Hello,

I've inherited a clock; the type that's a wooden cabinet with a
pendulum inside. It has a metal bracket on the top, with a hole in for
fixing to the wall.

I was wondering, is there a table showing what weight each gauge of
screw will support? I suppose it's not that simple because the
substrate might fail before the screw does. I'm sure I could have got
away with less but I went with a 12 gauge screw just to be sure!

The drill bit seemed to slip a few mm, so I wonder whether I was on
the interface between the brick and the mortar? Thereafter the drill
went in very fast and I don't remember seeing red brick dust. I did
consider drilling in a different position, however, once I inserted a
brown plug and the screw, it seemed rigid in position. Do I need to
worry about it falling off in the night?

I have found that when I open the door to wind the clock, the shift in
the centre of gravity causes the clock to rotate. What's the best way
to remedy this? I'm thinking I need to put a screw behind the frame in
the bottom corner, to stop the it moving in this way.

One last, daft, question, how do you set the time on these? The
fingers seemed to have quite some resistance so I was weary to push
them for fear of damaging the internal workings or bending the
fingers!

The is pendulum and the fingers are moving but it is not chiming at
the moment.

Thanks,
Stephen.

On 12/11/2015 20:39, Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've inherited a clock; the type that's a wooden cabinet with a
pendulum inside. It has a metal bracket on the top, with a hole in for
fixing to the wall.

I was wondering, is there a table showing what weight each gauge of
screw will support? I suppose it's not that simple because the
substrate might fail before the screw does. I'm sure I could have got
away with less but I went with a 12 gauge screw just to be sure!

The drill bit seemed to slip a few mm, so I wonder whether I was on
the interface between the brick and the mortar? Thereafter the drill
went in very fast and I don't remember seeing red brick dust. I did
consider drilling in a different position, however, once I inserted a
brown plug and the screw, it seemed rigid in position. Do I need to
worry about it falling off in the night?

I have found that when I open the door to wind the clock, the shift in
the centre of gravity causes the clock to rotate. What's the best way
to remedy this? I'm thinking I need to put a screw behind the frame in
the bottom corner, to stop the it moving in this way.

One last, daft, question, how do you set the time on these? The
fingers seemed to have quite some resistance so I was weary to push
them for fear of damaging the internal workings or bending the
fingers!

The is pendulum and the fingers are moving but it is not chiming at
the moment.

Thanks,
Stephen.

Others can advise on the weight/mounting.

Do you have an image of the clock or if you can email me (dont know how
you do that on here) I can probably give some help on the mechanical
side. I am not a clock repairer but I have fiddled with clocks for years
on and off.

On 12/11/2015 20:39, Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've inherited a clock; the type that's a wooden cabinet with a
pendulum inside. It has a metal bracket on the top, with a hole in for
fixing to the wall.

I was wondering, is there a table showing what weight each gauge of
screw will support? I suppose it's not that simple because the
substrate might fail before the screw does. I'm sure I could have got
away with less but I went with a 12 gauge screw just to be sure!

The drill bit seemed to slip a few mm, so I wonder whether I was on
the interface between the brick and the mortar? Thereafter the drill
went in very fast and I don't remember seeing red brick dust. I did
consider drilling in a different position, however, once I inserted a
brown plug and the screw, it seemed rigid in position. Do I need to
worry about it falling off in the night?

I have found that when I open the door to wind the clock, the shift in
the centre of gravity causes the clock to rotate. What's the best way
to remedy this? I'm thinking I need to put a screw behind the frame in
the bottom corner, to stop the it moving in this way.

One last, daft, question, how do you set the time on these? The
fingers seemed to have quite some resistance so I was weary to push
them for fear of damaging the internal workings or bending the
fingers!

The is pendulum and the fingers are moving but it is not chiming at
the moment.

Thanks,
Stephen.


The screw will be in shear rather than in tension so, provided it's
fairly firm, it's unlikely to pull out and dump the clock on the floor.

Does the clock want to rotate when you've finished winding it and taken
your hands away, or only when it's actually being wound. If the latter,
this is to be expected to some extent because you're exerting a torque
on it through the key. Can you hold the case still with your other hand
as you wind it? Or could you put a peg in the wall for the bottom of the
case to press against while being wound, to react the torque?

The normal way of setting the hands on a chiming clock is to put one
finger on the tip of the minute hand, and move it in a clockwise
direction (the gearing will ensure that the hour hand moves by the right
amount) - pausing at each point at which it is supposed to chime (every
hour, half hour, quarter hour, whatever) to allow it to chime before
moving on - otherwise the chiming mechanism gets hopelessly out of synch
with the hands.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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