Carriage Clock Cleaning Disaster

[Scouseget]

I have had a lovely carriage clock for many years and, of course, it has received zero maintenance in all that time - no lubrication, and certainly no strip-down and cleaning. It's a T.S Elliott clock, with a French 7 jewel unadjusted (whatever that means) movement. It has an escapement on a separate little plate that comes off cleanly by removing a few screws.

 

Having recently  become a member of the WRT community, I decided overhaul it and subsequently stripped it down completely without any problems at all. Then came the cleaning. I read up on this, and other forums and websites to find out what type of cleaning solution I should get for my recently acquired ultrasonic cleaner. I settled on a multi-purpose degreaser, which I was assured would work fine providing the brass work wasn't lacquered. I checked the main plate and satisfied myself that it was un-lacquered, then diluted the degreaser (sodium hydroxide, sodium metasilicate, and 2-butoxyethanol) to about 1 part to 8 parts warm water and proceeded to clean all the parts. 

 

All the gear wheels came out completely tarnished, as in black, or more accurately gun metal blue, almost iridescent. The mainspring barrel came out less coloured but nonetheless still very discoloured. And worst of all, all the "brass" pieces, with the exception of the two plates, one of which was the one I initially checked, came out with the brass colour pretty well completely removed. 

 

I now realize that the only pieces that were actually brass were the main plates, everything else on the case was some type of base metal (plated aluminium perhaps). The gears I assume are some type of alloy. So I now have a pretty uniquely coloured carriage clock, and there's probably nothing I can do to remedy that and I'll complete the overhaul and hope that my wife doesn't actually notice the not so subtle change in colour. 

 

I do have one question, and that is, given my traumatic experience, how should I clean and lube the jewelled escapement, as seen in the attached photo?

 

Also, any thoughts on my choice of cleaning solution?

 

Thanks, as always, for your collective wisdom.

 

Roger 

[oldhippy]

When it comes to cleaning these clocks I always used Brasso and a soft polishing brush and an old piece of cloth. All brass parts would be polished with the brasso then washed out in petrol, dried in sawdust and then chalked. The platform all the brass cleaned with brasso and washed in the same way, then dried, all the parts would be put into a watch cleaning basket and put through the cleaner. All the screws would be polished with small needle files buffed with different emery sticks until highly polished and then blued. The only screw not blued is the one that is adjusted for the depth to the contrite wheel. The reason I used French chalk is it stops tarnish, it is a very old method. The cleaning and polishing would be the same for the case, then finished by lacquering.

[oldhippy]

I forgot to mention all the screws are cleaned in the cleaning machine. The arbor for winding is also cleaned up, any burr is taken of and buffed with emery sticks, this goes for the click and click spring and hand set. 

 

I think I've covered it all.

[steven]

I only use kerosene to clean my clocks. I'll try Brasso in my next job.

Oldhippy, how to use the French chalk? In what way and when to use it? Thank you in advance.

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[oldhippy]

You should be able to buy a block of French chalk and what is called a chalk brush. You brush the chalk across the brush then brush the brass part, you do not need to brush the part hard, just a little light brush is all that's needed. I would then use my blower and blow away any access. It must be French chalk, no other will do.

[oldhippy]

Don't forget if bushing is undertaken it should be invisible to the naked eye, with the oil well you shouldn't be able to see that a bush is in place, so these ready made bushings are not good enough you should always make your own on a lathe. Back to bluing screws, I used an old copper penny over a spirit lamp, when the right shade of blue is obtained drop the screw in oil I used 3 in one, this adds a nice shine to the screws then clean in a cleaning machine. I had an old machine just for this type of work.

[oldhippy]

All that I've posted above about polishing and cleaning carriage clocks is the way all French Clocks should be undertaken with one exception if the movement isn't visible you can re-bush in the normal way, but make sure it is tidy and correct and the pinion has the correct depth to operate in.

 

Always remove the springs with a good mainspring winder.