Longcase Escapement Repair

I have repaired several longcase escapement pallets by soldering pieces of spring onto the worn pallet. I have often wondered if I have "let the temper down" with the heat involved. I recently thought it might be better to cement the spring to the pallets with epoxy glue. What are your thoughts on this method?

David Thompson

What are the fatigue properties of epoxy? There are an awful lot of seconds in a year.

At soft solder temperature I would not have thought you would make much difference to the temper. At silver solder temperatures you might be losing hardness, but then how hard were the original palets?

I suspect spring steel is a lot harder than the palets were originally.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 07/04/2023 20:52:55

Escapements have been successfully repaired like this for many years.

Roy

For a lasting repair soft solder is the best as the thickness of the solder film can be quite thin and maintaining pallet dimension for correct escapement action is essential. Having said that there are excellent epoxy glues, such as those used to attach ultrasonic transducers to the tanks, but these need a glue film thickness to work correctly.

Soft soldering at about 250 C shouldn't reduce the hardness of the spring material being applied and even if it did the clock would probably work for another 100 years before the needing the "veneer" replacing.

CS

Thanks everybody. That settles it for me. Soft solder as always.