Expert: Kenneth Saunders - 1/28/2009

Question
Hello, I wonder if you can offer any advice on the following!? I have recently inherited an old mantle clock (Paper inside back door has a 1937 date written on it) The clock has not been used for at least 10 years to my knowledge alone. It has 3 winding places. They all appear to wind quite happily and the clock appears to run quite well. It chimes a Westminster chime on each quarter hour, with the "o'clock" chime being followed by the single strikes denoting the hour. Now for the problem! It insists on chiming the "hour chime" at the quarter-to. I wondered if simply manually moving the hands would solve the problem, but it still insists on quarter-to being the "o'clock"! It may be that I simply haven't "adjusted" it enough yet, but I am loathe to play around too much without even knowing if I am doing the right thing. Finally, it also appears to run a little fast and gain one or two minutes over 6 or so hours. Apologies for the long post! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much for your time. Paul.

Answer
the minute hand is held on either by a round or hex nut or by a tapered pin over a round washer. Probably by removing the nut or pin the hand has a square hole going on the square shaft and just put it back on pointing at 12 when it DOES do the hour strike.

the pendulum bob swinging in the back may have a threaded nut under it to allow lowering the round bob to slow the clock. and or a small hole in the dial or some through the dial provision for adjustment.