Grandfather Clock Do It Yourself Repair - Part II

In this second article of our "repair your grandfatherevery week at least. Keep a record of the distance
clock on your own" series we're going to go overyou turned the nut each time so you will have an
some other things you can do on your own beforeidea of how much you'll need to turn it in the future.
taking your prized possession to a very expensiveEventually the timing will be accurate enough so that
repair shop.you'll only have to check the clock once each week
In our first article we went over what to do if theand it should never be off by more than a minute.
pendulum doesn't swing. Next we're going to go overJust a tip. Some grandfather clocks are made so that
what to do if the clock runs too fast or too slow.a full turn of the nut is actually equal to one minute.
If the clock is running to fast or too slow what youSo if your clock is running 2 minutes fast then all you
need to do is adjust your pendulum bob. That bigneed to do is turn the nut two full turns to the left
round disk at the end of your pendulum is yourand this will set the timing correctly. Of course the
pendulum bob. You adjust your pendulum bob withonly way to know if your clock is one of these is to
the nut located at the bottom of the bob. This istest this theory out.
what adjusts the timing. If the bob is raised up thisSome grandfather clocks actually have two nuts
will make the clock run faster. If the bob is loweredattached to the bottom of the pendulum. If your
this will make the clock run slower. You can expectclock is one of these then most likely it is a very
to get this accurate to within one minute fast oraccurate clock. Many clock owners believe the
slow per week. Better than that, consider yourselfbottom nut is a lock nut against the top nut. This is
lucky.not true. Actually you must make sure that the
Start by setting your grandfather clock to a standardbottom and top nuts do not touch. Let the top nut
electric or quartz clock or watch. Then check theraise or lower the pendulum bob until you've gotten
time against the clock 24 hours later. If the clock isthe timekeeping as accurate as possible. Then by
running fast, turn the nut to the left. If the clock iseither turning left or right use the weight of the top
running slow, turn the nut to the right. Then resetnut to make your final adjustments to your clock's
the time on your clock and check it again in anothertiming.
24 hours. Keep performing this process until the clockIn our last article we'll go over some more tips on
appears to be running on time. Expect to do thisgetting your grandfather clock running up to speed.