They used to have a Command Center in the principal's office and it control all the clock say 1 through 8th grade and the clock could be set all at once by the master clock in the office and other things could be done
Those are completely different clock mechanisms, but they are cool. My friend has the actual clock from his high school principles office (It's a grandfather style huge-mongous clock, almost 6 feet tall) and a slave clock for it too. Beautiful mechanism.
Greetings: Cut a short piece of plastic tubing whose inner diameter just allows it to fit over the gear. Place it over the gear and add light oil to the tube just to cover the gear. Use a non-flame heat source (solder gun) to heat the lower cover of the mechanism until the added oil visibly is warmed by the heat. When it bubbles remove heat. As it cools the oil should be drawn into the unit. Let cool and place the mechanism back into the motor. Reapply power and listen for any sound. Check for motion of the sweep second hand. If such essful you are done except for reassembly. Nuclear reactors: You GE designed and built "boiling water" reactor was the 2nd major design after the Westinghouse PWR "pressurized water reactor". Although the designs of those two major reactor types have had significant engineering solutions to most of the potential failures of first generation light water reactors, most failure modes of those reactors had to do with water and keeping the core cooled all the time. The containment vessels had to be their huge size to contain water that would flash to steam if the sealed reactor lost its pressurization. When a reactor is shut down, it's fission reaction stops almost immediately, the fission products produced as the uranium is split are radioactive themselves and produce a lot of heat themselves. That is the heat of most concern after a shutdown. When operating normally, that heat is used to help heat the water that is converted to steam to drive the generators. Water is pressurized to keep it from boiling (like in an automobile) to raise its temperature. I favor a type of Gen IV nuclear reactor based on a non-water coolant known as Molten Salt. Although that coolant can be used in many different Gen IV reactors, I support Lithium Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs). Thorium is the element two below uranium on the periodic table of the elements, that is radioactive but not natively fissionable to use as a reactor fuel, but can be transformed into uranium 233 that is fissionable. Because of the physics & efficiency involved with the transformation into uranium, usually more is converted than is burned during fission reactions, that extra uranium produced is called bred fuel and the process is called breeding. During the development of reactors for Naval nuclear propulsion (subs), the new military unit the Air Force needed continuous duty bombers to remain airborne longer than existing planes and wanted nuclear powered bombers to fill that need. The problem that was not able to be surmounted was protecting the crews from radiation exposure. (The Soviet Union faced the same problem, but sacrificed some crews anyway.) While working on nuclear aviation, molten salt coolant and heat transfer fluid was discovered and developed as the most promising method to employ. BTW: Water at room temperature has only 100 Celsius degrees of liquid range. While liquid salt has about 1000 degrees of usable range at a very small range of temperature change, so with low pressures and high temperatures,molten salt had a very safe environment to operate in. Why are we only hearing about it now; because it did not contribute to nuclear weapons development. Uranium 233 has no path to plutonium unlike uranium 238 does. Since the DOE has decided that all cost of civilian nuclear energy development will be borne by the industry, that expense has been deemed avoidable by using the development the Navy has paid for. Hope this helps. The hands all need point to twelve o'clock when mounted.
I put mine into the oven at a low temp.. drops of oil It sucked oil right in..Now super quiet for years now..was one noisey motor..now super quiet..used tufoil oiler neede oiler prefilled tufoil mixture.. did it a few times..
Bravo..love these old clocks too..so well made..no junk..and even made in the USA...try to find that nowadays....btw..i rescue cats...and it is the most rewarding activity i have ever done!
I have a 15" face GE wall clock similar to this one and the set knob came right off of the adjustment rod with a left hand thread but mine looks like a flat aluminum disc with a knurled outer edge not crimped like the one on the clock in your video.
Where I use to work part of my job was to replace "old" clocks with modern versions. Most of the old clocks were GE and the others were Gibraltars. I gave a lot of them away to people who like the old style and put the rest though out my home and shop. Good video.
Thanks for the help, I'm about to get into a custom jewelry store clock. But I do disagree with your gross candy choices, The only thing worse than those are Circus Peanuts!
I had a really old kitchen clock, but all the shafts wore out cut in 2.. so now battery powered.. sad but reality.. I got a ge fan from 60s or so motor has a solid shaft bearing thru motor, solid.. not 2 cone bearings.. still use it all the time.. heavy all metal except blades it pushes the air..old is cool..
I need a replacement motor and rotor for that GE clock. Do you have the model numbers, mine overheated to the extent that I can not read the numbers. Thank you!
I have fixed a Manny Electric clocks for the General electric and Telechron you turn with two vice grips counter clockwise from each other end cap at the bottom screw right off Best oil as Marvel mystery air tool oil that’s what they used in the old days the original oil install highly recommended for best use for clocks of the type
Thanks, Thats why I was watching the video and he never did that. I started to do it as you said, but thought I should check first as not to snap the knob off. AI will put a little weasel piss (liquid wrench) in there first.
I literally got nauseated watching you mess with this clock. If you want to remove that set rod it's threaded from the top right beneath the motor. But I wish you wouldn't. :(
Another viewer pointed out to me that the long-stemmed adjustment knob is screwed into the clockwork with left-hand threads. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure that he was right. I hope that helps you. Thank you for watching and especially for taking your time to comment. Good luck with your clock. They are wonderful, reliable machines! Cheers! Michael
That is VERY cool. Thank you for showing it to us. I love these clocks, and sadly, they don't make stuff like this anymore! Oh, Lord, I do sound like an old man! Cheers! Michael
engravement is actually the model number. You're one of the smoothest conversators ever, have the power to transport your listener to wherever your stories go, somehow i wasnt watching, just listening and i feel i saw the whole thing, including the nuclear reactor. Thank you Sir. Greetings from Mexico!
