Abel Hutchins Grandfather Clock for Jay from New Jersey #116

Just received this grandfather clock for an inspection and possible restoration. Only the mechanicals were sent since the case was too large to ship. It's an original Abel Hutchins and has been in the same family since purchased new in Concord, New Hampshire. In attempting to determine the age of this movement I found on November 7th of 1790 a help wanted ad was posted in the Concord Herald newspaper by the brothers Levi and Abel Hutchins. Looking for a couple of young helpers to help fabricate their clocks. Then in 1803 the same newspaper an article announcement speaking of Abel buying out his brother Levi. Not sure of exact age of this clock but well over 200 years old. Brush strokes on the dial show that it's hand painted. The owner says the moon dial does not function. The numbers on the lunar arch are fairly worn off from years of cleaning and wiping. The spandrels are hand painted with gold paint. The gold paint has been painted over with a reddish paint. Here you can see more hand painted gold detailing that is covered with some beige paint. And here some hand painted gold wavy pin striping covered with beige paint. The two hemispheres look like they might have been printed. The finish is failing. Here there are four round impressions through the finish. They're from the four brass mounting studs on the back side. Most all the black on this dial has been cleaned off in its 200 years of life. Here you can faintly see the signature of Abel Hutchins. Below some faint letters most likely reads Concord New Hampshire. This dial may have been produced sometime after 1803 when Abel was in business for himself. This small dial is the date dial. These numbers are in excellent condition since it was too tough to get a cleaning rag on it. This pointer points to the current day. The ship scene has a name written on the main sail but unable to make out a name. The back side of the dial has a heavy surface of rust on it. The moon dial rotates clockwise. The date dial rotates counterclockwise. The pulleys are made from cast brass and will need to be removed. Bell is most likely made from cast bronze. These cast bells have a nice long resonating sound. The crutch wire has been repaired. These weights are very heavy. The shell on them is made from tin and have been brush painted with some silver paint. This one has an aftermarket eye bolt installed in it. The seams are all tight on it. Just a few dents and dings on it. This weight is going to need to be restored. The seam has broken away on about 90% of it. The top will need to be removed to fix it correctly. Interesting. We'll need some knowledge about the tinsmith trade for this fix. I've taken the leading edge diameter of the case and massaged it back to its original radius. Now the cap piece. Small bends at a time. I'll blend the sharp creases in with this wood punch. I'll need to roll the edge over so it nests onto the bottom piece. To do that I'll use these tinsmith radius pliers. They come in several different diameters. This one fits what is needed here perfectly. They roll the edge over and form the lip at the same time. A temporary clamp to hold the cap in place while tack soldering it together. I'll use rosin solder just to make sure the new solder sticks to the old. Acid flux would get trapped inside the weight and eat away at things. Now to fill in between the tacks. Taking a closer look at this eye bolt repair. It's not got a good enough grip on the weight and it's an accident waiting to happen. Scary looking. If it pulls out it'll punch a hole through the bottom of the clock. I don't want to remove this top cap if I don't have to with all the sharp dents on the sides here. Use this wire as a depth gauge. Now to cut and bend a replacement eye wire the same size as the other weight. I formed an eye on the piece that fits inside the weight. I'll make a locking rod that will slide through the eye to lock it in place. center punched in the wrong place. Probably one of those young helpers Abel hired that built these. The brass is deformed and stress cracked here where the hooks mount. Owner wants to retain as much of the original equipment as possible. These will be safe if they are reinforced. When these weight pulleys are this worn it causes extra friction. Not much brass material here on the edge. It should be replaced or the edge extended to get some better strength to it. This steel pin is completely wore out. Interesting. Looks like someone had a hold of this one with a pair of pliers in a vice. It's got some flat spots on it that were there before it was assembled. And here another flat spot next to a stress crack. The flat spots could have been cause for some of the first signs of early wear. The working surface of the pin is galled in some areas. Not enough lubrication. These pulleys are important to clean with the movement and they also need to Perfect. Mounted in the six jaw chuck. Center board. Just need to ream it to size now. Ream to size and it spins nice and true. Now to fit the brass straps. I reinforced the straps with a gusset on both sides of the pulley. A lot better support now. I also installed a contoured gusset in the swallow of the strap. It'll have better support now. I'll use this shaft to make the pins. Before I start cutting, need to get the basic dimensions written down. I'll put some hollow cuts on the tail ends of the pin. This will make them roll over nice and easy. Reduce the risk of for another 200 years of use. Now to take a look at the movement. Fastener nut holding the bell is handmade. It was cut from a piece of brass plate. It's small details like this that puts these 200 year old movements in a class all of their own. The bronze bell has had what appears to be nickel plating applied to it. These crystal formations indicate it was a hot dip plating process. A lot thicker plating than the electro plating