MY GRANDFATHER CLOCK!

[Philouis]

I bought my family Grandfather clock, circa 1725, to France when we came over four years ago and it has been chiming regularly for the100 years that it has been owned by our family. Now the chimes have been silenced as the cog wheel that controls the pendulum has been worn so much that it is now not operative and just slips around!

Does anyone know where you can buy spare clock parts or whether one could be made to order, if they had the original as a template,?

I do miss hearing the bell ringing every hour on the hour.

[chris pp]

I hope you won't think I'm being rude, but technically your post doesn't make sense. The striking mechanism has nothing to do with the pendulum, and as far as "if they had the original as a template", were you thinking of taking it to pieces?

Where abouts in France are you?

Chris

[tracteurtom]

My too, dont wish to sound condescending but please don't mess with such an old clock as this, not unless you know what you are doing (and if you did you wouldn't have asked the question  here).   It would be a shame to spoil something so old due to lack of knowledge.  My guess is that the clock also needs  a full service (clean and oil).  So do yourself a favour (and your hiers) and talk to some local clock makers and get it a proper seeing to.

Do NOT think that a quick spray of WD40 will sort out  the oiling.   All that will do is make a fine grinding paste by combining with the old dust and grease and will distroy the mechanism.

[Philouis]

Actually, I did not quite explain my problem. The chiming was a 'figure of speech' and is not directly connected to the defective part. The trouble is with the cog wheel on which the rocker arm rocks backward & forward and governs the swinging pendulum.

The cog have worn over the years (or centuries) and now the rocker arm will not 'bite' into it and the it just spins around!

I have serviced this old clock for the past 50 years and have had no trouble before as I always cleaned it nearly every year and it has kept regular time, + or  -  one minute every three days.

I live near Ruffec and so far have not seen any clock repair shops around here. I could easily remove the offending cog and send it to a clock maker as a 'template'. So possibly I will 'google' my way around the Internet and see if there is a shop back in the UK that could possibly supply me with a replacement.

Thanks for your replies and any further helpful information would be very appreciated.

[chris pp]

If you have been servicing this clock for the past 50 years I assume that you have been stripping the movement and putting it back together again, in which case if cleaned and serviced correctly there should, in my experience, be no problem with the teeth on the "scape" wheel or the anchor - so perhaps something more drastic has occurred. What I can say with certainty is that with a clock of that age it's not a case of a "replacement", it will either require repairing the existing part or making a new part, in either case the horologist needs the complete movement..

I live to the north of Civray and although I am, as they say, débordé, if you want to call me I will try and arrange to pop by and have a look at it, best I can offer.

Chris

05 49 87 65 18

[nomoss]

Be careful about any repair shop you take it to. A friend's lady friend took his old clock to one near Agen. They removed the mechanisms and replaced them with a battery powered movement and hideous electronic chimes which sound like one of those naff doorbells - they did keep the original hands though.

[Tony F Dordogne]

One for the OP - where are you?  I know somebody (Brit) who both restores and makes long case clocks, a wide variety of same, and all using proper parts.

[Judith]

[quote user="Tony F Dordogne"]One for the OP - where are you?  I know somebody (Brit) who both restores and makes long case clocks, a wide variety of same, and all using proper parts.[/quote]

Does he also do ordinary ie not long case, but old clocks - we have two that need attention as they don't work, but have had no success in finding anyone (yet) locally who was interested or knowledgeable.

[Philouis]

Hi Tony,

We are situated in the Charente, near Ruffec.

We are not all that far from the Dordogne. I would be interested if you could advise me of the address of the person you mentioned. It might solve my problem! Thank you!

[Alan]

Hi

I have been restoring Longcase Clocks among other thing for the past 30 years. The part could be  made but to do it correctly and 'mesh' with other moving parts you really need to have the whole movement. This should be fully overhauled from my experience as by now other parts will have worn and probably need re bushing, all brass and steel work burnished. At present my business is in Surrey but we have just purchase a property in South Normandy and in the throws of moving my home and workshops, hoping to complete by April-May 2008.  All my clients want me to continue looking after their clocks etc. so will be  going back and forth every 6-8 weeks.  You can buy some parts but any clock with some age will be almost hand made so 'stock' would not really fit. If you would like to send some pictures to me I may be able to advise.

Regards

Alan