So I bought this small alarm clock that is 1930s Art Deco at an estate sale, and it didn’t run but I could tell it was fully wound. I brought it home, took the non-clockwork part totally apart (those columns are comprised of five pieces and a long bolt, and there are six flat horizontal pieces they go through) to clean, and pulled the clockwork out of the center (the bezel is 3 pieces, the back is two plates plus the bell that wraps around the works, all of which go in the suspended cylinder) so I could properly oil it with light machine oil. It started running, so I let it sit for a day for the overwound spring to wind down. This morning I put the clock part back together, put it back in its place, give the key four turns and… it would run for 5-15 seconds. Grr. Photo taken at that point, which is why the bezel and one column base are crooked… I had just started to pull the clock out again.
I looked online for solutions to “wind-up clock won’t keep running”, and other than mentions of damage to parts that I can tell aren’t obviously damaged, it said that the old lubrication will get gunky or dry out and thus cause friction. One source said that WD-40 is great for cleaning but NOT for lubricating a clock, so I gave it a bit of a dousing (careful not to get any on the face) and have it sitting at an upward angle so the WD-40 can wick downward into a paper towel and not toward the face. It’s running right now so hopefully tomorrow after it’s had time to drain I can put it back in the body and have it stay functional.
Two alarming notes about this clock: first, someone else attempted surgery on it at one point but realized they were over their head before they got it completely apart, so along with a rattle inside when I got it (one of the nuts that holds the cylinder to the top moving freely) it’s missing the knob in back that turns the alarm on and off; second, the construction is actually pretty interesting in that if you turn the key in back counterclockwise it winds the clock’s spring, but if you turn that key clockwise it winds a second spring for the alarm. (Just never wind it toward the right and the bell never goes off!) Most of the wind-up clocks I’ve ever seen have time and alarm powered by the same single spring, so this is unique to me.
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