process. To pull the taper pins, I'll use these pliers. They have slots cut in the jaws and won't cause any damage to them. This is the dial mounting plate. It has some relief holes and cutouts in it, but also some extra unused holes drilled in it. This one mounting pin is almost too short. The taper pin hole has a crack in it where the metal is too thin. The movement is held snug to the wooden seat board by these two fasteners through the lower pillars. Remove the bell support arm. Some heavy rust. Nice piece. These brackets are all cut, filed, and polished by hand. Then hand fitted to the movement plate. No two of them are identical and are unique to each movement out there. Some heavy scratches. Fingerprint damage here. More heavy scratches. Fingerprint damage. Handmade bushings here. Here you can see an extremely old original plug that was hammered in. Looks like it was finished along with the plate when it was new. Another bushing installed in the plug. The bushing is drilled off center for some unknown reason. This bushing has two marks around it. Probably to snug it up in the plate during install. This pivot has some black dried oil around it. Definitely time to service this movement. These pits in the plates show the plates are cast brass instead of rolled brass. The pits are left from the casting process. This crutch rod has been repaired using a brass split sleeve. It was soldered to the steel. Just below the repair there's heavy rust. Probably from the acid flux not being cleaned completely that was used in the repair. Separate the movement from the seat board. No idea what the purpose of this nail is. Remove these cables, the anchor, and the pallets. Someone has soldered the brass mounting flange to the arbor. Originally it was friction fit on the arbor. Served as a clutch and could be rotated to set the movement in beat. Only way to set it in beat now is to bend this crutch rod. Might be why the rod had to be repaired. This crutch foot it's about 20 degrees off from where it needs to be. It should be at a 90 degree angle to the back of the movement plate. It will never keep good time at this angle. The pendulum rod will not get a consistent beat with it angled like this. It'll need to be corrected. Interesting. Looks like someone arc welded this without flux. I ended up repairing it using some 56 percent silver rod. Looks much better now and it's at the correct 90 degree angle. Now that it's cleaned you can see a signature someone scratched on the inside of the plate. A name and date of December 18, 1880. Could be a service date. Assemble the movement. Install the cables. This adjustable key works great for these nail needs to go. I just noticed some writing here on the bottom of the seat board. Looks like December 13, 1885. It's written with a pencil. Feed these cables through the seat board. Cables are attached using these wooden dowels. The teeth on the hour wheel and moon dial wheel are cut to a one-to-one ratio. Same number of teeth on both wheels. Customer says the moon dial is non-functional. Here's the source. The hour wheel has excess end play. It allows the teeth to disengage from the moon dial wheel. Too much end clearance between the back side of the minute hand and face of the hour Excellent fit up. Holds it in position but still allows some freedom between it and the back of the minute hand. This pin in the snail operates the date dial. This pin on the moon dial gear operates the moon dial. The moon dial gear is missing the mounting collar and disengages from the hour wheel teeth. I fabricated this collar and it fits friction tight. It'll keep this wheel from They nest through the dial mounting plate. Not sure what these extra holes were for. Some of them were purposely elongated. Almost like it had a different dial fit up to it at one time. Original paint that leaked through these holes while the dial was being painted. A nice square nail used as a taper pin. A large crease on the back side of the date dial. Not the highest finish grade of materials used here. This brass spring acts as a locking click on the moon dial. The pin in the moon dial gear engages right here to rotate the dial. The pin takes 12 hours to make one complete rotation. Then advances the dial one more click. The date wheel rotates in the opposite direction and operates the same. Every 12 hours it advances one click. This is a functioning astrological moon dial. It shows the shape of the moon as it appears in the sky in relationship to the eastern and western hemispheres as well as the lunar date. This number track on the top shows the 29 and a half lunar cycle. The top of the moon has a pointer painted on it that points to the lunar days. When the moon disappears a picture of a house or ship will appear. This indicates its new moon phase. From each picture you can begin to see the phase of the moon as it appears on the left side here. When the moon is pointing at the 15 on the top it's in full moon phase. And after 29 and a half days a new moon phase begins again. Here you can see the lunar day indicator point on top of the moon. And this is a Gregorian calendar. Grandfather clocks produced prior to 1752 used the Julian calendar. The mount for the suspension spring is numbered with the same number as the suspension hanger mount on the back plate. The bob face is brass that has been formed around a casting made from lead. It has some dents in the brass on the bottom. The nut is missing the washer. Nice another handmade brass nut. Must not have been many hardware suppliers when this clock was made. This thread shaft will need to be straightened. If left like this it could cause the pendulum to wobble and lose time. I fabricated a spacer that has a built-in washer on it. While I was at it I made these small washers just in case strikes on the hour only. With the bell mounted a rare 200 plus year old Abel Hutchins grandfather clock keeping time once again.