Re-silvering a clock dial

Dirty and scratched dial from a 1940s wall clock

Having just bought a lovely Junghams Boardroom clock, where the chapter ring needed restoring, I thought it was about time that I got the re-silvering skill under my belt. I needed a dial to practice on, therefore I pulled this 1940’s oak wall clock out of my stock, and stripped it down so that I could use the dial for my experiments (see picture above). I ordered in the silvering powder and finishing powder and got to work.

Using 1000 grit wet and dry, I cleaned off all the old lacquer, numerals, crud and silvering, until i got back to the original brass. I used a top to bottom motion with the wet and dry paper, to keep the finish uniform.

When I was happy with the finish, I did a final clean with acetone, to remove any dirt or grease.

I put a quantitiy of the silvering powder in a small dish, and using slightly damp cotton wool, charged with a little powder, started using small circular movements to the face.

It took a little while for the silver to appear, and I realised I needed to charge my pad with powder regularly, for it to take. Eventually I ended up with a uniform silver colour across the whole dial.

You have to be fairly quick at this stage, to remove any residual powder with clean water, ready for the the finishing powder.

The finishing powder was administered in much the same way as the silvering powder, but this time I used a cotton cloth to apply it, again rubbing in a small circular fashion. Once completed, again the dial was thoroughly cleaned using running water, then left on the window cill to dry for a couple of hours.

The next task was to apply the face decal.

I purchased a decal from Cousins, although it was good quality, I would have preferred black in retrospect.

I have yet to find a supplier of clock dial decals for the UK, if anyone has any recommendations please leave a comment.

Once the decal had set and cured for a while, the whole dial was given a coat of lacquer for protection.

I am very happy with the results, for a first attempt, I think this dial has come out very well, and I am now confident to go onto the more expensive Junghams dial.

Completed re-silvered dial of a 1940s wall clock.

Bulle Mantel Clock Restoration

Restoration of a Bulle Mantel clock, manufacture date of 1920, with a half plate movement.

Putting a wall clock in beat

Stage light upcycle

Picked up a set of stage lights at a local auction, I am sure I can do something with these....​

The first thing was a full inspection of the electrics, two units had working bulbs two were defunct. As I expect these to now go in either a domestic or commercial setting, the existing 300 watt bulbs are not really suitable, as they put off a lot of heat, therefore I ordered in standard Edison lamp holders and LED spot light bulbs.

Polishing the units was a long a laborious job, involving copious amounts of fine wire wool and metal polish (the kind you use to use to polish the chrome bumpers on your car). It took about 4 hours to polish each unit. 

The hangers and top arm were very rusty, and deterred from the look of the cans, therefore I decided to have them shot blasted and powder coated by Kirdford Shot Blasting & Powder Coating in a dark grey (apparently the colour used for a lot of helicopters).

The existing 300 watt bulbs and their ceramic fittings were removed, we didn’t think anyone would want 1200 watts of light in their living room, plus the heat put off by these bulbs made the lights unsuitable for domestic use (danger of burns if you touched them).

We made new patresses to take standard Edison lamp holders (E27 bulbs) and supplied low energy spot light bulbs, the reason for the Edison lamp holders gives the owner the option to use smart bulbs such as the Philips Hue range.

The final result is an awesome light feature, that would look great in any setting, it can be easily modified to incorporate into smart home technology and if multi coloured lights were used, some great lighting effects can be achieved.

Not a clock restoration

I bought this steamer chair at an auction last week, why oh why do I always put my paddle up when I haven’t looked at the item... but it was only £10....

Anyway when I picked it up, there was a lovely hole on the wicker seat (they didn’t charge extra for that), bugger I thought.  I have never attempted replacing a wicker seat before so I thought I would have a go. 

The first step was trying to find a supplier, I did find seat replacement kits on Amazon, but they were stupidly expensive, eventually I came across Somerset Willow Growers Ltd., they supplied the cane webbing and the beading, it was still expensive, but a lot cheaper than Amazon or eBay, plus I liked their website.

So the first job was to remove the broken webbing, this meant chiselling out the old beading, cutting out the webbing then making good the channel by removing all the old glue and crud.

This was a lot harder than I expected and took me a good couple of hours, with a hammer and various sized chisels (I must admit, my chisels had not been out of the toolbox for a VERY long time, so I simply had to re-sharpen them before I did anything else).  Once I had a clean channel all the way round I could move onto the next step.

So according to the YouTube video I was watching, I had to soak the webbing and beading for 20-30 minutes before using it.  This caused a little problem, as it didn’t fit in the sink, plus we seem to have lost the plug for it, so the next option was to use the bath, (I think this is the first time in about 6 years I have put any water in the bath as we both have showers).  As you can see in the picture, I was fairly inventive on finding things to keep the webbing under water LOL.

With the wicker nice and wet I could move onto the next stage. 

I made some nice oak wedges to use in the process, setting out the cane webbing to get the seat nice and square in the frame, I began by wedging the front in place, then the sides (the seat had a curve front to back, so I could not do front, back then sides), finally the back was positioned.  Using an oak wedge, pressed the cane into the groove and using a sharp chisel, removed the excess.  Once the webbing was in place, all that was left to do was to apply some glue, then hammer the beading on top to make everything secure.

