Sparks Clock Repair is a authorized service center for Howard Miller and Ridgeway clocks. The area we service is the Connecticut shoreline, a radius of about 25 miles around Branford. We make in-house maintance calls for grandfather clocks, pick up and delivery service is also available for other clocks as well.
Just like your car needs regular maintenance so does your clock. This is because just like in your car there is metal to metal contact, and without proper care it will wear out much quicker (just like your car would).
Your car needs to have an oil change on a regular basis. So does your clock, it needs to be oiled every 3-4 years, ensuring the lubrication is in good condition will dramatically increase the time period between overhauls.
The difference between regular maintenance and overhauling is considerable.
Overhauling entails a complete disassembly of the movement so each part can be cleaned and inspected for any restoration work that is necessary. The pivots, pivot holes, and pallets are polished to ensure smooth operation. The movement is then reassembled, lubricated, adjusted, and tested.
Maintenance can be done in your home. The movement is removed from the case, lubricated, adjusted, and any problems diagnosed.
There are several components that will wear in a clock. Once they do, and over time they will, they need to be restored properly.
The pivot holes will wear because they have steel pivots working in them.
Here we can see a good unworn hole on the left, but on the right the pivot has worn itself a pocket in the side of the hole. This not only increases the friction of the pivot, but also affects the gear train itself.
When we add center lines indicating the original placement of the pivot it can be seen how far it becomes misplaced. This reduces the distance between the arbors and instead of the gear teeth meshing properly they bind together.
Worn pivot holes need to be restored by installing a bushing, which will create a pivot hole with new metal.
Pivots will also wear, and this speeds up the pivot hole wearing out.
Some can be restored and polished.
But others are so worn out that they need to be replaced by drilling a hole precisely in the center of the arbor and installing a new steel pivot.
The pallets power the pendulum. Over time a groove will be worn into the steel. This can sometimes be polished out, but if it is worn too much the geometry of the escapement will be changed, and the pallets need to be restored or replaced.
Sometimes the teeth will wear on the working surface and become cupped. This happens when a spring that is too powerful was used as a replacement. The original spring either broke or was just too old to provide the power it once did. The steel used in springs today is much better, and stronger than years ago and if the same size is used as a replacement it will be too strong (an old spring with a thickness of .018 should be replaced with one .0165). Once this type of wear occures the gear has to be removed, turned around, and remounted onto it's arbor so we are using unworn metal as the working surface.
The trundles in a lantern pinion can over time have a groove worn into them.
Or, sometimes when a spring breaks they can be bent, or missing. Either way they need to be replaced.
After decades of service a spring will become "set", the one on the right is new, the spring on the left cannot deliver the power necessary. It needs to be replaced.
Some of the best resources I have found for learning clock repair
My mentor Mr. Penman offers a course that I highly recommend for anyone that is interested in learning clock repair. The exercises and projects are not only comprehensive and indepth, but are designed to prepare the student for the examanation to become a Certified Master Clockmaker with the American Watchmakers - Clockmakers Institute, where he was a professor.
Laurie Penman has written too many books on the subject of clockmaking to get into them all here, but I suggest that you start off with the Clock Repairers Handbook. It will give the reader an overview of the proper way to solve just about any problem that a clock movement would have.
Steven Conover is another author of many fine books on the subject of clockmaking. Clock Repair Basics is a great start. He ran the Clockmakers Newsletter for quite some time, and now he is compiling all that infromation into a series of books, I highly recommend them all.
Most clocks today are battery powered. The movements are easy to replace. If you want to do it yourself this guide will walk you through.
Replacement clock movements can be obtained online from:
To be sure you get the correct replacement, measure the length of the threaded shaft on your old movement.
Mount the movement to your clock case by inserting the shaft through the center hole at the back of the dial face. Two small strips of double sided tape between the dial and movement will keep it from twisting in relation to the dial.
Put the brass washer in place on the shaft then secure the movement to the dial with the hex nut. (do not over tighten)
Before mounting the hour hand, place the minute hand on the "I" shaft (the end of the shaft will be oblong as will the hole in the minute hand)
Use the time setting disk in the back of the movement to turn the minute hand exactly to the 12:00 position.
Remove the minute hand and press the hour hand onto it's shaft making sure it is pointing to any hour.
Install the minute hand by securing it with the brass nut that fits over the end of the shaft.
Install a fresh battery and set the time.
Avoid Unnecessary Clock Repairs With These Helpful Hints.
