Brocok movement escapement

[transporter]

Gents, I picked up a lovely French mantle clock the other day, as can be seen from the pictures it has a lovely brocok escapement, my question is this, what’s the best course of action with lubing the escapement, and what oil to use?

also the alabaster housing is in need of a clean, I’m doing lots of research into this as the wife wants this on the mantle in the living room.

[transporter]

Also another question regarding this movement, the wheel in the centre with the screw in the middle, what does it do? The main hand wheel sits on it and drives it round but it doesn’t drive anything and doesn’t seem to have a purpose what so ever, any help here also appreciated, cheers guys

[wls1971]

The clock you have shown is a Farcot, with Brocot type escapement with a pivoted pendulum, meaning it is attached directly to the anchor arbor and is not attached to a suspension spring.

I have serviced a Brocot , I lightly oiled the pallet faces with windles clock oil, but after doing so read that they dont require lubrication but others say they do need oiling so I would be intrested to know myself. The clock I oiled has been running now for around 6 months without problem.

[oldhippy]

This type of movement should be oiled it has moving parts. Windles clock oil is probably the best you can get it is the only clock oil you need. This type of movement after cleaning and polishing should be lacquered, it will preserve the shine to the brass. A quick way and less time consuming is to French chalk all the brass pieces. Screws should be tidied up and blued. The Girl on a swing clocks are very common and are Farcot clocks. Alabaster cases are prone to chip or even break so finding one in fine condition is a big plus. The wheel in the centre with the screw in the middle. Go to this link it will explain all you need to know. Look at the diagram on the right part way down the page and click on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_train

[transporter]

Gents thank you for the replies, old hippy yep it needs oiling, I was wondering what the pallets required if any as of course the rest of the movemet requires oiling. Wls1971, nice to know someone else has had a go at one of these, mine is back together after a damn good clean, it wouldn't run properly but then I noticed that one of the feet on the case was shorter than the rest so I lifted this one and away it went for 3 days then stopped again, it now just ticks for about 30 secs then stops, hopefully after the wife has finished with me moving furniture etc I will be able to spend some time sourcing the fault and getting it running properly.

As for the case I have done some research and found that acetone and white spirit are doing wonders to cleaning away years of gime and nicotine.Aplogis for the late reply I have been very busy and then had log in issue

[Lenj]

Lovely clock, had a few of these at sometime or other, some with the Lion on the flat top clocks.. I was wondering about the finish, probably been over an open fireplace most of its life.. Once cleaned the brass work will polish up lovely with brasso and waxed to stop tarnishing, not forgetting to peg out afterwards..Be good to see once cleaned and finished.

Len

[Tmuir]

Is one of the 'tapered pins' a matchstick?

I'm assuming you will be replacing the beat up tapered pins with new ones as part of the restoration being that they are visible.

Bags of potential there. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished

[transporter]

Gents apologies for not replying sooner, once again work was calling and ive been away, I will keep you all informed as to how the work progresses, im actually looking forward to this one as it's a keeper. Hopefully this next week might see me get some more work done, that is after have finished the 9 other watches on the bench that I have waiting to be started and finished for a friend.

[transporter]

Quick one guys whilst I’m awake, I’ve been having a look, well more a clean of this clock case,

ine quick question, what’s the run time in these movements is an 8 day or less? I have no idea myself as I haven’t renewed the mainspring as of yet so haven’t been to my smith for a month or so with any questions etc.

[oldhippy]

8 Day I expect.

[transporter]

Cheers old hippy, I’m going to have a go at the French chalk route on this movement to keep it shiney, I’ve done some research on how to do it so I’ve added a block of it to my my next order from cousins, again I’ll let you all know how it goes as I progress.

[oldhippy]

9 hours ago, transporter said:

Quick one guys whilst I’m awake, I’ve been having a look, well more a clean of this clock case,

ine quick question, what’s the run time in these movements is an 8 day or less? I have no idea myself as I haven’t renewed the mainspring as of yet so haven’t been to my smith for a month or so with any questions etc.

Make sure you have a clean brush for chalking. In my days 70's & 80's you could buy  what was called a chalk brush.

[transporter]

well gents, it's been awhile but work has been quite involving as of late,I managed to do a lot of research on cleaning alabaster stone, I stared with just brushing the dust of, then went to town with a damp cotton wool ball covered in baking powder, then I managed to get hold of some  borax and stared to use abit of that.

Many years of nicotine and obvious soot from a fire place or two it started to come up reasonably light in colour. It's still not as good as it could be but I think without professional restoration it's not going to get any better. 

For super shiny brass plates I discovered the use of French chalk, I used brasso on all the parts then without polishing them off I washed them off in lighter fluid, once dry I got my clock brush (found in a box of bits from an auction ) gave it a good rub on the French chalk and then gave it a vigorous brush over each part, if you've never  used it before the please  do try it, it brings the brass up really nice.

As for the running of the movement, I found it had had a repair on then pendulum, not to bad I thought, but after Ihad cleaned and lubed the movement and refitted it to the case it kept running slow, so I kept winding the bob up the pendulum, then it got the repair and I unfortunately wound the bob onto the join at the repair and twisted the repair and in the process cocked up the thread!!!!!!, I was kinda stuck then as the bob was just not staying where it should in the pendulum, a quick think and I pooped into work to the metalsmith and got him to cut a few pieces of my brass plate so I could attach one of them to the pendulum, that ideas was good but you cant thread a flat bit of brass can you! Another moment of thought and I pulled my lathe out and grabbed some 3mm brass rod, turned it down to 2.5mm, I really would like to get a cross slide for my lathe as turning down 6cm of rod by hand is quite a feat.

I didn't have but now do have a lovely tap and die set of super small proportions, biggest size is 2.5mm, I got from the shop toolstore for £35, its a lovely set and I can see it being put to use quite often, anyway I threaded the rod and tapped the bob I then had to file off a good section of the rod to make it flat so I could solder it to the remaining part of the pendulum.

Movement refitted and it started staright away, but it kept losing time, every morning I would turn the bob one turn for every minute it was slow to speed it up, I even wound it quite a few more turns than was required but still the next morning it wold be slow again, then I noticed it, the bob due to the nice new threads was working its way by itself back down the pendulum. So out came my brass sheet and drill and a small hole was drilled and tapped and then cut out and filed into a rather fetching nut shape. I done this to use it as lock nut under the bob, so far today it seems to be slightly fast, I'm not worried at the moment just keeping an eye on it to make sure its a constant gain meaning that when the bob is lowered and locked I should have a very nice mantel clock.

Edited May 26, 2018 by transporter
Needed to add pictures

[oldhippy]

That has come up really well. Glad you liked the french chalk and brush.

[Lenj]

Well done good job!!!

 

[Tmuir]

That has come up well, nicely done.

 

[transporter]

Cheers guys, another 24hrs of testing and it should be spot on time wise, although the wife wanted to keep the original dial she now wants a new one as the one fitted is quite marked, and made of card limits cleaning possibilities, cousins do an aluminum one which seems the right size, then I need to paint the hands black again as they are quite shiney and very difficult to see unless close to the clock. Then I'll be taking the movement out again to replace the brass pins for new, ill have a look around locally to see if I can find anyone that can clean the case properly and get it back to the white it should be.