Expert: John Newman - 4/25/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi John,

I finally made it back home ( stuck in Europe thanks to the volcano cloud ) , your suggestion on the super glue to the minute hand worked a treat and I have an "almost" perfect Grandmother clock. The one last remaining thing to make it perfect is the "tick-tock" , it is shorter on the tick than the tock , the time is perfect as such it is purely to improve on the sound.

Thanks again you have been extremely helpful

ANSWER: Garry, I do not have the model of your movement.  But let's say it is one of the latter models that has an auto-beat escapement.  All you do is hold the pendulum bob over to one side and release it.  It should seek its own even beat.  If this doesn't work, I will need the model of the movement (information found on the back movement plate).  I might need a photo of the back of the movement, but let's try the other things first.

Glad you made it back okay.  My daughter's family is over there right now.  They could not fly on one of the hops and the French rail system went on strike, so they did some driving.

John Newman



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The model is 610-132 , I tried holding and releasing the pendulum bob but it still isn't even . On the back movement plate it is engraved UW 325680 , I understand this will tell you the manufacturer.

Thanks
Garry

Answer
Garry, you have an Urgos movement.  If it doesn't have an auto-beat adjustment, you would have to adjustment by hand.  Looking at the back of the clock movement, there is a vertical arm called a crutch that comes out of the hole in the top back of the movement.  With the pendulum removed, you should be able to move the crutch back and forth until it meets some resistance.  Check to see if it moves further from vertical to one side more than the other.  If it does, you should be able to carefully slip it a litter further past the resistance points, first one and then the other as you make the adjustments, so both sides of travel are equal from vertical.  This is the easiest way to get a "feel" for making this adjustment.  It can and should be done with the pendulum attached so finer adjustments can be made to get an even tick tock.  Actually, when you learn to do this, you can do it from the front through the open door as the clock has been set up in its normal place.  It's almost impossible to set the beat on a clock and then reposition it on the floor.  Try this and let me know how it does.

John Newman
THE VILLAGE CLOCKSMITH
Old Prattvillage
Prattville, Alabama