I learned so much! Thank you❤ I have a 1943 that I'll get going again now. It was stored in heat for over a year and the oil dried up is all. I thought it was dead.
You won't see a clock like this anywhere today. (2020) Not any electric analogue clock, anywhere. These electric clocks (not quartz movement clocks) accurately represented the actual passage of time itself, which is a continuous process, not a digital representation of static numbers or a jerky quartz movement on an analogue clock face. The hands of this clock are continuously moving, just as everything in the Universe is moving. This electric clock represents and mirrors the actual spinning of the Earth, and it's Moon around it, as it travels around the Sun, which moves our Solar system around the Milky Way Galaxy, as it travels toward the Andromeda Galaxy in a Universe which is full of bodies, all moving. This old clock not only tells the time of day, it represents the process of time itself. I only wish General Electric, (the company) was doing as well as this old clock. 'One of the greatest electrical companies in the history of the world.
Any advice on fixing a case/bezel on this kind of clock? I have almost the exact same thing with a pretty big chip out of the bottom from a fall and I would love to be able to fix it. Thanks!
Nice video - Hey, I'm working on an electric wall clock, not as old as yours, it's an RC clock from the 1970s. So, on your disclaimer about the minute hand, how would you take that off rather than pry it? Does it require a special tool or just small needle nose pliers or something like you did at the end of the video?
Sorry for not finding this sooner. I have an old clock that came from a school that looks to be almost identical to yours except it’s not running in time. It’s too slow and I’m not sure what to do about it.
What is the name of that model? Can’t find any info about it on stupid Google. Can you recommend me some model from 1930s or 1940s and what price should I expect for a working model?
I came across this video cause I was sitting here and was staring at my phone and seeing the little clock hands move smoothly took me back to school where they had these electric clocks that didn’t tick they just smoothly went along. And I thought I’d like to know more about them. I’m glad I did this cause this turned out to be a very fascinating video and I loved the story about the Nuclear plant electricity fascinates me and so does nuclear I’ve learned a lot about it especially after the HBO show about Chernobyl. I’ve since learned they are considering Thorium for future Nuclear plants. I think Nuclear gets a bad rap. And I look forward to the advancements that get made I think we need every tool to help secure a safe future and we have learned so much over time. If my plans to work in the IT field fail me my next plan was Electrical something. Bakelite is also something that fascinates me cause I learned some about it a few years ago I don’t remember exactly how it came up. And it had to do why it got phased out. I’ll be looking that up again now. I wish you all the best and thank you for the informative video. You really surprised me the more I watched. 😁
That's a well built clock. The glass took the pressure you straightening out the shaft. Taped electrical splices. Agree. Got to go. Neat trick how to capillary in the oil. Sewing machine oil good choice for not leaving a residue. Thanks for sharing. I retired from a Nuclear Plant too. You're right. about sharp folks there. Finally, positioning the hands. Easy trap. Fell into it once or twice.
Hi, I am using the clock in Japan where the voltage is 100 as opposed to 110 in the US. In the US it keeps perfect time; but in Japan it runs slower, I believe due to the lower voltage. Is there any way to make the second hand faster in the clock’s mechanism?
Be sure you do not have 50hz power first. That is hard to cure other than mechanically. If your problem is actually low voltage,, you can boost it with another transformer either using a 100vac to 115vac transformer, or by adding a 12vac transformer output winding in series with the existing input. If the net voltage goes down, reverse the leads to the input of the 12vac transformer.
I have a schoolhouse clock as well, but mine is a 31 day regulator. Got a bottle of Singer oil today and got a roll of that wide desoldering braid as well. That's weird because I also wanted to get into the Navy bad, lol. I got turned down for the same reason, bad eyesight. Except when they asked me what I wanted to do I said I wanted to be a gunner on an Iowa class batlleship as back then they had been re-commissioned. I liked them because they measured everything in English instead of metric, used black powder and had the capability of firing shells that weighed as much as VW Beetles over 20 miles and were so accurate that if they were aiming at a football field they could hit every yard line. They were 16" guns but the Navy called them 58 caliber as they measured their caliber in inches. When Re-enacting I also had a black powder .58 caliber weapon, an 1853 Enfield rifled musket. :) I even wrote my Congressman at the time (Frank McCloskey) trying to get a medical waiver to get in but it was also denied, ah well. I was mad enough at the time I said that if there should be a war, don't come knocking at my door because I have volunteered but I refuse to be a conscript!, lol. Take care my friend, Gary
Yep, I remember thinking that I would have been a dedicated sailor for a career, if only they'd have let me join. My favorite ships to look at are the WWII-era carriers. The Lexington, Enterprise, Saratoga, etc., are the most fun for me to watch. All I ever wanted to do as a young person was to be a submariner. There is something cool about being able to slip from here to there for months on end, largely undetected, that fascinates me. Oh well, it was not meant to be. But, I still got to be part of running a reactor, which was very cool! Cheers! Michael