If you own a Howard Miller or Ridgeway clock there is an extensive FAQ page specifically for their product line.
Never force anything on a clock.
Never move a clock with the pendulum attached. This could put the escapement out of adjustment, damage the delicate spring on which the pendulum is attached, and may cause expensive damage to the escape wheel.
My clock runs fast / slow how can I adjust it?
To adjust time keeping turn the rating nut under the pendulum bob to the right to raise the pendulum and speed up the clock. Turn to the left to lower the bob and slow it down. When slowing the clock be sure that the pendulum bob lowers along with the rating nut (the bob can hang up on the pendulum rod). Some clocks have a square ended shaft in a hole near the top of the dial which the small end of the winding key will fit. Turn clockwise to speed up (usually) and counter clockwise to slow down. Adjust no more than 1/2 of a turn and check the results in 24 hours. Reduce turning as time keeping becomes more accurate. You should be able to adjust a spring driven clock with a 7 day run time to within 2-3 minutes a week. Keep in mind that a spring driven clock may run slower as the spring unwinds because there is less power transfered to the gear train.
Do Not hand lift weights while winding, the cable could cross on the winding drum, the chain may come off the sprocket, and it's possible to bump into and unhook the pendulum.
Do Not wind without the weights in place. The cables could cross on the winding drum.
Do Not turn the hands backward on a striking clock.
When you set the time, move the minute hand foward, and pause to allow for the chime and strike.
What does it mean for a clock to be "in beat" or "balanced"?
All clocks leaving workshops will have been set in beat on a level surface. Provided that a clock is transported carefully, with the pendulum removed and placed on a firm level surface, no adjustment may be necessary.
It is essential that a clock is set up after a move to a new position. The clock must be in beat. The tick and tock must be of the same duration (evenly spaced). If not in beat, lift each side of the clock and listen. Place shims under the side which improves the beat. With wall clocks shift sideways to establish the best in beat position. Make a small mark on the wall adjacent to the bottom edge of the case as a reference, and take care when winding the clock not to shift the case.
My clock is overwound, what can I do?
A clock that is "overwound" really isn't. The springs are dirty and the lubrication has dried out and become gummy and sticky. The spring is creating it's own resistance and friction which it is not powerful enough to overcome, so it can not unwind. A clock movement that is in proper order will not become "overwound".
Overhauled metal movements are warranted to perform for a period of one year from date of completion of work without defects of material or workmanship,
with the following exceptions.
Breakage of any springs, weight cables or chains, and damage caused thereby.
Evidence of tampering or alteration to the work performed by Sparks clock repair.
Partial repairs are warranted for one year only to the extent of the work performed. Exceptions above apply.
No performance or durability warranty is made for wooden clock movements or parts.
Service charges for unauthorized repairs will not be paid by Sparks clock repair. Sparks clock repair cannot be held lible for damages not directly connected to the work it preforms.
Some interesting jobs that have come across my bench over the years.
This is a planetarium or orrery. It was made by Carlo Croce and is a one of a kind. You can see this and the other clocks he has made here unfortunately the web site is in Italian, I have a translation
They are the instruments that indicate the position of the stars in the firmament. They developed not only to satisfy a scientific spirit, but also for the desire of wealthy men who were the only ones who could commission high-cost data, used them as decorative objects for their beautiful homes.
Initially, the gears that commanded the movement of the stars were moved by hand and then, with its introduction, by a mechanical clock (in this last case, however, a manual advance was also provided to give more dynamism to the movement of the stars).
In the planetarium that I designed, the gear trains that move in the machine can be ideally divided into four groups shown in figure 1.
The first is composed of the clock that has the recoil escapement that will run about a week when fully wound; the calculation of the number of teeth of its gears has been constrained by the length of the pendulum, a length in turn linked by the overall dimensions; the pendulum makes 140 vibrations per minute.
A second group of gears serves to turn the earth on itself every 24 hours.
The third moves the arm on which the earth is laid; it makes one turn around a year and at the same time it constantly keeps the inclined axis of our planet pointed in the same direction (thus allowing the seasons to alternate). Finally the last one from the motion of the moon making it a complete tour around the earth in 29g 12h 44m 09s
With an error with respect to the lunation of 51 sec. (a truly negligible error if we consider that it represents about twenty parts in a million).
The largest of the two rings placed around the earth allows you to check in every instant where the sun rises and sets, while the area between the two gives an idea of the area lit before and after the two events just mentioned.
