Remember the cartoon which has a person coming home to find a baby on the doorstep? Actually, something like that happened last week, but it wasn’t near as dramatic or life changing as an infant. It was a clock, on my doorstep, but it didn’t have any owners name or phone number. It does need some repair, and I really want to help, but I really need to know what it’s parent’s (owner’s) intentions are. So I will baby sit this clock for a while, but if it’s yours, would you please give me a call? I would really appreciate knowing what you want me to do. Thanks!
Author: richardz
A lot of work for an old alarm clock-repairing a “cannon pinion”
Can you spot the new tooth and the split in the gear? The new tooth is in the 12 o’clock position and the gear was split around the 8 o’clock position. I repaired this gear with a torch and some very fine files.
This gear is called the cannon pinion, it fits on the same shaft as the minute hand, and it drives the gear that turns the hour hand. If the gear splits, as this one did, the minute hand will continue to move and tell the minute, but the hour hand will be stationary.
The most delicate part was brazing on the tooth. The gear is small enough that you have to keep your head very close the the part to see what you are doing and you have to be very aware of where the flame is. The company says that this torch puts out 6,000 degrees at the tip (I’ll take their word on that) and I don’t want to test that out on my face. Not a good time for a sneeze. When I brazed it on, I cut the tooth over sized, and then I filed it down to the correct dimensions.
It turned out very well, and these don’t split that often, but when they are this small, the work can be a little delicate.
Adding a “striking” FAQ
Several weeks ago, I received an email thanking me for my FAQ’s because she said in part- “My antique wall clock had not been running for years because it never struck the right time so I just stopped it. I read your websites FAQ’s, made two little adjustments and hooray! My clock is running beautifully, chiming perfectly. Thank you for your FAQ page, it was so simple to fix.”. Her compliment motivated me to add some additional information to the “If your clock does not strike…” FAQ. You will find a new section on adjusting an antique clock that “STRIKES THE HOUR AT THE HALF HOUR….” towards the bottom of the page. I hope you will find it helpful.