Mike, Electric clocks did you say? Man …aint that something! Its looking like thee ‘n’ me have a few things in common. I served a five year apprenticeship from the age of 16 to 21 which involved going to college for one full 12hour day each week. The rest of the time (except for the final year) was spent working alongside qualified service technicians who were largely former Army, Royal Navy, and RAF men (former RAF ‘Battle of Britain’ men - one a former ‘Senior Air Craftsman technician’ were the majority). As you say, very little phased most former servicemen. I learned much from them. If it had not been for their strict disciplined way of working, I’m convinced I would not have learned television and audio servicing to the extent I did. It was largely their wonderful influence that helped me appreciate valve technology, light engineering, amateur radio, and vintage radio and television. I was a ‘radio ‘n’ telly repair man’ bench technician for almost 36 years. Sadly, that trade no longer exists. For the past 12 to 15 years, I’ve been taking an interest in clocks, and juke boxes. My collection is eleven electric clocks, two windup 1930s mantle clocks, and two juke boxes (a Jupiter 80, and a Rowe-Ami Tropicana). I now kick myself for selling each one of the four vintage cars I restored from my mid-20s through to my late-30s (one being an Austin Ruby). The GE electric clock you have just serviced reminds me of the Smiths, and GEC electric clocks that were in every classroom at the schools I attended. They were electrically synchronised by one huge electric master clock in the reception area. Since I will be retiring in four years’ time, I have the idea of learning more about clocks, and clock servicing, and machine shop engineering which is useful to know something about as I restore radios, TVs, juke boxes, clocks …and I plan to restore another car, or at least restore a hit ‘n’ miss and/or a steam engine sometime during my retirement …I might get round to restoring all three LOL. I find the following chaps very encouraging in my quest for knowledge in machine shop engineering, as well as clock maintenance: mrpete222 Abom79 Al Takatsch ……to name but a few. Check them out on You Tube. I’m sure you will find them interesting. Regards, Phil. P.s, I like your display items on top of your kitchen cupboards. My wife has Victorian bottles, and little jam pots displayed on top of our kitchen cupboards. I also intend uploading a vid this weekend, or sometime next week.
Phil, I once serviced the Smiths clock in a '66 Jaguar 2.8S that I owned. It was pretty straightforward. There were other features of that lovely car that drove me nuts! Boy, would I ever like to sit down with you and have a pint or two while we talked about all of your experiences, especially with the military men that you mentioned. My grandfather is still with us, and occasionally he talks about his experiences in north Africa during the war. To this day, he admires the men of the British Army that he observed during that awful time. I learned humility from the former U.S. Navy men that I worked with at the nuclear power plant. On my first day, one of the ex-nukes came up to me and asked me if I was an "operator or engineer", with "engineer" meaning smart-alek college grad, and "operator" meaning seasoned submarine driver. He didn't talk to me for a month, after I told him that I had just graduated from the University of Illinois. He figured that I'd wash-out in a few weeks. After more than two years together on shift, we all became good friends and I can tell sea stories as if I had been there! I like to watch the U.S. military training films on radio work as a good grounding, when I get lost on some elusive problem. There are a bunch of them on TH-cam. One of the local shops that I do a lot of work for is a vintage coin-operated machine restoration business. I have restored a bunch of juke box amplifiers and power units. They have all been U.S. brands like Seeburg, Rock-Ola, and Filbin. Seeburg amps are my favorite. They are simple and very well made. I think that it would be fun to learn machine work. Right now, I'm trying to get my arms around woodworking. I have some nice equipment, but I am a little bit intimidated by it! [: 0) I don't think that I will ever retire. I love to work, but I am one of the lucky ones who gets to do something that I enjoy. I am an industrial trainer now, and I enjoy every day. It has given us a decent middle-class life and my wife and I consider ourselves to be quite fortunate. Wifey is ill and we have limited time left together, so I will want plenty to keep me busy in the years to come. I adore her, so it gave me great joy to have her appear as a cameo in this vid. The videos give me a nice diversion, as does the radio work, and she is proud that I have had the nerve to get out there and make a few vids. I used to have a collection of antique toasters, much like the ones on the cupboards. During one of our many relocations for work, two big boxes full of those toasters disappeared. I hope that the movers enjoyed them. I really look forward to your next video, Phil. If you can, show us a little more of your lovely area. England is the only country to which I really desire to travel. My fear is that, when I do visit again, I will fall in love with the place and never want to leave! Take care, my friend. Michael
i have/had a lovely Smiths electric that kamakarzzied off the wall I tossed it...wish I hadn't now. Over here some bright spark came up with a valve radio that also hung on the wall....got nicknamed the "hanging horror" I wonder why?
That's even worse than the old Philco Predicta TVs! Whoever thought that it would be a good idea to put the heaviest part of a television set on a small swivel base with a high-voltage umbilical to it, must have been smoking some funny stuff! Buster the Cat has been responsible for more destruction in our house than anything! Thankfully, it is the modern furniture that takes most of his beatings. I think that Wifey would have put him on the street with a "FREE" sign hanging from his neck, if I had been unable to get this clock to work. Little Fred did destroy a speaker cloth once, but regular squirts from a water bottle have broken him of that awful habit. I have a few dozen 1930s and 1940s American electric clocks that I need to get to. I've thought about doing vids on those, as long as I could do it without looking silly! Thanks for hanging in, Steven! Cheers! Michael
Peter...go on Ebay and have $150 plus whatever to buy one as of 7.21...I have one of the earliest editions of this clock,,,not sure yet of her actual age... and , she just started running TOO FAST...I will be trying to find out why and fix her. If I succeed, I will be making a video . BTW, this guy said something about oil evaporating....OIL DOES NOT EVAPORATE. it can gum up after absorbing dust and dirt, but never evaporates. Also, the sealed motor was greased by GE, not oiled. Grease can dry up in a way that makes it no longer viable. The heating up trick to force out air and then and getting oil to suck back into the sealed motor is a neat trick. I recommend using fishing reel oil...very finely refined..
