incorrectly.
My History
Raised in the clock repair business (my first words were “tick tock”; please see “About the Owner”)…. and vocationally trained as a machinist beginning when I was only aged 13 (and later employed at a commercial machine shop for 3 years in the early 1990s)…. I very-early in my career (I wasn’t much older than age 20) combined the two trades in order to make the “custom manufacture of replacement clock parts” my contribution to, and my specialized focus within, the family trade.
Although I have never built an entire clock, during the last 35 years of repair work I have (several times) machined and fabricated nearly every component that would be required if I was to build one. If your clock repair requires a part or parts be made that cannot be purchased…. or if it’s been “butchered” by past “repairmen” who took “shortcuts”, please inquire.
Below are three galleries which in total contain several examples of my work. Please click on any photo for an enlargement, and for a description.
At the bottom of this page is a list of my capabilities, a description of my several years of vocational training, and a list of my shop’s machinery and tooling. Please scroll down if it’s of interest. If you have any questions, please contact me.
HOUR HAND TENSION WASHER for longcase (tall) clock, circa early 1800s
The four photos below illustrate an “hour hand tension washer” for an approximately 200-plus-years-old longcase clock. The original (shown) has cracked due to age, brittleness, and the stress caused by countless manipulations (removal, installation, and “trying to adjust the tension”) by various repairmen during the last two centuries.
Typically, hobbyist or “tinkerer” repairmen would “repair” this damaged washer by attempting to mend the break with superglue, epoxy, or plumbers’ solder. Such “repairs” have no strength, will not allow the part to function properly, and when they fail in service, will lead to customer disappointment. And they’re unsightly. This particular washer had not received the “superglue or plumbers’ solder” treatment from anyone, but it did have about 200 years’ worth of markings from repeated manipulation by pliers and cutting pliers, in addition to the crack that caused me to reject it.
At JFK, a complete replacement washer was manufactured, from brass stock, in my machine shop. The results are shown below. Please click on any photo for an enlargement, and for a description.
Brass SPLIT COLLET; for mounting a SECONDS HAND onto an early-1900s vintage “VIENNA REGULATOR” style clock
This clock was missing its original “seconds hand”. The circumstances regarding its loss are unknown. It might have been misplaced by a prior repairman, and the clock returned to the customer this way (missing a hand); or, it might have fallen off of the clock (due to improper fitting) and later been vacuumed off the floor and accidentally disposed-of.
Regardless of the reasons for its loss, the customer wanted a new seconds hand.
A new, generic-type seconds hand was purchased, but as supplied, its mounting collet (or split “tube”) that attaches it to the clock (by friction and a firm “grip”) was not the correct size and was wholly incompatible with the clock.
It is at this point that a clock “tinkerer” who has business cards that claim that he repairs clocks (but who doesn’t have any machine tooling) might attempt to modify the collet with solder or superglue, or crush the collet with pliers, in order to try to make it fit onto to the clock.
At JFK, the job was (and is) done properly. The new seconds hand was removed from its incorrectly-sized collet, and the original collet placed in the scrap bin. A brand-new collet was custom-machined; fitted to the seconds hand and to the clock; and installed. The result: the seconds hand fits onto the clock properly and is held there by the proper amount of “grip”, or friction. And the job looks neat and tidy.
No super glue, and no plumbers’ solder, was used. And there was no “crushing the collet” (by squeezing it with pliers with excessive force) while attempting to “make it fit” the clock. There is therefore no damage to the collet nor any unsightly plier marks.
Please click on any photo for an enlargement, and for a description.
Capabilities
- Winding arbors, with square end for key
- Train (wheel) arbors
- Barrels, barrel gears, barrel arbors, barrel caps, barrel bushings, and barrel teeth
- Ratchet gears; ratchet pawls & rivets
- Ratchet (click) springs custom-made
- Wheels (gears)
- Leaf pinions; lantern pinions
- Racks; gathering pallets
- Escapement work (escape wheels; pallets)
- Moon and calendar work
- Pivots
- Center (hand) shafts, with threaded tip or with cross-hole for tapered pin
- Hand washers
- Split collets for seconds hands
- Steel parts hardened & tempered; blued
- Hour hand tubes/cannons/cannon pinions
- Hand bushings
- Threaded posts
- Custom-made screws and nuts; washers
- Hammers & hammer arbors
- Pendulum & suspension repairs; suspension posts
- Winding springs (mainsprings) custom cut, annealed, formed, punched, and riveted
- Coil springs; flat springs…. custom-made
- Bushings (bearings), custom-machined & fit
- Governors and fanflys
- Countwheel bushings, with machined groove for the countwheel and its tension washer
- Breaks or cracks (in steel or iron parts), brazed or welded; replaced completely if required.