This area, although obviously indefinite, is accepted to extend for about 18 degrees before sunrise and as many after its fall.
This was in a fire and sprayed with water and needed to be restored before it was completely destroyed by rust.
The steel was rusting and needed attention. The movement needed to be stripped to pieces to ensure all the rust would be gone.
The parts were given individual attention, everything was polished especially the pivots and the holes. Every piece was put in order before reassembly.
Here you can see the 'heart' of the movement - the clock part. The 'top work' revolves the globe around the table once per year, but it is the clock that is at the center of it all.
The top work is all ratios that move the earth and moon around each other and both around the table.
It was a honor to work on one of Mr Croce's clocks he really did some amazing work, I'm thankful that I could save this one.
Comtoise or Mobier clock.
Unlike most mass produced clocks, the Morbier was not made in a factory. The Morbier was in fact the product of many families working together from various villages scattered throughout the remote Franche-Comte region of eastern France.
This clock had quite a bit wrong with it. The escapement had to be rebuilt as well as interesting issues with the strike train.
The crown wheel and verge is a very uncommon escapement.
It was replaced quite some time ago with the recoil and deadbeat escapements. The type of escapement as well as the style of suspension allows us to put a date of 1795 - 1825 on this clock. This is right about the time that the crown wheel and verge was being replaced with the more modern escapements.
Somehow the pallet arbor broke in the past, and was spliced together with a piece of brass. We can see in the picture that the two half's are not aligned, which means the 'proper geometry' won't work. Instead of the pallets both being exactly the same length they need to accommodate this misalignment.
There are critical dimensions involved with any escapement, one of them is the distance from the pallet arbor to the escape wheel.
Adjusting this distance while removing material from the pallets to get it to work created too much play in the escape wheel and teeth would flutter through. In short it would not keep good time.
The first thing that needed to be done is get this right and then rebuild the escapement from there.
Here we can see the pivot in a brass bushing, it just needed to be repositioned to take the sloppiness out of the escape wheel.
From there metal plates needed to be added to the pallets, then sized properly to accommodate the misaligned arbor.
Next is the strike gear train, and this job was an excellent example of how a bit of wear on one part creates a large variance down the line, putting critical dimensions so far off that the clock will not work, and how easy it is to make things worse.
On the left we can see the wear caused by the age of this clock, which is perfectly normal. And then on the right after putting a patch on to rectify the wear. That's really all that was wrong to begin with.
That tiny bit of wear on this lever put another lever (the one that starts and stops the striking) about 1/8" off.
This dimension was out of tolerance and the only way to get the clock to strike was to bend the lever. Well, now the problem is the only way to get the striking to stop is to move a pin closer to the edge of the gear.
On the left we can see that because the pin was moved a tooth was weakened and broke off. So we need to cut a dovetail out to accept a patch for a new tooth.
Here is the replaced tooth with the pin put back to it's original position.
And finally, while not a problem, the solution doesn't really 'fit' the clock. On pendulum clocks there is a rating nut underneath the pendulum so it can be raised to speed up the time keeping or lowered to slow it down.
And while a bunch of split washers and a wing nut will work just fine...
We can go ahead and make a sleeve and nut that is new and shiny now, but in a decade or two the brass will have a patina that will make it look like it belongs on a clock that is a couple of centuries old.
Here is a picture of the pallet (sometimes called the 'anchor'). This is a important part of a clocks escapement, it is what transfers the power from the gear train to the pendulum. The red circles show the impulse faces, and if you look close they have been patched. Along with the oblong mounting hole this tells us that this part is not original. It works, but not very well. This clock is being fully restored, so this needs to be remade.
The first step is to measure the distance between the pallet arbor and the escape wheel arbor. We then mark and drill holes on a piece of wood panel.
Then a blank of high carbon tool steel and the escape wheel is fitted up to our panel.
We mark the teeth that will be used as a reference for drawing out the first rough cuts.
Our first cuts are made for the impulse and drop off faces.
Once the body is roughed out the critical dimensions of the impulse and drop off faces are checked. The clearance needs to be checked on both sides for every tooth in the escape wheel.
The rest of the pallet body is cut out and finished.
The faces are then heat treated, and because we used high carbon tool steel a hardness of 63-64 on the rockwell scale can be achieved. Which means it will take a very long time to wear the impulse faces.
After heat treatment the part will have a carbon coating that needs to be polished off.
And after polishing the pallets are mounted on to it's arbor.