I'm into electric clocks as well. One thing I noticed that could be tweaked. The hour hand is off a little. By the time the minute hand reaches "12", the hour hand will look like it's at the 1:15 position. You should be able to simply move the hour hand by itself and have it pointing directly at the hour when you position the minute hand to 12 first. I guess that's a habit of mine so they look proper. But nice restore on it. Will probably last decades longer.
Yep, I noticed that when I was editing the video. I've taken the clock apart and made that adjustment. It's funny what you don't see until you look back at the video. Thanks for watching and thanks for the tip! Cheers! Michael
i took a windshield wiper motor apart for a 56 chebby. the brushes came out. i could not figure how to get it back together. i showed to a friend. he said that someone put it together. i thought that was funny. i got it to work
That's very cool. I used to work on old Volkswagens and one of the basic maintenance items that got missed all the time is replacing the brushes on the windshield wiper motor. They usually needed to be replaced just once during the life of the car, maybe twice if one lived in Portaland or Seattle. Thank you for watching! Cheers! Michael
I had no idea! I should have thought of it. I have to adjust the hour hand a little bit more. When I finish my current radio project, I was planning to take the clock down and do the adjustment. I'll check out the knob then. Thank you for the tip! Cheers! Michael
That's an interesting idea. There is one of those for sale at a local thrift store. I might try that on a different Telechron motor. I have about one hundred clocks that use Telechrons. It would be a fun experiment. Thank you for watching! Michael
Thank you so much for your kind words. This was uncharted territory for me, as I'm mostly a vintage electronics guy. I intend to practice, though, since I have dozens of Telechron clocks around here. Take care. Michael
That was painful to watch. He never got the set shaft extension off the set shaft . Never got it disassembled for cleaning and oiling. And he used a heat gun on a rotor that had nylon gears! I know his heart was in the right place but he shouldn't be allowed near clocks anymore.
I'm sorry to have caused you pain; Actually, applying heat to old Telechron movements is a widely accepted method of extracting the old oil and getting new oil to be drawn in. I've seen lots of pictures, diagrams, and descriptions of Telechrons. I've never seen nylon gears in any of them. If you look at the engineering drawings for Telechron movements, note how thin the gears are. I'm no material scientist, but I doubt that nylon gears that thinly made would last one year, much less 70. Finally, it is more than a year since I conducted this painful exercise and the clock is still running perfectly. It is smooth and quiet. If I had damaged the movement gears, I think that I might have noticed it by now. Oh, and another 'Tuber cringed when he saw me trying to remove the shaft extension. He suggested the correct method (left hand threads) and I now know for future work of this type. Or perhaps I might just take all of the clocks out of my house, so that I don't get too near them. [: 0) Thank you for watching and for chiming in. Cheers! Michael
So IS it a left hand thread? That's where I'm stuck at the moment. I could see the shaft was threaded but it wouldn't unscrew even after applying B'Laster solvent. It sure doesn't look left handed to me.
Wifey is the joy of my life. She has always been my example of what a truly good person is. She loves that silly clock, so I had to make it work again for her. I fixed the hour hand, but I still need to move it a little more. I'll be doing that for her, soon. Thanks for the kind words. Take care. Michael
I ran across your video looking for a repair for the set gear that is nylon in my clock. I have been working on Telechrons for a bit now. I found the easiest way to get oil into the motor is to buy a vacuum hand pump from the auto shop. Its for pulling out air from power steering and coolant radiators. It comes with a plastic catch can about half an inch bigger than the circumference of the motors. I fill the tub with WD drop in the motor and pump out the air. You will see a lot of bubbles coming out of the motor spindle. The WD breaks down the old thick oil and I have had a lot of success with this process.
Often, when there was really bad weather in the area, we would reduce reactor power and take other steps to reduce the impact of a switchyard hit, should it occur. It was a fascinating job.
Thankyou so much for this simple yet super informative post. I bought a cheaper version in West Australia & you “Sir saved me so much grief & time” lm really very grateful all the best to you , Wifey & Buster 👍🐨🥸🦘
Lol! All hands should be placed at number 12! BTW, the clock is so nice, all parts are made from metal, it’s easy for maintenance or repairing!
They used to have a Command Center in the principal's office and it control all the clock say 1 through 8th grade and the clock could be set all at once by the master clock in the office and other things could be done
Those are completely different clock mechanisms, but they are cool. My friend has the actual clock from his high school principles office (It's a grandfather style huge-mongous clock, almost 6 feet tall) and a slave clock for it too. Beautiful mechanism.
Greetings:
Cut a short piece of plastic tubing whose inner diameter just allows it to fit over the gear. Place it over the gear and add light oil to the tube just to cover the gear. Use a non-flame heat source (solder gun) to heat the lower cover of the mechanism until the added oil visibly is warmed by the heat. When it bubbles remove heat. As it cools the oil should be drawn into the unit. Let cool and place the mechanism back into the motor. Reapply power and listen for any sound. Check for motion of the sweep second hand. If such essful you are done except for reassembly.
Nuclear reactors: You GE designed and built "boiling water" reactor was the 2nd major design after the Westinghouse PWR "pressurized water reactor". Although the designs of those two major reactor types have had significant engineering solutions to most of the potential failures of first generation light water reactors, most failure modes of those reactors had to do with water and keeping the core cooled all the time. The containment vessels had to be their huge size to contain water that would flash to steam if the sealed reactor lost its pressurization. When a reactor is shut down, it's fission reaction stops almost immediately, the fission products produced as the uranium is split are radioactive themselves and produce a lot of heat themselves. That is the heat of most concern after a shutdown. When operating normally, that heat is used to help heat the water that is converted to steam to drive the generators. Water is pressurized to keep it from boiling (like in an automobile) to raise its temperature.
