We had 3 house calls in Marietta today, too service 3 different Grandfather clocks . One Howard Miller Grandfather clock and 2 Seth Thomas Grandfather clocks. The Howard Miller Grandfather clock and 1 of the Seth Thomas Grandfather clocks just needed a good cleaning, re-oiling and adjustments. Unfortunately the other Seth Thomas Grandfather clock was not taken care of and the time side as well as the chime side of the Grandfather clock movement was so worn out, we will have to replace the old Seth Thomas movement with a new Hermle movement

Fortunately, we were able to cross reference the old Seth Thomas movement with a new Hermle # and were able to order a new Hermle movement for the customer. We will receive the new Hermle movement in a few weeks. Once the new movement comes into our shop, we will set it up on our test stand and watch the new movement for at least 8 days and test for accuracy. When we set up a Grandfather clock movement in our test stand, we will check the movement for accuracy using a MicroSet 3. If anyone has never used one and you are in the clock repair or Grandfather clock repair business, I highly recommend that you look into purchasing one. I have included a link to the MicrSet 3's manufacturers website here. http://www.bmumford.com/mset/model3.html

The MicroSet 3 will perform so many tasks, both in the field as well in the shop, we could not live without one. We have one on each truck, as well as one in the shop. Some folks may say they are pricey, however they save us so much time and trouble, the unit is worth every penny to us.

Once the new movement is tested out, we will return the new movement to the home and re-install it into their Grandfather clock. After a few adjustment to the new movement, the Grandfather clock will be ready to enjoy its new home and perform for many years to come.

We had the opportunity to service a Howard Miller Grandfather clock in Atlanta today. The customer moved here from Florida and had the Grandfather clock professionally packed. The moving company moved the Grandfather clock up to their townhouse. We were hired to unpack the Grandfather clock and set it up. During or set up we will give the owners an option for us to clean and service the Grandfather clock while we were their. Their did have us do a cleaning of the movement and case. We removed the movement and was able to remove a lot of dried out dirty oil from the movement. Once the dirty oil was removed from the clocks movement, we were able to re-oil the clock movement with a quality synthetic oil designed for grandfather clock and clock movememnts.

Here is the anatomy of a Grandfather Clock's Outer case. We thought it would be helpful for our customers to see the parts of a Grandfather clocks case to help identify each part. although many Clock Repair people will know what each section or piece of a Grandfather clock is called, We do not feel that it is so important to memorize each part of a Grandfather clock. however it is nice to know when we are trying to communicate with a customer about their Grandfather clock so that they understand what part we are talking about. Although the focus of our company is to repair, restore and rebuild Grandfather clocks, we mainly are talking about the repair, restoration and rebuilding of the movement. Most of the Grandfather clocks we get in for repairs at or shop just require repairs on the movement, occasionally, we do get a Grandfather clock that will require a total overhaul and restoration of both the movement as well as the Grandfather clock case as well. In this blog, however we will be mainly discussing the repairs on the movement. We wanted to show the anatomy of the Grandfather case, mainly due to the fact that in order to remove the Grandfather clocks movement, you will have to get into the case in order to remove the movement. Each manufacturers of Grandfather clocks had their own way of building each Grandfather clock and the installation of the movement varies as well as each Grandfather clock case will vary. Not only did each Grandfather clock company have their own way of building the Grandfather clock case, many times each model Grandfather clock was built differently and the movement was installed differently. So getting into each model and each manufacturer of a Grandfather clock to remove the movement was a little different.  

Over the past 10 years I have taken many pictures of many different Grandfather clock cases as I removed the movements from them. I will post allot of the pictures in the future so that you will be able to see what you will have to do in order to remove the movement from the Grandfather clock case. Some of the older Grandfather clocks get really tricky when it comes to getting the movement out. We have come across a few homemade Grandfather clocks that the builder amused you will never have to take the movement out of the case and built the Grandfather clock case around the Grandfather clocks movement.