I am really pleased with my first attempt at replacing a wicker seat, and will be happy to do it again. 

Have a great day every one. 

Completed seat replacement of a steamer chair.

Cuckoo clock restoration

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The back of the clock showing the state of the movement and the broken bellows

This is the last clock of three, that I bought as a job lot at a boot sale in West Sussex. 

The first two were relatively easy as all the parts were there, this last one though, was in a dreadful state.

The case was missing a side door, the top frieze looked as if it had been glued on with toothpaste, the dial (an old cardboard one) was so discoloured you could not read it, the movement was really grungy, the minute hand was missing as was one of the cast iron weights, and the bellows were beyond repair! 

The first job was to remove everything from the case, assess the damage and order new parts.  My whittling skills were put to the test, creating a new side panel to match the existing one, the white gundgy glue was scrapped off the finial (and roof), new clips added so that the top finial fitted the roof properly, the old dial was removed and thrown away, finally the case was cleaned and given a coat of wax.

The bent tooth is marked with a black dot

Next came the movement. this was stripped cleaned then inspected, after re-assembly it was obvious that a lot of re-bushing of the bearings was required, the escape wheel was loose on its arbor, with this repaired and the unhinges done, the movement was still not working, so I decided to ditch it and get another movement from a donor clock, again doing my normal of taking it apart, cleaning it then giving the parts a final clean in the ultrasonic bath, before reassembling, even this movement kept stopping at ten past the hour, so after another inspection I found a bent tooth on the drive wheel, once the dentistry was done, the clock chugged along quite happily. 

New bellows were added, with new linkages, I reused the existing bird, wanting to keep as much original as possible; a new dial was fitted, reusing old hands, I managed to find a replacement weight for the one that was missing, then the clock was finished. 

Movement cleaned and new bellows fitted

Testing for a couple of days now and the clock works fine, although the first cuckoo is a little laboured, I have put that down to the stiffness of the new bellows and hope they will free up with time. 

I lovely little clock that has been rescued from the scrap heap, we are Vetera Novis, we take old things and make them new again. 

The final product, a cuckoo clock resurection

Restoration of an Oak Mantel clock

I bought this clock from a dealer at an Antiques and Vintage Fair at Stoner Park in May, the case was in a pretty sorry state, the top was in three pieces with chunks missing, the columns were loose and the moulding was missing from the left hand side. The face was in good condition, but the hands were covered in rust and oil...

Inspecting the movement, it was covered in crud and oil and was in desperate need of a service.

As it was sunny and warm, I decided to start with the case (I can work outside). Removing the movement and setting it aside, I removed the 4 screws holding the top of the case in place, lifting off the three top pieces, the majority of the case fell apart in my hands, the glue was so old, it had just given up. This was going to be a bigger job than I thought.... 

I started by working out where all the pieces went, then, using a Stanly knife, proceeded to scrape all the old glue from the various parts. 

Next came a major ‘glue up’, fixing the desperate parts of the front panel and top back together. Once I had the top and sides together, I could start looking at the missing chunks to the top moulding, using some oak from my store, I cut in new pieces and with my faithful Dremel, re-carved the new wood to match the existing curves.

Then all the panels were stripped of the old polish, to give me a chance to colour in the new repairs. 

Assembling the sides and top, I now needed to make new mouldings for the bottom of the case (the LH side on was missing), so using some reclaimed oak floorboard, I cut and routed new replacements. 

Now came the tricky part, colouring in the new repairs and mouldings to match the old case, this is a nightmare job for me, as 1) it is not something I do everyday and 2) I am colourblind.... with the help of a good friend of mine, (who does this stuff everyday), we managed to get a good match. 

The case was French Polished, reassembled the given a couple of coats of clear wax, new brass feet were fitted and it was ready to receive the movement.

The movement was in a sorry state, not the worst that I had come across but still in need of stripping and cleaning before I could assess if any remedial works were needed. Just getting the hands off took some time as the pin and minute hand were rusted in place, to get the strike arm off, I needed my workshop vice and a blowtorch!

I cleaned the majority of the crud from the wheels and plates before putting them through the ultrasonic cleaner on a ‘hot wash’. 

Once all the parts were clean, I could have a proper inspection of the pinions and bearings.  The movement had obviously been previously serviced b a professional as some of the bearing had been re-bushed, satisfied that no further work was needed, I proceeded to inspect the mainsprings, to find these also had been replaced at some point as there still nice and shiny.

The hands were a different story, I needed to use a wire wheel, to clean off the rust and black paint, then they were polished and finally re-blued back to their original look.

The movement was re-assembled and put on the test rig, ticking away quite happily - a little bit of tweaking was needed to get the strike working properly, and it took a few attempts with the length of the pendulum to get it keeping reasonable time.... 

The front and back bezels were cleaned and polished using a buffing wheel, then given a coat of lacquer to keep them shiny. 

New bun feet were added to the base, the movement fitted back into the case and the strike arm adjusted to give a lovely deep boing.  I am truly happy with this restoration, it has taken a ‘wrecker’ of a clock and given it a new life for another 50 years or so.