French barrel clock

Jason, even using a mainspring winder jammed into a big bench vice, i wouldn't fiddle around with one of those barrels without full length leather welding gloves, welding helmet with clear visor, a leather welders apron and a bench in the open air with nothing around that would get nuked if it got away, they're Seriously mean!
Think they'd put me off too if one got away!

I learned about the power of clock mainsprings when fiddling with my very first clock, an old Enfield movement out of a Napoleon hat clock, the springs were fully wound and I made the mistake of prying one of the clicks out of the ratchet, the thing went with such a bang it jumped out of my now very whacked and tingling fingers and clear across the room!
Even through the mist of pain i had to laugh out loud at the carnage done to the movement, it was totalled and completely twisted out of shape!
I kept it and left it that way as a reminder not to be so stupid in future!

John

John..Quite

next encounter with clock springs...was recoil starters..( then about 14)..not too bad with them.

.but never forgot the gramophone...nor did the dog.....bloody lucky I still have all my fingers ,toes and ears...like I said certain amount of respect ..even for discharged clock springs.although Mr. Passmore makes.. it seem ...do able....great site that

Edited By jason udall on 28/08/2013 00:17:55

The downside of winding clock, or for that matter watch mainsprings, in and out by hand is that they can end up out of flat. This means that the edges of the coils then rub on the ends of the barrel causing possible loss of power.

Another aspect of reassembling the clock is that of esuring that the sriike train wheel teeth are correctly meshed. When the strike train is at rest, the bell hammer should nor be lifted by the pin or star wheel.

Also, the warning wheel should have around half a turn of rotation before being arrested by the warning lever, prior to being released to strike at the hour. On some of these French drum movements, a wheel tooth space is marked with a small dot and the matching pinion tooth has a corner chamfered to aid the correct setting up.

Alan

If a spring is out of flat, this will be corrected when the spring is back in its barrel and wound a few times. Niko.