Re: old car clocks

[Tom Hardy <trh-arch@domain.elided>]

Mark Mucciacciaro wrote:
> > Volume 09 : Number 163
> > why 70s Alfa clocks don't work?
> Then you must liberally hose down the movement with
> 3M 4-way spray. This dislodges the years of dust from the
> movement. Don't be stingy. Keep spraying until you
> don't see any more black stuff dripping away. 
Mechanical clocks are great, but I must take issue with your liberal 
flooding of WD-40. That may well dislodge years of grease and goo and 
get the fine clockworks freed up again, but that can only be a 
short-term solution. That much WD-40 will soon attract even more dust 
and dirt to clog up the works in short order. I worked in a clockshop to 
pay for college, and if he suspected a customer had tinkered with his 
own clock, the proprietor would sniff inside the case and say "you've 
sprayed it with WD-40, and then reject the repair and hand it back."

A clockmaker would clean all the old dried up goo and dried up oil, and 
then re-lubricate with clock-quality oil. All oil will eventually dry 
out leaving a sticky residue to attract dirt and stop the clock, but 
real clock oil is extremely high quality and will last a long time.

The proper approach is to clean the metal clockworks in a gentle clock 
cleaning solution, [in an ultrasonic machine if you have one, or a dixie 
cup if you don't] and then a rinse bath with a proper and compatible 
clock rinsing solution. I stress that these should be of horological 
quality. Same for the oil. You can order a small and cheap precision 
oiler filled with clock oil from www.timesavers.com and also get really 
high quality clock cleaning and rinsing solutions. In reasonably small 
and cheap quantities. The oil should only be applied at the very small 
bearing ends of the arbors where they bear in the metal plates. The oil 
should not run over the oilsinks and should not drip onto any other 
parts of the clock to attract dirt. The teeth on the gears do not get 
oil. The oil must really be applied sparingly. There are lots of great 
books on clock repair available in most libraries.
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