Aligning the hands on an old clock.
Discussion
Minute hand - no
Hour hand - more than likely no
The minute hand is fitted onto a square filed onto the end of the cannon pinion.
If it is striking at 3 minutes to the hour, you need to move the cannon pinion one tooth relative to the motion wheel (motion wheel carries the pin that initiates the strike sequence.
Sometimes the hour hand is just a push fit, and can be pulled off and refitted.
Sometimes it's screwed in place.
Sometimes the hour pipe (the brass tube tha carries the hand) can be rotated relative to the motionwork/snail cam. There's a danger of bending/breaking the hand if it turns out there's no friction clutch though.
The only way to sort it is to pull the movement from the case. If it's an English clock, there will be 2 right angle brackets holding the movement into the case - back plate of the movement to sides of the case.
Remove the brackets, slide the whole lot out the back with the dial still attached.
Remove the hands, remove the dial, refitted the hands and watch how everything works.
Remove the motion wheel cock, realign the hour and minute wheels, and refit the motion wheel/cock.
Put it all back together, and fit the minute hand with a new taper pin. No need to bend the taper pin like that.
Edit to add - if it strikes correctly with the minute hand pointing at "12", then it's possible that the hour hand is a push fit, or the hand has been moved against it's friction clutch. Try just moving the hour hand gently, from close to the centre.
If both hands are out, it's "movement out" time
Hour hand - more than likely no
The minute hand is fitted onto a square filed onto the end of the cannon pinion.
If it is striking at 3 minutes to the hour, you need to move the cannon pinion one tooth relative to the motion wheel (motion wheel carries the pin that initiates the strike sequence.
Sometimes the hour hand is just a push fit, and can be pulled off and refitted.
Sometimes it's screwed in place.
Sometimes the hour pipe (the brass tube tha carries the hand) can be rotated relative to the motionwork/snail cam. There's a danger of bending/breaking the hand if it turns out there's no friction clutch though.
The only way to sort it is to pull the movement from the case. If it's an English clock, there will be 2 right angle brackets holding the movement into the case - back plate of the movement to sides of the case.
Remove the brackets, slide the whole lot out the back with the dial still attached.
Remove the hands, remove the dial, refitted the hands and watch how everything works.
Remove the motion wheel cock, realign the hour and minute wheels, and refit the motion wheel/cock.
Put it all back together, and fit the minute hand with a new taper pin. No need to bend the taper pin like that.
Edit to add - if it strikes correctly with the minute hand pointing at "12", then it's possible that the hour hand is a push fit, or the hand has been moved against it's friction clutch. Try just moving the hour hand gently, from close to the centre.
If both hands are out, it's "movement out" time
Edited by clockworks on Friday 20th December 12:56
Cheers Clockworks. So not as simple as a couple of YouTube videos suggested. I'll have a think about it. My guess is that it happened when someone wound it up and pushed the hands to the correct time. Perhaps inadvertently pushing the hour hand along with the minute hand. If you arent careful the minute hand can snag on the hour hand. Could one push the other?
clockworks said:
Does it strikes when the minute hand is pointing at "12", or when it's at 3 minute before the hour?
Good question. The strike is turned off and its at my mothers house and she has all sorts of health problems. 
But if I can I will switch it back on during the daytime and see what happens. It's the clock my parents (my father died 3 years ago) have had for over 50 years. It's a lovely thing. 
Randy Winkman said:
clockworks said:
Does it strikes when the minute hand is pointing at "12", or when it's at 3 minute before the hour?
Good question. The strike is turned off and its at my mothers house and she has all sorts of health problems. But if I can I will switch it back on during the daytime and see what happens. It's the clock my parents (my father died 3 years ago) have had for over 50 years. It's a lovely thing. 'clockworks' offered me some advice regarding my longcase clock a while back and I was able to deal with it myself.
Randy Winkman said:
Good question. The strike is turned off and its at my mothers house and she has all sorts of health problems. But if I can I will switch it back on during the daytime and see what happens. It's the clock my parents (my father died 3 years ago) have had for over 50 years. It's a lovely thing.
If it does strike when the minute hand is pointing directly at "12", then the odds are you just need to carefully turn the hour hand to re-align it. But if I can I will switch it back on during the daytime and see what happens. It's the clock my parents (my father died 3 years ago) have had for over 50 years. It's a lovely thing. London clock, so quite valuable too.
clockworks said:
Randy Winkman said:
Good question. The strike is turned off and its at my mothers house and she has all sorts of health problems. But if I can I will switch it back on during the daytime and see what happens. It's the clock my parents (my father died 3 years ago) have had for over 50 years. It's a lovely thing.
If it does strike when the minute hand is pointing directly at "12", then the odds are you just need to carefully turn the hour hand to re-align it. But if I can I will switch it back on during the daytime and see what happens. It's the clock my parents (my father died 3 years ago) have had for over 50 years. It's a lovely thing. London clock, so quite valuable too.
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