About JFK’s Machining Background
Acquiring the ability to machine and fabricate the above-listed components has been a life-long endeavor.
I first learned the basic use of the “Watchmakers Lathe” in our home workshop in the late 1970s and very early 1980s, whilst working with, and under, my father. I then studied “machine shop” (my first formal education for operation of machine tools) at age 13 in 1985, at Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Lexington, MA, at that school’s evening program for junior high school students.
Simultaneous to my later enrollment in that same school’s evening machine tool courses (for adults) in 1990, I commenced employment at Northeast Manufacturing, a commercial machine shop in Stoneham, MA that manufactured custom-machined components for the aerospace, defense, communications, and medical fields. I performed substantial amounts of bench work including parts deburring; edge filing; sanding; polishing; fitting; and assembly…. as well as operated manual and computer-controlled machine tooling…. in the production of custom parts for the industries that Northeast Manufacturing served. I studied in the “adult education” machine shop courses at Minuteman Tech High School from 1990 to 1991 and was employed at Northeast Manufacturing until 1992.
In the mid-1990s, I studied clock wheel (gear) and pinion cutting, and clock escapement making and repair, from private instructors from the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute in Ohio.
From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, I machined parts (and repaired and rebuilt clock escapements) for other clock repairmen who couldn’t (or preferred not to) do this work themselves. I also repaired “problem clocks” for other repairmen, who were unable to diagnose or repair those clocks themselves.
The last of my “formal education” in machine tool operation, was a few semesters of college-level CNC (computer controlled machine tooling) instruction at the evening program at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, between 1999 and 2002.
In the mid 2000s, I ceased all “contract work” for other repairmen and shops, so that I could provide my skills and services exclusively to my own clock repair customers.
Soldering & Brazing
Soldering (and brazing) is the joining of 2 separate metal items using heat and a filler metal (the solder, is the “filler metal”).
I learned the basics about soldering and brazing from my father, at a very young age. As a teen and a young man, I read several books (there was no internet, yet) regarding soldering technique and good workmanship. I improved my skills and expanded my abilities by “trial and error” in the shop in the years that followed, but with formal education in the study of electric (and gas) welding/brazing at Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational Technical High School’s evening program, in Wakefield, MA, for several semesters.
Hinge for a regulator clock’s bezel was repaired by silver soldering the hinge loop
The Final Word
If your clock presents a scenario in which a custom-machined or fabricated component is required, or in which soldering or brazing is required…. I have decades of experience in these areas. Your project, when under my care, will be treated as if it was my own: done properly, no shortcuts taken, and the custom-machined (or soldered; or fabricated) part(s) fitted properly…. and the workmanship pleasing to look at.
Equipment List
- Metal-turning lathes, ranging in size from small watchmaker-type; to larger “instrument” type; to full-sized industrial machines. A full range of work-holding chucks and collets complement these machines.
- Full-sized milling machines, with tool-holding collets; parts-holding vises and fixtures; and manual and CNC rotary, dividing, and indexing capability
- Wheelcutting (gearcutting) engines
- Bushing (bearing) installation machines
- Pivot polishing machines
- Clockmakers’ depthing tool; staking tool
- Layout and measuring tools: surface plate; height gauge; micrometers; calipers; scales; scribers; dividers; center punches; parallels; machinists’/toolmakers’ clamps
- Mainspring winder
- Drill press
- Arbor press
- Bending rolls
- Hole punch with assorted dies
- Pin punches; dapping punches and blocks
- Sheet metal shears
- Horizontal bandsaw
- Soldering and welding torches; electric soldering irons; soft solder; silver brazing alloy.
- Alcohol lamps (with shellacking fixtures for Brocot “open” escapements that use stone “ruby” pallet jewels)
- Grinder with various grit wheels; buffer with various abrasive media
- Ultrasonic cleaning machines
- Compressed air/air gun; commercial parts dryer
- Anvils and bench blocks, various
- Various cutters, reamers, taps, threading dies, drills, end mills, chamfer tools, broaches, countersinks, files, sandpaper, abrasive stones, and hand tools
- Raw materials: brass, bronze, and steel stock. Spring steel; spring bronze.
- Woodworking shop