# Grandfather clock - result!!



## Tail End Charlie (4 Dec 2020)

I have a Grandfather clock, quite literally as my grandfather bought it new almost a hundred years ago. Obviously since then it's been in the family (he died in 1976) and I seem to have inherited it, as it has been in my hands for the last 35 years or so and I'm not letting any of my siblings getting their hands on it. 
It kept good time, is a fine piece of furniture in its own right, and I enjoy winding it up (whilst enacting that scene from "The Untouchables" just before Sean Connery gets shot). However at least 5 and probably nearer 10 years ago I knocked it whilst hoovering. Since then it has not worked for more than a few minutes at a time and I haven't been able to find anyone to come and look at it.
So for the last few years I've been psyching myself up to have a look at it.
Finally got a round tuit yesterday. After rigging up a temporary stand in my garage I transferred the mechanism onto it, so I could see the back like this (you can see my spirit level there)





And this





Anyhow I with my heart in my mouth I took a piece off the back which holds the spindle for the pendulum (sorry don't know any technical terms) thinking it might need some oil. I then got scared and put it back together! There are so many cogs! After Youtubing things, through trial and error I just kept moving a piece on the rear and timing how long it was going for each time. Hallelujah eventually it kept going!
However I still had to move it back into the house, which I did this afternoon (after carefully levelling the case). It didn't work at first, but at least I had a vague idea of what to do so again through trial and error I've managed to get it going again. I'm well chuffty at that!






PS for the clock pedants I know it probably isn't even a grandfather clock but a grandmother clock and should be called a longcase clock but it's going now!!


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## Globalti (4 Dec 2020)

Had you forgotten to change the battery then?


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## rockyroller (4 Dec 2020)

this is heart warming. I too inherited a grandfather's clock from my grandparents. I can only make it chime if I knock it. but I remember it chiming all the time in my grand parent's house when I was a boy


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## MontyVeda (4 Dec 2020)

Blimey that's a gorgeous clock! ...absolute cutting edge modernist for it's time I reckon.


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## Venod (4 Dec 2020)

Its very satisfying when a clock comes to life, the MIL has just moved into care, we inhereted a wall pendulum clock that handn't worked for years, I took the works out to investigate. it has three mainsprings one for the clock power, one for the chime timing and one for the chime power, the chime timing spring had been overwound and come off its spindle, it had bent so it wasn't catching when wound, I bent it back to original shape and fitted it back in its drum and it was OK, I took the other two springs out and cleaned them and the clock in general, I put drops of the thinest oil I could find on each spindle put it back together and it works, setting it completly level is a must.
I am enjoying winding the clock and adjusting the pendulum to keep correct time.
You tube was a big help especially getting the chime timing right after removing its rack and drive train.


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## Chromatic (4 Dec 2020)

You are Steve Fletcher AICMFP


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## oldworld (4 Dec 2020)

Well done! If you're like me you weigh up can you make it worse before picking up a screwdriver.


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## Tail End Charlie (4 Dec 2020)

Thanks everyone for the kind words, I can't express how pleased I am that it's going again.
@rockyroller I took the chimes off ages ago, they're in the bottom of the case. I don't really want it chiming again (although I know what you mean abut the sound) every 15 mins would drive me nuts. I could put them back, but then I'd have to remove the sights and I like the look with them in. 
@Venod you're way above my league in what you did, respect!
@Chromatic he's the person who blows my mind with the things he does "I'll just make another of these tiny, tiny cogs from scratch".
@MontyVeda I've no idea about clocks, but I do agree it's a handsome beast!


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## mistyoptic (4 Dec 2020)

Have to be careful. Really needs cleaning too. Like your chain, if you just add oil to dirt you will create an abrasive mix that accelerates wear between the pivots and the holes they run in


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## Bazzer (4 Dec 2020)

Well done. 
Clocks, particularly long case clocks, seem to become part of the family. We have a long case "grandfather" clock my Mum bought about 50 years ago. We rarely hear it, although visitors always do. But if I forget to wind it up we notice the absence of chimes. 
And if the mechanism is away for a clean or exceptionally a repair, it's horrible. I once likened it to an open coffin. When I mentioned it to the horologist, he said he had a customer whose children had drawn a face on paper and stuck it on the upper part of the clock because they didn't like the empty space.


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## Venod (5 Dec 2020)

Chromatic said:


> You are Steve Fletcher AICMFP



I had to resort to Google to find out who he was, I have watched the programme but didn't know his name, a very talented bloke, he does some excellent work.

