Custom Machining

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) in 1985, at Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Lexington, MA, at that school’s evening program for junior high school students. I later enrolled in that school’s evening machine tool courses for adults, in 1990 and 1991.

From 1990 to 1992, I was employed at Northeast Manufacturing, a commercial machine shop in Stoneham, MA that manufactured custom-machined components for the aerospace, defense, communications, and medical fields. I operated manual and computer-controlled machine tooling in the production of custom parts for those industries.

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. 

For my final “formal education” in machine tool operation, I received 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 doing “contract work” for other repairmen and shops, so that I could provide my skills and services exclusively to my own clock repair customers. 

About JFK’s Soldering & Brazing Capabilities 

I learned the basics about soldering and brazing (the joining of metals with heat and filler metals) from my father, at a very young age. I improved my skills and expanded my abilities mostly 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

When is it “suitable” to solder or braze a clock part, and why? Each situation is unique. French clocks have their cylindrical mainspring barrels soft-soldered to their barrel gears. The barrel soldering was neat and tidy when the clocks were first built, and when a barrel repair is done by JFK, is neat and tidy as well.

But some clocks, instead of a proper repair, have had “globs” of plumbers’ or electrical solder applied poorly, to be used as “glue” to hold certain parts together that weren’t meant to be soldered together. This is unsightly, it often burns the metal in the surrounding areas, and generally has very little strength. 

I once had an antique tall clock in the shop for a rebuild. Hundreds of years old. The steel “hammer” that struck the hours upon a bell was of course also hundreds of years old, and was so delicate and so brittle, that it was entirely likely that would crack into two pieces if it was not repaired in some way. Subjecting it to the regular, repeated stress of continued use, was absolutely out of the question. 

The owner of this clock opted for repair by brazing the piece back together at the likely breaking point, in lieu of fabricating an entire new part. The braze was stronger than the original piece of steel, and the customer was delighted with the work.

If your clock presents a scenario in which a custom-machined component is required, or in which soldering or brazing is appropriate….I have decades of experience in these areas. Your project will be handled properly, the workmanship pleasing to look at, and the results successful….at J.F.K. Clock Repair. 

“Pleasing to look at”? Yes. Most of my work cannot be seen from a casual glance at the clock, and some, cannot be seen even by examining the mechanism (unless you know the repair is there and where to look). Even though much of my work is invisible such as this, I still make sure it’s neat, and tidy, and “pleasing to look at” when it is, at some point, seen!