Annual
"Annual" Kundo Junior 56 Miniature 400-Day Anniversary Clock
Plate 1406H, suspension spring 0.0023"
Deseret Industries, $25, 2014-06-06
Regulation Screw:
- Clockwise = Slower
- Counter-Clockwise = Faster
2014-06-06
Found this clock while visiting Deseret Industries with Rebecca one day. It included a glass dome with three very small flake/chips on the rim. I could see right away that the suspension spring had been wound into a tight spiral, which was the only apparent thing wrong with the clock. The price of $25, was marked down from $35.
2014-06-19
I identified the clock in the Horolovar 400-Day Clock Repair Guide as a Kundo, plate 1406H, which indicated that the clock used a 0.0023" suspension spring. Luckily, I already had a supply of that size. Further review of the Repair Giude indicates that this clock is a "Junior 56", based on the pendulum locking mechanism, which means that the clock was made after 1956. I cannot determine the actual date of the clock any better than that, but the plastic suspension guard suggests it might be from the 70s.
I disassembled the clock using techniques I had gained working on my other standard-sized 400-day clocks. In my usual way, I cleaned as I went using Windex. Everything looks good except that the pivots appear dry.
Removing the bottom block from the pendulum required a little delicate persuasion to remove the bottom block pin. I used a few taps with my miniature hammer and popped it out. I then filed the bulges from the pin so that it would slide smoothly into the bottom block, to ease later reassembly.
I popped open the mainspring barrel and using my homemade winder was able to wind up the spring. Sadly, my smallest sleeve was just a teensy bit to large to fit within the barrel, so I release the spring tension. I noted that the mainspring was wet with oil and looked good, so I opted to simply add a touch more mainspring oil and re-closed the barrel.
I removed the hands and the dial from the front plate, and cleaned everything. I noted that there are two tiny washers under the canon gear on the minute hand shaft. I was not able to determine their orientation before the fell away, but I believe it is rightly thus: the flat washer is first on the shaft, against the front plate, then the curled washer is on top of that with the bulge facing forward, then the canon slips on lastly. This is the way I oriented things when I reassembled the clock.
After cleaning each pivot and generally all other items, the front and back plates, the wheels, etc., I reassembled the drive train without the anchor. With a 1/4 turn of the mainspring I was not able to get the movement to unwind without a little help, but found that each wheel had plenty of end shake, and there was not particular point of binding. I chose to reassemble and see how it goes.
I reassembled the movement with the anchor and placing the compression washers as described above on the minute wheel shaft. The hour hand had good grip and was responsive to manual movement of the minute hand. I oiled the front and back plate pivots, including the click wheel and arbor shaft. I then reattached the dial and the hands. In the process of getting the dial reattached I made a small mess of the back plate pivot oil, and re-cleaned the backplate and re-oiled those pivots.
Now, at last, I removed the old mangled suspension spring and built up a new suspension spring assembly according to the repair guide using illustration 5E, after first confirming that the original assembly seemed to match. I hung the pendulum but found the assembly just a tad too short to give adequate clearance from the opening in the main stand's mounting plate. I loosened the bottom block and added about 1/8" more length and rehung the pendulum. This was much better.
Now with the clock fully assembled, and with the plastic suspension spring cover back in place, and regulation screw about midway on the pendulum shaft, I wound the mainspring fully (using my Schatz clock key, which is not the proper size, but is small enough to safely wind the arbor) and turned the pendulum about 180-degrees from the rest point. I set the clock to the current time, and will now watch it for a few days to see what regulation it may need.
- I still need to set the beat ***
2014-06-21
The clock stopped. I restarted it several time, but it would stop in 5-15 minutes in each case.
2014-06-22
I restarted the clock again, and carefully set the beat. Should have done this when I first returned the clock to operation. I wasn't hopeful, since it seemed that the force from the mainspring was a tad weak (see notes above about my free-running test), but it now continues to run! What do you know?! It is running a about 2 minutes slow every hour so now I will focus on regulation.
2014-06-25
I've been working to get the regulation right on this little clock. Surprisingly, I have turn the regulation screw (in a number of steps) a total of about 2 complete turns in the counter-clockwise direction (toward "R" for Retard).
2017-09-30
The clock was winding down from its most recent windup last November, and it stopped altogether. A rewind of the mainspring did not return it to operation. I ended up removing the movement from the base, releasing the turns on the mainspring, removing the hands and dial from the front, then re-lubricating each pivot. I didn't see the need to disassemble it completely, it was not dirty, but the pivots, surprisingly, were dry. There was no binding anywhere, with plenty of "shake", so an application of oil was put onto each pivot, filling each well, and around the front and rear arbor pivots of the mainspring. I reassembled the clock and it still took a half-dozen restarts to finally continue to run on it's own. I suppose that it took a little action for the oil to flow around each pivot completely.
2018-11-01
Roughly a month ago, the clock was running somewhat fast, and I removed the dome and move the minute hand to set the time. Unfortunately, afterward the clock failed to run. I rewound the mainspring, which was very close to being completely unwound from last years windup, but it still failed to run; it simply wouldn't 'tick'. I added oil to each pivot, without disassembly, but still it would not run.
Today, I disassembled the clock completely. I found nothing amiss, but I cleaned the pivots, front and back plates, and reassembled it without the face and hands. Lo! It runs! Strange. I finished reattaching the face and hands and put it back into services. I'm sure that regulation will be required with all of the handling that the pendulum has experienced, but that's easy now that it is running again.