Here’s a Seth Thomas shelf clock I recently repaired – “Metals No. 2” oak shelf clock (often called a “kitchen” clock). This clock is 23 1/4″ tall and 14 7/8 inches wide, and the minute hand is 2 3/8″ from center to tip. This clock and the others in this series (see Seth Thomas Metals No. 3 Oak Shelf Clock and Seth Thomas “Metals No. 1” Oak Kitchen Clock Dated 1899 for examples) are named for the metal decorations on the front.
This is an “8-day” clock meant to be wound up every 7 days, but will run about 2 weeks on one winding.
Repair job 8772. I polished the pivots, trued gear S2, installed 17 bushings, tightened the click rivets, secured the anchor in its arbor, smoothed the crutch slot, and made new tension springs for the count lever and warning lever. I replaced the mainsprings with MS301 (3/4 x 0.014 x 108 inch). The original mainsprings were only slightly on the thick side (0.0175″) but had a rough action.
The movement is a variation of the popular No. 89 but is marked “8 1/4”. I believe it was made before it was called No. 89. This is a very efficient movement and the deadbeat escapement (as opposed to recoil) lets the pendulum have a very good swing.
I used 10W-60 synthetic motor oil (Castrol Edge TWS European Formula full synthetic 10W-60 motor oil) for the mainsprings, and the first through third pivots. I used 5W-40 synthetic motor oil (Mobile 1 5W-40 Turbo Diesel Truck Advanced Full Synthetic Motor Oil) for train pivots 3 and 5, and for the the pallet pivots. I oiled the pallets with Vaseline, by applying a very small amount to 10 escape wheel teeth as the clock was running. Synthetic motor oil has been proven to work well in American antique clocks. See information from Ken Reindel about clock oils (this is a PDF file).
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