I favor a type of Gen IV nuclear reactor based on a non-water coolant known as Molten Salt. Although that coolant can be used in many different Gen IV reactors, I support Lithium Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs). Thorium is the element two below uranium on the periodic table of the elements, that is radioactive but not natively fissionable to use as a reactor fuel, but can be transformed into uranium 233 that is fissionable. Because of the physics & efficiency involved with the transformation into uranium, usually more is converted than is burned during fission reactions, that extra uranium produced is called bred fuel and the process is called breeding. During the development of reactors for Naval nuclear propulsion (subs), the new military unit the Air Force needed continuous duty bombers to remain airborne longer than existing planes and wanted nuclear powered bombers to fill that need. The problem that was not able to be surmounted was protecting the crews from radiation exposure. (The Soviet Union faced the same problem, but sacrificed some crews anyway.) While working on nuclear aviation, molten salt coolant and heat transfer fluid was discovered and developed as the most promising method to employ. BTW: Water at room temperature has only 100 Celsius degrees of liquid range. While liquid salt has about 1000 degrees of usable range at a very small range of temperature change, so with low pressures and high temperatures,molten salt had a very safe environment to operate in. Why are we only hearing about it now; because it did not contribute to nuclear weapons development. Uranium 233 has no path to plutonium unlike uranium 238 does. Since the DOE has decided that all cost of civilian nuclear energy development will be borne by the industry, that expense has been deemed avoidable by using the development the Navy has paid for. Hope this helps.
The hands all need point to twelve o'clock when mounted.
I put mine into the oven at a low temp.. drops of oil It sucked oil right in..Now super quiet for years now..was one noisey motor..now super quiet..used tufoil oiler neede oiler prefilled tufoil mixture.. did it a few times..
You really did do a great job, other than the hour hand not being adjusted quite right!
Bravo..love these old clocks too..so well made..no junk..and even made in the USA...try to find that nowadays....btw..i rescue cats...and it is the most rewarding activity i have ever done!
I have a 15" face GE wall clock similar to this one and the set knob came right off of the adjustment rod with a left hand thread but mine looks like a flat aluminum disc with a knurled outer edge not crimped like the one on the clock in your video.
Where I use to work part of my job was to replace "old" clocks with modern versions. Most of the old clocks were GE and the others were Gibraltars. I gave a lot of them away to people who like the old style and put the rest though out my home and shop. Good video.
a schoolboy error put the hands-on at six o'clock to make sure they line up
Thanks for the help, I'm about to get into a custom jewelry store clock. But I do disagree with your gross candy choices, The only thing worse than those are Circus Peanuts!
I had a really old kitchen clock, but all the shafts wore out cut in 2.. so now battery powered.. sad but reality.. I got a ge fan from 60s or so motor has a solid shaft bearing thru motor, solid.. not 2 cone bearings.. still use it all the time.. heavy all metal except blades it pushes the air..old is cool..
I dont see the problem. Hang it up that way. It will still tell the correct time.
ge made good stuff.. they lost their way an dont make nothing ..jet engines wont save them .ge. needs a smart ceo
I need a replacement motor and rotor for that GE clock. Do you have the model numbers, mine overheated to the extent that I can not read the numbers. Thank you!
I have fixed a Manny Electric clocks for the General electric and Telechron you turn with two vice grips counter clockwise from each other end cap at the bottom screw right off Best oil as Marvel mystery air tool oil that’s what they used in the old days the original oil install highly recommended for best use for clocks of the type
Thanks, Thats why I was watching the video and he never did that. I started to do it as you said, but thought I should check first as not to snap the knob off. AI will put a little weasel piss (liquid wrench) in there first.
Hope your nausea has passed. I recorded this vid a few years ago and the clock is still running.... silently.
Cheers!
Michael
I literally got nauseated watching you mess with this clock. If you want to remove that set rod it's threaded from the top right beneath the motor. But I wish you wouldn't. :(
Another TH-cam hack surprised he didn't break out the 4 inch grinder
Thanks for the terrific upload. I have the same clock and will use your tips to tune it up.
Another viewer pointed out to me that the long-stemmed adjustment knob is screwed into the clockwork with left-hand threads. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure that he was right. I hope that helps you. Thank you for watching and especially for taking your time to comment. Good luck with your clock. They are wonderful, reliable machines! Cheers! Michael
Another great tip, thanks!
Hi Michael, here's my GE clock, it has a few blemishes but it works great. th-cam.com/video/MvWB41-4mdM/w-d-xo.html
That is VERY cool. Thank you for showing it to us. I love these clocks, and sadly, they don't make stuff like this anymore! Oh, Lord, I do sound like an old man! Cheers! Michael
engravement is actually the model number. You're one of the smoothest conversators ever, have the power to transport your listener to wherever your stories go, somehow i wasnt watching, just listening and i feel i saw the whole thing, including the nuclear reactor. Thank you Sir. Greetings from Mexico!
Does anyone know if these clocks have radiation?
I learned so much! Thank you❤ I have a 1943 that I'll get going again now. It was stored in heat for over a year and the oil dried up is all. I thought it was dead.
Thanks for sharing, I learned from you.
It's about time you did another video :>)
very cool wall clock
Thank you for helping me get the 1970’s ge tea kettle clock I bought my wife working. The telecron was seized and I got it spinning!
