Hello, I am new here

[jeet]

Hi,

I am mechanical watch enthusiast, who is trying to fix my wall clock. In past I have learnt to repair wrist watches by breaking my dad's watch in the process of learning. I am fairly good at repairing stuffs and in general love repairing anything and everything from electronic/electrical/kids cloths/my car/bike... if its broken, I will repair it.

I am currently trying work on a Hermel wall clock which has a pendulum with escape wheel. I  bought it from a car boot and it worked for 7 years before stopping. I have taken out the mechanism and gave it a wash and re-oiled it. But unfortunately the pendulum stops after few mins of running it. To me it looks like that the escape wheel is not able to provide the required feedback to pendulum to keep ticking. but not sure of how to determine that the escape wheel if faulty. I did try to adjust the pendulum swing making sure it swings equal distance both way from dead position, but it still doesn't work. Any suggestions please.

Regards,

Jeet

[watchweasol]

Hello and welcome to the forum.  The question is how did you wash it!  In washing it you may have removed some gunk from a worn pivot hole which is now causing binding of the pivot or the wheel. The only way of proving all is ok is to dismantle the clock. First let down the power of the mainsprings befor doing anything then take plenty of pictures and make notes while dismantling so as to provide a viable return path during assembly.  Failure of the clock could be due to many things,  clock out of beat, faulty/worn pallet, worn escapewheel, worn pivots worn pivot brearings, general dirt/grime in pinnions, dirty and sticky mainspring or even broken mainspring.  For further help can you post a picture of the clock front and back with dial removed and also the model number on the back plate should be somthing like   (130-020).    Cheers for now

[Kalanag]

Is the clock in beat? In other words: Is the time between tic and toc exactly the same as between toc and tic?

[oldhippy]

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum.

We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement. 

Please put you questions about your clock in the clock section and add photos. Then I should be able to help you. 

[jeet]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I was quite overwhelmed by the first look of mechanism. I had experience of a less complicated one (no chimes) and struggle to put the individual wheel back as you know all are to be aligned perfectly to individual pivot bearings. So I took a short cut and used white sprit in a big bowl to wash the entire mechanism. I drained it fully (as much I am aware of) and then re-oiled it. 

341-021 Hermle wall clock

1. The spring is working: I removed the pallet mechanism that controls the escape wheel, and used finger to stop escape wheel, wound the key, the escape wheel spun till the whole spring was unwound. 

2. Is the time between tic and toc exactly the same as between toc and tic : This I am not entirely sure off, wasn't sure why this would have changed. I tried the basic way of visual checking but I might be totally wrong.  

With my thread and stone arrangement, the clock keep ticking so my guess is that mechanically its all fine. Can it be just down to the beat?

Regards,

Jeet

Edited July 7, 2022 by jeet

[oldhippy]

It isn't going to work properly with that stone. I don't see the suspension spring? You need that and the correct pendulum. The leader is also missing. All parts should be oiled I always recommend Windels clock oil.  Do you have these parts or are they missing?

[jeet]

Thanks, for the response. I have all these parts; as I didn't had a proper arrangement to suspend the open mechanism, I am using the stone and thread, and the clock is ticking for more than an hour. Its ticking fast as its not a proper length pendulum, but it's ticking. But the moment I assemble back with the proper pendulum and parts it stops. Any suggestion on how I can properly adjust the beats. 
The way it stops is pendulum slows down and then suddenly stops as if, it is stuck in some weird position between the teeth. 

43 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

It isn't going to work properly with that stone. I don't see the suspension spring? You need that and the correct pendulum. The leader is also missing. All parts should be oiled I always recommend Windels clock oil.  Do you have these parts or are they missing?

as you suggested earlier I have posted the query in the clock section 

 

[oldhippy]

That is nice to know that you have all the parts. It is most likely the clock is not in beat, it needs to have an even tick tok. The green arrow pointing to the crutch is friction tight. With all the parts assembled and the pendulum swing the pendulum lightly if it sounds out of beat move the  crutch a little  one way until you hear  an even tick if it sounds odd move the other way it is a trial and error. This is a set up that needs to be done with all clocks that have a pendulum. 

[watchweasol]

Hi  I should make up a board as a stand and fit the clock mech to it and fit the leader suspension and pendulum as setting it up like it is is nigh on impossible.,   all that is required is an L shaped board  with 4 holes to accomodate the movement  clamped to the bench with enough clearance for the pendulum to swing. set the movement level (use spirit level) thsn listen to the beat. As OH said the crutch is friction fitted and able to be moved left or right. then adjust the pendulum for an even tick/tock. as 

1 hour ago, jeet said:

The way it stops is pendulum slows down and then suddenly stops as if, it is stuck in some weird position between the teeth. 

 Stopping in this position could be a depthing problem with the pallet and escapewheel  check the escapewheel teeth are good and have no burrs or are bent slightly it doesnt have to be much to stop a clock.

[grsnovi]

Welcome to the forum Jeet.

As you can see you've come to the right place for help  

[jeet]

Thanks again to each and everyone for the support, so far so good. I have attached the pendulum and the clock is ticking steadily from last an hour or so. Is there any reason that it might not do that once I have installed it in the box, as that was my experience from last evening. 

[RichardHarris123]

Hello and welcome from England. 

[watchweasol]

If you get sustained running for a day or two then re case, When it’s back in its case you may find you have to adjust the beat again if it doesn’t auto set.

[jeet]

Update: I have it now running for few days and all good. Had to adjust the chimes with trial and error, and all good. I am encouraged and feel confident to take up a new project, as I now know that I have a very helpful support group if I am stuck. Thanks again each and everyone of you. I am feeling confident   

[oldhippy]

That is good news. Well done.

[watchweasol]

Well done  Glad to be of help.  on to the next one now