Escapement Repair, Adjustment, and Remanufacture
The escapement of a clock is that portion of the gear train that provides impulse to the pendulum and keeps the pendulum in perpetual motion. Every time you hear a “tick” or a “tock”, what you’re hearing is the action of the escapement providing an impulse, or a “push”, to the pendulum….with each swing of the pendulum.
Escapements are a critical component that must be in good condition and maintained well, in order for the clock to function properly. They will periodically need repair or adjustment due to regular use. However, escapements can also sustain severe damage from improper adjustment attempts, or poor-quality workmanship from prior repairmen.
The below photos show an escape wheel for a Seth Thomas regulator clock, circa 1910 vintage. The clock had been “repaired” by a man whose business cards said that he “repaired clocks”. During this particular repair, he filed, bent, and hammered the escape wheel teeth into non-serviceable condition. Some teeth were too short; others had been “stretched” by hammering and were too long (and too thin); and others had been bent with pliers. This is all in addition to the wear on the teeth that was caused by more than 100 years of continual use.
The clock’s owner told me that his clock had worked better, before this other repairman had worked on it…. and asked me if I was capable of “un-doing” the other person’s work.
Yes, I was…. and am. The results are below.
Please click on any photo for an enlargement, and for a description.
My background
I understood the basics of escapements’ operation from a very young age. When I was small, my father did something he called “Tick Tock”. He pretended that I was a clock pendulum. He would hold me upside-down by my ankles and swing me back and forth while saying “tick-tock, tick-tock….”.
He did this until I was too large for him to do it anymore.
When I was perhaps about 5 or 6 years old…. my father showed me how a clock’s escape wheel and pallet interacted with each other to provide impulse to the clock’s pendulum. From watching him (and later, working with him) during the next several years, I had an excellent understanding of escapements’ operation.
Many years later (in the 1990s), I, now an adult, studied the art and science of escapement making and repair from professional instructors.
Practical and “bench” experience
From the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, in addition to serving my own customers’ clocks escapement needs…. I repaired, adjusted, and even custom-built new escapements…. for other clock repairmen who could not (or chose not to) do this work themselves.
Around 2005, I stopped providing this work to other repairman or shops. From that time to the present, I have offered it only to my own clock customers whose clocks presented mild, to moderate, to severe escapement troubles…. that needed to be corrected as part of their clocks’ general repair.
Escapement types
The most common type of escapements are the following:
- Dead-Beat
- Brocot*
- Half-Deadbeat
- Recoil
When clocks that use these escapement types present to me with normal or severe wear, damage, poor quality prior craftsmanship, or gross misadjustment…. I am able to adjust, repair, remanufacture, or replace the entire escapement…. so that the escapement and the clock will be back in proper running condition.
*The Brocot, or “Open” escapement, is a dead-beat, open-escapement type (“open”, meaning visible on the face of the clock) that has “D”-shaped steel or ruby pallet jewels. Brocot escapements are common on many French clocks, and on American “Glass and Brass”, Crystal Regulator, and heavy marble clocks on which the escapement is visible on the front face or dial.
If your clock has a Brocot escapement that needs attention, I welcome your inquiry. I can machine custom-made “D”-shaped pallet jewels (in steel, hardened), or “ruby” (stone) D-shaped pallet jewels (set in shellac); install them properly; and adjust them for proper action…. to replace damaged or abused originals.
How to know if your clock has escapement problems
If your clock doesn’t seem to tick “strongly”, and with good back-and-forth motion of the pendulum…. or if it stops just after a few swings of the pendulum even if the clock is fully wound…. or if it won’t “tell time”, no matter what adjustments you make…. this behavior is symptomatic of escapement troubles.
I have more than 30 years of bench experience in the correction of escapements’ problems, and I knew the basics of escapements many years prior to that. So, I’m well-capable of diagnosing and correcting such problems…. even rebuilding your clock’s escapement completely…. if necessary.
Final Word
If you believe that your clock may have escapement problems, please inquire. I’d be happy to look at it for you.