Wooden Work?s Clock Movement Restoration & Best Practices: Clock Repair you can Follow Along

Wooden Gear Movements

If you are lucky enough to own a clock containing a wooden works movement, you own a rare piece of history.  You are just the current steward of a piece of history.  Like anything else, these clocks must be maintained. 

Fortunately, wooden movement clocks are the easiest clocks to work on, due to the large size of the parts, their simple design and no mainsprings to deal with.  Wooden movement clocks are the perfect starter clock if you have never worked on a clock before, but are interested in how they work.  Repairs to wood parts only need basic woodworking skills.

This book will take you step-by-step on your journey to learn how to repair wooden movement clocks and restore your rare piece of history.

Wooden clock movements come in all shapes, sizes and colors, but they may be broadly grouped into three classes.

Grandfather movements, both thirty-hour and eight-day;

Inside escapement shelf clock movements, often called groaners because of their noisy strike works;

and most common outside escapement movements developed by Terry and ultimately copied by the entire wood clock movement industry.

Eli Terry’s first clock shop was a 20-foot square workspace on Niagara Brook, which flows just behind the house.  It was the first water-powered clock factory in the United States.  Northbury split from Watertown to form the Town of Plymouth in 1795.

Eli Terry trained in wood gear movements.  Soon, 200 manufacturers of wooden movement tall-case then shelf clocks popped up and a new industry was born.

Jigs and gauges were created so all clocks were easier and faster to make.  He began using a milling machine in the production of his clocks.  With the use of his milling machine, Terry was the first to accomplish Interchangeable parts.  Terry later invented a spindle cutting machine to mass-produce parts. 

Before Terry moved to Plymouth, he made typical eight-day brass tall case clocks, or what we call grandfather clocks today.  At this time, clockmakers in the area began producing wooden gear clocks instead of brass gear clocks.  These primitive clocks were made of local wood and cut out with a simple saw or knife.  Wooden clocks were far more affordable than any brass clock.

In 1795 Eli Terry began to make 200 clocks at the same time. Back then, it would take about a month to make a brass gear clock and over a week to make a wooden gear clock. Terry dreamed of making affordable clocks so that any family, rich or poor, could have a timepiece in their home.  Seth Thomas was one of his first employees.

Wooden gear clocks at the time were not intended to last more than about 20 years.  Eli Terry’s wooden gear clocks are still keeping perfect time today over 200 years later in the homes of clock collectors, museums, and whoever is fortunate enough to possess one of these master timepieces.

Bear in mind, when these clocks were made, there was no electricity, no motors or engines.  The only power came from water wheels.

Wood clocks work the same way as brass movements, but the repair and restoration procedure is much different.

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At around 200 years old, periodic repairs are often found in various levels of skill.

The Parts Department

A group of wheels acting together is called a train.  A clock typically consists of a time train and a striking train, plus three wheels called the motion works that control the hands.

On the image below, the time train is on the right, the strike train is on the left and the three motion wheels  [center and intermediate wheel], are in the center.  There are also three sets of levers to control the striking.

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The large ‘wheel’ drives a smaller ‘pinion’ down the train.

The escapement controls the speed of the time train so the hands move at the correct speed.

At the bottom is a lever that contains the gong hammer.

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The wheels are held in place between two plates.  The frontplate and the backplate.  The wheels rotate about a steel pivot that sits in holes in the front and back plates called pivot holes.

The round wood shaft is called the ‘arbor’.

The motion works consist of three overlapping wheels.  The minute wheel is driven by the time train and carries the minute hand.  The intermediate wheel transfers power to the hour wheel which caries the hour hand.  The minute arbor is geared to the hour tube at a 12 to 1 reduction ratio.

The hour pipe slides over the minute arbor.

A clutch is fitted to the bottom of the minute wheel to allow the hands to be set to the correct time without moving the gearing.

The clickwork allows the clock to be wound up by fitting the key to the winding arbor.  The click and spring stop the wheel from