You won't see a clock like this anywhere today. (2020) Not any electric analogue clock, anywhere. These electric clocks (not quartz movement clocks) accurately represented the actual passage of time itself, which is a continuous process, not a digital representation of static numbers or a jerky quartz movement on an analogue clock face. The hands of this clock
are continuously moving, just as everything in the Universe is moving. This electric clock represents and mirrors the actual spinning of the Earth, and it's Moon around it, as it travels around the Sun, which moves our Solar system around the Milky Way Galaxy, as it travels toward the Andromeda Galaxy in a Universe which is full of bodies, all moving.
This old clock not only tells the time of day, it represents the process of time itself. I only wish General Electric, (the company) was doing as well as this old clock. 'One of the greatest electrical companies in the history of the world.
Any advice on fixing a case/bezel on this kind of clock? I have almost the exact same thing with a pretty big chip out of the bottom from a fall and I would love to be able to fix it. Thanks!
Nice video - Hey, I'm working on an electric wall clock, not as old as yours, it's an RC clock from the 1970s. So, on your disclaimer about the minute hand, how would you take that off rather than pry it? Does it require a special tool or just small needle nose pliers or something like you did at the end of the video?
Sorry for not finding this sooner. I have an old clock that came from a school that looks to be almost identical to yours except it’s not running in time. It’s too slow and I’m not sure what to do about it.
What is the name of that model? Can’t find any info about it on stupid Google.
Can you recommend me some model from 1930s or 1940s and what price should I expect for a working model?
there is a copper coil in that case !!!! it synchronizes the clock !!! if the coil is burnt you can buy matching #'s !!!!
I came across this video cause I was sitting here and was staring at my phone and seeing the little clock hands move smoothly took me back to school where they had these electric clocks that didn’t tick they just smoothly went along. And I thought I’d like to know more about them.
I’m glad I did this cause this turned out to be a very fascinating video and I loved the story about the Nuclear plant electricity fascinates me and so does nuclear I’ve learned a lot about it especially after the HBO show about Chernobyl. I’ve since learned they are considering Thorium for future Nuclear plants. I think Nuclear gets a bad rap. And I look forward to the advancements that get made I think we need every tool to help secure a safe future and we have learned so much over time.
If my plans to work in the IT field fail me my next plan was Electrical something.
Bakelite is also something that fascinates me cause I learned some about it a few years ago I don’t remember exactly how it came up. And it had to do why it got phased out. I’ll be looking that up again now.
I wish you all the best and thank you for the informative video. You really surprised me the more I watched. 😁
That's a well built clock. The glass took the pressure you straightening out the shaft. Taped electrical splices. Agree. Got to go. Neat trick how to capillary in the oil. Sewing machine oil good choice for not leaving a residue. Thanks for sharing. I retired from a Nuclear Plant too. You're right. about sharp folks there. Finally, positioning the hands. Easy trap. Fell into it once or twice.
I have a 1950s Genral Electric wall clock, and the hand tuner is loose, and it isn't turning the hands. Any advice?
I have an old electric clock that runs both ways, every time you plug it in, it runs a different direction. Any idea why?
You are a tremendous help. My clock is so clean now and working well. Thank you.
What if you're not horsing but instead monkeying? Must you still unplug?
At 4:25 to unscrew the rod is just to pull the rod and turn it lefty loosy. That will unscrew it:))
Hola mister pregunta, tengo 1 reloj igual que suena al conectarse pero no avanza las manecillas, podría deberse solo al aceite y que no gire el rotor?
I wonder if theres like an online resource for these GE Electric clocks
Hi, I am using the clock in Japan where the voltage is 100 as opposed to 110 in the US. In the US it keeps perfect time; but in Japan it runs slower, I believe due to the lower voltage. Is there any way to make the second hand faster in the clock’s mechanism?
Be sure you do not have 50hz power first. That is hard to cure other than mechanically.
If your problem is actually low voltage,, you can boost it with another transformer either using a 100vac to 115vac transformer, or by adding a 12vac transformer output winding in series with the existing input. If the net voltage goes down, reverse the leads to the input of the 12vac transformer.
THE STEM JUST UNSCREWS FROM THERE. I HAVE ONE EXACTLY LIKE IT.
nice job... but he forgot to adjust the hands for proper number alignment.
Simichrome Polish on bakelite - like magic!
The knobs on Telechrons clocks turn on counter clock wise.
I have a schoolhouse clock as well, but mine is a 31 day regulator. Got a bottle of Singer oil today and got a roll of that wide desoldering braid as well. That's weird because I also wanted to get into the Navy bad, lol. I got turned down for the same reason, bad eyesight. Except when they asked me what I wanted to do I said I wanted to be a gunner on an Iowa class batlleship as back then they had been re-commissioned. I liked them because they measured everything in English instead of metric, used black powder and had the capability of firing shells that weighed as much as VW Beetles over 20 miles and were so accurate that if they were aiming at a football field they could hit every yard line. They were 16" guns but the Navy called them 58 caliber as they measured their caliber in inches. When Re-enacting I also had a black powder .58 caliber weapon, an 1853 Enfield rifled musket. :) I even wrote my Congressman at the time (Frank McCloskey) trying to get a medical waiver to get in but it was also denied, ah well. I was mad enough at the time I said that if there should be a war, don't come knocking at my door because I have volunteered but I refuse to be a conscript!, lol. Take care my friend, Gary
Yep, I remember thinking that I would have been a dedicated sailor for a career, if only they'd have let me join. My favorite ships to look at are the WWII-era carriers. The Lexington, Enterprise, Saratoga, etc., are the most fun for me to watch. All I ever wanted to do as a young person was to be a submariner. There is something cool about being able to slip from here to there for months on end, largely undetected, that fascinates me. Oh well, it was not meant to be. But, I still got to be part of running a reactor, which was very cool! Cheers! Michael
Mike,
Electric clocks did you say? Man …aint that something! Its looking like thee ‘n’ me have a few things in common.
