When you reach it, its almost magical and will produce a rich mellow perfect pitch sound that you will hear for years to come and each time it strikes a rewarding sense of acomplishment. You are going to have to go down the pitch scale since you cannot lenthen the coil, and you must sneak up on it by cutting small pieces off and rechecking. They are hard but will cut with good pair of wire cutters. I do this by nipping the end off the coil. You are lookin for 440 vibrations on the tuner. I use a guitar tuner placed inside the clock. Adjust lift to one hammer height (this controls volume) keep it low, and a square strike on the coil. I like the adjustable hammers with a screw to allow movement. Hammer needs to strike the gong at about 1/2 in. After you get the leather piece in, pound it on the table a few times to flatten it out. Sometimes it is nessasary to chew it in your mouth a min or two. Drill and dig out the old hard leather, most of the time the hole looks threaded and you can screw in a new piece (Timesaves has the part) Trim off all but about 3/16. Then the hammer, leather works best for a soft pleasant tone but the nylon tips from hermle chimes works well too. thick.(same wood used to make guitars) Fasten with 3 brass screws on each end and small nails on the sides if possible. If its split, replace it with a Birch or furr panel 1/4 in. Most old mantle clocks sound like someone threw a brickbat at a trash can.įirst thing to do is work on the sound board(bottom of clock) It must be fastenten properly, 4 old rusty loose nails with split holes will NOT do. I have spent many hours experimenting with gongs, chime rods and bells. Bending the hammer arms are usually sufficient.Steve, yes it can be changed. It is an option to raise the entire chimeblock with a shim to help with this. That is, if you are swapping out the movement with the older style wire hammer head rod. The overall assembly will be slightly higher from the chime block. With needle nose pliers, bend this bar where it goes from skinny to wide. The bar gets wider as it goes back toward the roll pin. The hammer head is on the skinny end of the bar. The positioning is still the same, however it is a little more difficult to bend them. The hammer heads were on wires, but now they are made on flat bars. The 340 and 341 Hermle clock movement series went through a change in the hammer wires. When performing the above directions correctly the sound is beautiful. This is due to improper hammer positioning. Often a customer will say the sound is not correct. If each hammer head is done this way the clock will have a nice song in the end. Continue in this manner until you can lift and drop the hammer to create a crisp sound. Repeat this process for each wire, one hammer at a time, down the line. This spacing between the head and the rod is so it will not thud or double strike. In other words, bend the hammer wires so the head is 1/8 away from the chime rod. The hammers need to be 1/8 inch away from the rod. The correct clock-chime hammer position needs the tops of the hammer heads to be about 1/4 inch down from the chime block. Clock Chime Hammer PositioningĪ mechanical clock movement has hammers that need to be bent into their final position. This is why chime hammer positioning is so important. The clock movement will not have the hammers in the perfect spot to make the correct sound when hitting the rods. It is not uncommon to bend them an inch this way or that way. They are meant to be bent into the perfect position. This is why the hammer heads are on bendable wires. When replacing a clock movement you need to bend the chime hammers to the chime rods. Upon the initial installation, this was done by the clock maker as well. It only involves bending the hammer head wires. Mechanical clock chime hammer positioning is easy to do. Why does Chime Hammer Positioning Need to Occur
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