I have spent my life repairing things for a living some of them very complicated, but clocks always amaze me, I always think who came up with the design and idea, then when you have figured out how the basic clock works you can't help but be impressed with the chime mechanism and its complexities, the early clockmakers were outstanding.


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## Tail End Charlie (5 Dec 2020)

@Venod I also had to Google the name! 

I think the story about John Harrison and the "longitude race" is fascinating on so many levels. Carpenter (presumably not well educated) from Lincolnshire comes up with those ideas. Amazing. The clocks in the Greenwich museum are works of art. In some ways it mirrors the development of the bicycle going down a technological dead end (the penny farthing and the early H1,2,3 clocks) to what later worked well (bikes as we know them and the H4 or was it H5?).

@mistyoptic I thought about that and haven't added any oil at all (I do have some clock oil) but I'm going to leave it well alone.


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## sheddy (5 Dec 2020)

Well done and DING DONG !


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## mistyoptic (5 Dec 2020)

If it’s near your neck of the woods, Upton Hall near Newark is worth a visit as a museum of horological history
www.museumoftimekeeping.org.uk


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## rockyroller (5 Dec 2020)

when I researched ours, I think I remember finding out it was nothing special. as-in, it was common, not rare or special or expensive & not worth much now. not my 1st choice in color or finish. Wifey hates it, but I love it cuz of the heritage


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## Ming the Merciless (5 Dec 2020)

Used to sing this as a child. Used to go round a few care homes at Christmas.

My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering 
(tick, tick, tick, tick),His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),It stopp'd short never to go again when the old man died

In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy.
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering 
(tick, tick, tick, tick),His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),It stopp'd short — never to go again —When the old man died.
My grandfather said that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time, and had but one desire —
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place — not a frown upon its face,
And its hands never hung by its side.
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering 
(tick, tick, tick, tick),His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),It stopp'd short never to go again - 
when the old man died.

It rang an alarm in the dead of the night —
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight —
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering 
(tick, tick, tick, tick),His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),It stopp'd short — never to go again —When the old man died


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## Tail End Charlie (5 Dec 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Used to sing this as a child. Used to go round a few care homes at Christmas.
> 
> My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
> So it stood ninety years on the floor;
> ...


I know that tune! Only knew a few of the words though, sang it at school.


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## Poacher (5 Dec 2020)

I wrote some slightly obscene lyrics for this - not appropriate for a safe and family-friendly forum! 
(Also several alternative verses of the Lincolnshire Poacher for my old rugby club)


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## gbb (5 Dec 2020)

rockyroller said:


> this is heart warming. I too inherited a grandfather's clock from my grandparents. I can only make it chime if I knock it. but I remember it chiming all the time in my grand parent's house when I was a boy


Its funny how lifelong memories can be of the seemingly most insignificant things.
We stayed at my grandparents once when we were kids, an old relaively grand house In Bristol. I remember vividly laying in a dark room listening to the thud thud of his grandfather clock. To this day I find that noise very soothing.


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## Brains (7 Dec 2020)

We have inherited my grandfathers grandfathers grandfather clock.
It was made in 1760.
We don't know exactly how long it's been in the family, possibly since new, certainly for well over 100 years as we have a family photo's from the 1920's and it's in the background then.

The art of getting them to keep going is not to be level, (although that is a good starting point) but to ensure the Tick & Tock is even, I have a collection of beer mats and cut up christmas cards under the legs to balance the Tick & Tock


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## mistyoptic (7 Dec 2020)

gbb said:


> Its funny how lifelong memories can be of the seemingly most insignificant things.
> We stayed at my grandparents once when we were kids, an old relaively grand house In Bristol. I remember vividly laying in a dark room listening to the thud thud of his grandfather clock. To this day I find that noise very soothing.


Soothing because it’s a one second pendulum so ticks about the same rate as your resting pulse


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## Brains (7 Dec 2020)

mistyoptic said:


> Soothing because it’s a one second pendulum so ticks about the same rate as your resting pulse



I love it, but then I've been listening to it my entire life.
It drives my wife up the wall, even though we have had it ticking away in the corner for quarter of a century


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## mistyoptic (7 Dec 2020)

Me too. Can’t understand folk who don’t like it. We have a long case clock on the landing and some of our guests ask us to stop it overnight. I find it strange but I guess there are some sounds that irritate me which others wouldn’t understand. We all have our own “fingernails on the blackboard” sounds I guess


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