I served a five year apprenticeship from the age of 16 to 21 which involved going to college for one full 12hour day each week. The rest of the time (except for the final year) was spent working alongside qualified service technicians who were largely former Army, Royal Navy, and RAF men (former RAF ‘Battle of Britain’ men - one a former ‘Senior Air Craftsman technician’ were the majority). As you say, very little phased most former servicemen. I learned much from them. If it had not been for their strict disciplined way of working, I’m convinced I would not have learned television and audio servicing to the extent I did. It was largely their wonderful influence that helped me appreciate valve technology, light engineering, amateur radio, and vintage radio and television. I was a ‘radio ‘n’ telly repair man’ bench technician for almost 36 years. Sadly, that trade no longer exists.
For the past 12 to 15 years, I’ve been taking an interest in clocks, and juke boxes. My collection is eleven electric clocks, two windup 1930s mantle clocks, and two juke boxes (a Jupiter 80, and a Rowe-Ami Tropicana). I now kick myself for selling each one of the four vintage cars I restored from my mid-20s through to my late-30s (one being an Austin Ruby).
The GE electric clock you have just serviced reminds me of the Smiths, and GEC electric clocks that were in every classroom at the schools I attended. They were electrically synchronised by one huge electric master clock in the reception area.
Since I will be retiring in four years’ time, I have the idea of learning more about clocks, and clock servicing, and machine shop engineering which is useful to know something about as I restore radios, TVs, juke boxes, clocks …and I plan to restore another car, or at least restore a hit ‘n’ miss and/or a steam engine sometime during my retirement …I might get round to restoring all three LOL.
I find the following chaps very encouraging in my quest for knowledge in machine shop engineering, as well as clock maintenance:
mrpete222 Abom79 Al Takatsch ……to name but a few.
Check them out on You Tube. I’m sure you will find them interesting.
Regards,
Phil. P.s, I like your display items on top of your kitchen cupboards. My wife has Victorian bottles, and little jam pots displayed on top of our kitchen cupboards. I also intend uploading a vid this weekend, or sometime next week.
Phil,
I once serviced the Smiths clock in a '66 Jaguar 2.8S that I owned. It was pretty straightforward. There were other features of that lovely car that drove me nuts! Boy, would I ever like to sit down with you and have a pint or two while we talked about all of your experiences, especially with the military men that you mentioned. My grandfather is still with us, and occasionally he talks about his experiences in north Africa during the war. To this day, he admires the men of the British Army that he observed during that awful time. I learned humility from the former U.S. Navy men that I worked with at the nuclear power plant. On my first day, one of the ex-nukes came up to me and asked me if I was an "operator or engineer", with "engineer" meaning smart-alek college grad, and "operator" meaning seasoned submarine driver. He didn't talk to me for a month, after I told him that I had just graduated from the University of Illinois. He figured that I'd wash-out in a few weeks. After more than two years together on shift, we all became good friends and I can tell sea stories as if I had been there! I like to watch the U.S. military training films on radio work as a good grounding, when I get lost on some elusive problem. There are a bunch of them on TH-cam.
One of the local shops that I do a lot of work for is a vintage coin-operated machine restoration business. I have restored a bunch of juke box amplifiers and power units. They have all been U.S. brands like Seeburg, Rock-Ola, and Filbin. Seeburg amps are my favorite. They are simple and very well made.
I think that it would be fun to learn machine work. Right now, I'm trying to get my arms around woodworking. I have some nice equipment, but I am a little bit intimidated by it! [: 0)
I don't think that I will ever retire. I love to work, but I am one of the lucky ones who gets to do something that I enjoy. I am an industrial trainer now, and I enjoy every day. It has given us a decent middle-class life and my wife and I consider ourselves to be quite fortunate. Wifey is ill and we have limited time left together, so I will want plenty to keep me busy in the years to come. I adore her, so it gave me great joy to have her appear as a cameo in this vid. The videos give me a nice diversion, as does the radio work, and she is proud that I have had the nerve to get out there and make a few vids.
I used to have a collection of antique toasters, much like the ones on the cupboards. During one of our many relocations for work, two big boxes full of those toasters disappeared. I hope that the movers enjoyed them.
I really look forward to your next video, Phil. If you can, show us a little more of your lovely area. England is the only country to which I really desire to travel. My fear is that, when I do visit again, I will fall in love with the place and never want to leave!
Take care, my friend.
Michael
i have/had a lovely Smiths electric that kamakarzzied off the wall I tossed it...wish I hadn't now. Over here some bright spark came up with a valve radio that also hung on the wall....got nicknamed the "hanging horror" I wonder why?
That's even worse than the old Philco Predicta TVs! Whoever thought that it would be a good idea to put the heaviest part of a television set on a small swivel base with a high-voltage umbilical to it, must have been smoking some funny stuff! Buster the Cat has been responsible for more destruction in our house than anything! Thankfully, it is the modern furniture that takes most of his beatings. I think that Wifey would have put him on the street with a "FREE" sign hanging from his neck, if I had been unable to get this clock to work. Little Fred did destroy a speaker cloth once, but regular squirts from a water bottle have broken him of that awful habit. I have a few dozen 1930s and 1940s American electric clocks that I need to get to. I've thought about doing vids on those, as long as I could do it without looking silly! Thanks for hanging in, Steven! Cheers! Michael
I'm looking to buy a clock in this condition. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. The video posted here was very interesting.
