Well this is not a thread about cool old tractors but the other obsession I've gotten a hold of is this really old Ansonia clock.
The story is this was a wedding present that my aunt Sara Kate got, (she was technically no blood relation to my family but she was my aunt, long story) she was born in 1907 and married in 1932. Same year my Dad was born. It may have been a wedding present her Mom and Dad got because the year this was made lines up better to their marriage year of 1901. When Sara Kate passed away at 99 years old in 2006 my Mom got the clock.
It's an Ansonia clock and the name of it is "Summer and Winter". Reading various clock forums one fella said there were only 7 of them made. He didn't cite any reference on this so I have no idea if that's true. Looking through the catalog from 1903 it appears to me you could mix and match bases, clocks and figures to custom make your display. That catalog has the figures "Summer and Winter" listed for $35 but the clock nor base are listed. Ironically in my researching lately I found that the old clock my Mom (my Sister now has it) had is also an Ansonia, it is in full working order but they don't run it because they don't want to hear the chime.
Anywho..back to Summer and Winter. I've been in possession of it since my Mom moved out of the house I grew up in back in 2012. As long as I remember it has never worked. I remember looking at it when Sara Kate first moved back down here from Ohio in the late 70s trying to figure out what was wrong. She told me then she's never had it working and thought someone overwound the spring.
We've looked at getting it apprised a couple of times but frankly, I don't trust some of those folks. The one guy I know who hustles Rolexes at shows told me it was only worth a couple of hundred, to me, if he were willing to pay me that much it had to be worth much more. Last one I saw sell was about $1500 and it was in horrible condition compared to this one.
During all this time Cindy and I have been caring for an old walk clock that her Dad had, we have to adjust the pendulum when weather changes, we keep it clean and wound up, it does a fair job, we let the chime wind down but I like the Tick Tock when just chilling in the den. I started thinking about Summer and Winter, what's wrong with it?
I moved it where I can poke at it a bit more and opened up the back.
This is a photo of it in 2012 when we moved it from my Mom's house.
I know @Heavens Eagle Paul sees the problem right off but it evaded me for decades.
Then it donged on me...get it...There's no Pendulum in the thing! A quick google search for Ansonia Summer and Winter pendulum found one on Ebay for some change. It was labled as "works on most Ansonia clocks. So I ordered it.
Pendulum came in and I installed it, started poking with it, could get it moving but it would stop after a couple of swings. Started chatting up Google AI and learned about "setting the beat" and other adjustments and cleaning that needed to be done. Some of that required disassembling, something I am not comfortable with.
The clock has an open escapement (the thing that tick tocks) so it was easy to see.
After reading several pages about the clock and how it works, trouble shooting and trying to get it to run I wasn't sure where to go with it further. Like I said it would run a couple of seconds, then several seconds. So the gear movement was still good. The chimes work fine, hands move free. I started thinking there's something wrong with the pallets (the tick and tock rocker things) so I fired up the pendulum again to count where it stopped thinking it's stopping at the same place on the escapement gear. I started counting...and counting...whoa!!! It's not stopping! It's freakin working!!! It didn't stop and has not stopped since Friday evening. You can see in this photo this thing still needs some serious cleaning around that gear but I think my poking at it and forcing the movement to work has pushed away enough crud to get it working order again.
Problem now? It's WAY fast. After more googling and reading I found I have the wrong pendulum. I bought a 5 1/2 inch one that does work on many different types of Ansonia clocks. There's a stamp on the plate in the back "9" I now know this is Ansonia telling us what length the pendulum is.
So, my challenge is finding a 9inch Ansonia pendulum (fat chance so far) or....Making one.
This is what I need, this is only 3.5 inch. I need 9 inch.
I figure I could get some brass rod, tap it out at the bottom for the bob thing and mash it down up top and drill out or even make that flange out of brass plate and cut a slot on the top of the rod and solder it together.
Share your thoughts and follow along, I promise I'm not turning into a clock maker but I think I can bash some brass together to get what I need.