Peter...go on Ebay and have $150 plus whatever to buy one as of 7.21...I have one of the earliest editions of this clock,,,not sure yet of her actual age... and , she just started running TOO FAST...I will be trying to find out why and fix her. If I succeed, I will be making a video .
BTW, this guy said something about oil evaporating....OIL DOES NOT EVAPORATE. it can gum up after absorbing dust and dirt, but never evaporates. Also, the sealed motor was greased by GE, not oiled. Grease can dry up in a way that makes it no longer viable.
The heating up trick to force out air and then and getting oil to suck back into the sealed motor is a neat trick. I recommend using fishing reel oil...very finely refined..
I'm into electric clocks as well. One thing I noticed that could be tweaked. The hour hand is off a little. By the time the minute hand reaches "12", the hour hand will look like it's at the 1:15 position. You should be able to simply move the hour hand by itself and have it pointing directly at the hour when you position the minute hand to 12 first. I guess that's a habit of mine so they look proper. But nice restore on it. Will probably last decades longer.
Yep, I noticed that when I was editing the video. I've taken the clock apart and made that adjustment. It's funny what you don't see until you look back at the video. Thanks for watching and thanks for the tip! Cheers! Michael
i took a windshield wiper motor apart for a 56 chebby. the brushes came out. i could not figure how to get it back together. i showed to a friend. he said that someone put it together. i thought that was funny. i got it to work
That's very cool. I used to work on old Volkswagens and one of the basic maintenance items that got missed all the time is replacing the brushes on the windshield wiper motor. They usually needed to be replaced just once during the life of the car, maybe twice if one lived in Portaland or Seattle. Thank you for watching! Cheers! Michael
Produced 1954-1959.
Knob is reverse threaded. www.telechron.net/forager/index.php
I had no idea! I should have thought of it. I have to adjust the hour hand a little bit more. When I finish my current radio project, I was planning to take the clock down and do the adjustment. I'll check out the knob then. Thank you for the tip! Cheers! Michael
Do you think using a seal a meal device ...it would pull the oil into that motor..???
That's an interesting idea. There is one of those for sale at a local thrift store. I might try that on a different Telechron motor. I have about one hundred clocks that use Telechrons. It would be a fun experiment. Thank you for watching! Michael
Nice work mike
good video. liked your explanations and stories too.
Thank you so much for your kind words. This was uncharted territory for me, as I'm mostly a vintage electronics guy. I intend to practice, though, since I have dozens of Telechron clocks around here. Take care. Michael
That was painful to watch. He never got the set shaft extension off the set shaft . Never got it disassembled for cleaning and oiling. And he used a heat gun on a rotor that had nylon gears! I know his heart was in the right place but he shouldn't be allowed near clocks anymore.
I'm sorry to have caused you pain;
Actually, applying heat to old Telechron movements is a widely accepted method of extracting the old oil and getting new oil to be drawn in. I've seen lots of pictures, diagrams, and descriptions of Telechrons. I've never seen nylon gears in any of them. If you look at the engineering drawings for Telechron movements, note how thin the gears are. I'm no material scientist, but I doubt that nylon gears that thinly made would last one year, much less 70. Finally, it is more than a year since I conducted this painful exercise and the clock is still running perfectly. It is smooth and quiet. If I had damaged the movement gears, I think that I might have noticed it by now.
Oh, and another 'Tuber cringed when he saw me trying to remove the shaft extension. He suggested the correct method (left hand threads) and I now know for future work of this type.
Or perhaps I might just take all of the clocks out of my house, so that I don't get too near them. [: 0)
Thank you for watching and for chiming in.
Cheers!
Michael
So IS it a left hand thread? That's where I'm stuck at the moment. I could see the shaft was threaded but it wouldn't unscrew even after applying B'Laster solvent. It sure doesn't look left handed to me.
What are you doing working on Easter
Doing a favor for Wifey is NEVER work! Cheers! Michael
a great service and cleanup on this classic clock...and a beautiful wifey to boot
Wifey is the joy of my life. She has always been my example of what a truly good person is. She loves that silly clock, so I had to make it work again for her. I fixed the hour hand, but I still need to move it a little more. I'll be doing that for her, soon. Thanks for the kind words. Take care. Michael
I ran across your video looking for a repair for the set gear that is nylon in my clock. I have been working on Telechrons for a bit now. I found the easiest way to get oil into the motor is to buy a vacuum hand pump from the auto shop. Its for pulling out air from power steering and coolant radiators. It comes with a plastic catch can about half an inch bigger than the circumference of the motors. I fill the tub with WD drop in the motor and pump out the air. You will see a lot of bubbles coming out of the motor spindle. The WD breaks down the old thick oil and I have had a lot of success with this process.
You say not to overlubricate and then proceed to repeatedly dump more and more oil on it?
The generators in power stations give quite a thump when the lines are hit by Lightning
Often, when there was really bad weather in the area, we would reduce reactor power and take other steps to reduce the impact of a switchyard hit, should it occur. It was a fascinating job.
Thankyou so much for this simple yet super informative post. I bought a cheaper version in West Australia & you “Sir saved me so much grief & time” lm really very grateful all the best to you , Wifey & Buster 👍🐨🥸🦘