The story is this was a wedding present that my aunt Sara Kate got, (she was technically no blood relation to my family but she was my aunt, long story) she was born in 1907 and married in 1932. Same year my Dad was born. It may have been a wedding present her Mom and Dad got because the year this was made lines up better to their marriage year of 1901. When Sara Kate passed away at 99 years old in 2006 my Mom got the clock.
It's an Ansonia clock and the name of it is "Summer and Winter". Reading various clock forums one fella said there were only 7 of them made. He didn't cite any reference on this so I have no idea if that's true. Looking through the catalog from 1903 it appears to me you could mix and match bases, clocks and figures to custom make your display. That catalog has the figures "Summer and Winter" listed for $35 but the clock nor base are listed. Ironically in my researching lately I found that the old clock my Mom (my Sister now has it) had is also an Ansonia, it is in full working order but they don't run it because they don't want to hear the chime.
Anywho..back to Summer and Winter. I've been in possession of it since my Mom moved out of the house I grew up in back in 2012. As long as I remember it has never worked. I remember looking at it when Sara Kate first moved back down here from Ohio in the late 70s trying to figure out what was wrong. She told me then she's never had it working and thought someone overwound the spring.
We've looked at getting it apprised a couple of times but frankly, I don't trust some of those folks. The one guy I know who hustles Rolexes at shows told me it was only worth a couple of hundred, to me, if he were willing to pay me that much it had to be worth much more. Last one I saw sell was about $1500 and it was in horrible condition compared to this one.
During all this time Cindy and I have been caring for an old walk clock that her Dad had, we have to adjust the pendulum when weather changes, we keep it clean and wound up, it does a fair job, we let the chime wind down but I like the Tick Tock when just chilling in the den. I started thinking about Summer and Winter, what's wrong with it?
I moved it where I can poke at it a bit more and opened up the back.
This is a photo of it in 2012 when we moved it from my Mom's house.
I know @Heavens Eagle Paul sees the problem right off but it evaded me for decades.
Then it donged on me...get it...There's no Pendulum in the thing! A quick google search for Ansonia Summer and Winter pendulum found one on Ebay for some change. It was labled as "works on most Ansonia clocks. So I ordered it.
Pendulum came in and I installed it, started poking with it, could get it moving but it would stop after a couple of swings. Started chatting up Google AI and learned about "setting the beat" and other adjustments and cleaning that needed to be done. Some of that required disassembling, something I am not comfortable with.
The clock has an open escapement (the thing that tick tocks) so it was easy to see.
After reading several pages about the clock and how it works, trouble shooting and trying to get it to run I wasn't sure where to go with it further. Like I said it would run a couple of seconds, then several seconds. So the gear movement was still good. The chimes work fine, hands move free. I started thinking there's something wrong with the pallets (the tick and tock rocker things) so I fired up the pendulum again to count where it stopped thinking it's stopping at the same place on the escapement gear. I started counting...and counting...whoa!!! It's not stopping! It's freakin working!!! It didn't stop and has not stopped since Friday evening. You can see in this photo this thing still needs some serious cleaning around that gear but I think my poking at it and forcing the movement to work has pushed away enough crud to get it working order again.
Problem now? It's WAY fast. After more googling and reading I found I have the wrong pendulum. I bought a 5 1/2 inch one that does work on many different types of Ansonia clocks. There's a stamp on the plate in the back "9" I now know this is Ansonia telling us what length the pendulum is.
So, my challenge is finding a 9inch Ansonia pendulum (fat chance so far) or....Making one.
This is what I need, this is only 3.5 inch. I need 9 inch.
I figure I could get some brass rod, tap it out at the bottom for the bob thing and mash it down up top and drill out or even make that flange out of brass plate and cut a slot on the top of the rod and solder it together.
Share your thoughts and follow along, I promise I'm not turning into a clock maker but I think I can bash some brass together to get what I need.
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