Tid-Bit 23 - Horological Tool Time

Another Perspective

Joe Bullard is a clock repairman out in the wilds of Kansas. He and I have come to know each other over the years, and acknowledge that his repair business is in a very different world from the one in which I repair pretty much only Vienna Regulators. Joe took the time to write a counterpoint to my tools article. I think it is worth reading, with the realization that one can not do the work I do without things like lathes and collets and chucks. But you can take clocks apart, clean them, bush them, and put them back together without many of the tools I deem essential.

There are a number of considerations involved in selecting appropriate tools for the avocation of clock repair work. The first is to fully understand the seriousness of being in this business. Cheap tools render cheap results. It makes no difference what you’re looking at in terms of a repair order, it’s not yours and you need to be very clear on that. You need the appropriate tools, equipment, materials and supplies to conduct repair operations at your level of competence.

“At your level of competence” Okay tool #1 is brain. Learn the work. Continue to learn the work. Understand that at some point, a little voice in your head screams “pass on this!” Don’t let your ego or your perceptions of your skills get in the way. The biggest part of opportunity is to know which ones to seize and which ones to pass on to more competent repair operators.

I’ve been a repair operator for over 10 years and I’m pretty good at it. Stephen is considerably more competent than am I. If you consider the difference between what I use and what Stephen has, understand that although there are similarities between what we have on our benches, our businesses are very different. We work in different worlds. There’s no way I get involved in year running clocks: I don’t have the skills and the range of equipment that Stephen does. There’s no way Stephen gets involved in a repair operation like mine. He doesn’t want to do that.
I don’t have a lathe. In my just over 10 years as a repair operator, I’ve only needed access to one a couple of times. I can’t justify the investment. Instead, I have a couple of regional machine shops that do the work for me.

So what about tools? While it’s true that cheap tools generally yield bad results, it is not true that expensive tools yield good results. It ain’t the tool, it’s the guy or girl holding it (vulgate English has its uses). Remember that nobody cares what brand of tool you use or how much you paid for it. Your reputation for reliable, efficient service and outstanding customer care is all that counts.

Generalized tools for clock repair

Screw drivers: I bought Husky from Home Depot. Choose the sizes you need. Below the #1 phillips, I chose General Tool. It’s a nice set of real jeweler grade screw driver and socket tips along with a driver grip in a wallet. I like General Tool. It’s been my experience that General Tool products are a good investment. These are serious tools for people who care about their work and their business. Both sets of these screw drivers are extremely high quality metal that is shaped and finished very well.

Wrenches: I chose Craftsman. The combination wrenches I have are precision wrenches. They run from 4.5 mm to 11 mm and on the SAE side they go from 5/32 inch to 7/16 inch. These are expensive wrenches, so don’t be surprised. They’re also invaluable in the clock repairmen’s tool kit. Storage and handling of these is kind of an issue: I swear I had a 1/8 open end 5/32 box end combination!

Socket wrenches: General Tool makes a very nice reversible ratchet that allows you to get into some really tight places. Good ¼ inch drive sockets with appropriate extensions and a set of screw driver bits to match are a really good idea. You’ll normally use this set to pull the machinery out of tall case clocks.

Pliers: This is the single investment that can cause you more problems than any other. Expect to put a significant portion of your tool investment into pliers. You’re not buying high quality pliers suitable for clock repair work for $5.00 unless you’re planning on scrapping and replacing them routinely. Don’t get involved with trick pliers. Stick to the fundamentals. Serrated jaw and smooth jaw have different applications. Learn them.

Hammers: Sometime back, Stephen and I were exchanging laughs on the subject of hammers and clock repair work. Some time when you least expect it, a customer will ask you about how you accomplish something. If it involves whacking his clock movement with a hammer, change the subject. I use a cut down 3 oz ball pein. I have a small claw hammer under the bench, but I don’t recall ever having used it.
Punches. A small inexpensive center punch (not the spring loaded type) is really good to have. From time to time, I renew the point by chucking it in the drill press and working it over with diamond files. It has to put a useable divot at exactly the right place, so point maintenance is important.
Vises: I have two. One is an alloy piece that was in a box full of stuff I acquired when I bought up the holdings of a retired repair operator from Wichita. I purchased a new steel vise and I prefer it.

Measuring tools: I again went to General Tool for these. They make very fine stainless steel rulers. I was using a $15.00 Ken Tech electronic caliper like the one Stephen shows on his page. It may be just the one I had or maybe it was just me but I wasn’t at all satisfied with it. I wound up with a General UltraTech. It’s not a crazy expensive device, but it is accurate.

Drill bits: These little critters can work for you or against you and there seems to me to be very little middle ground on that. Two major factors involved here: Quality and accuracy. I’m using Lawson bits. They’re both accurately sized and cut very well. Take very good care of your drill bits. Neither borrow nor loan drill bits. Use the “right sized” bit: It doesn’t make any difference what size is marked on it.

Drills: I use a good cordless in the shop for most drilling. Accurate punching and good drill bits allow that. Precision drilling requires a much higher quality drill. This is the point where considerations of a lathe first become reasonable in my view. A decent drill press will suffice in a lot of the work, but at some point you have to get with a machinist. If that starts being a regular thing, take a hard look at what you’re doing and whether or not buying a lathe is appropriate. The fundamental question here is: Are you doing this work to provide money for you or for the bank?
Files: These are really important cutting tools. Knowing how to use them can make high quality work very easy. Incorrect use can quickly destroy things you can’t replace. Both normal profiled steel files and the newer diamond files are excellent tools to have. Understanding metal finishing is a skill set in the clock repair business that is one of the most important. Pivots not only have to fit their pivot bearings, they have to be happy about it. The bottom line with files is that the better selection you have the more opportunities you have – for both very good work and very bad disasters.

X-Acto knives or a reasonable and similar substitute are very much worth having.

A decent set of scales for weighing stuff and a couple pounds of birdshot. #8 shot works really well because it’s really small and allows you to quickly establish the correct weight to operate the weird clock that I guarantee will be presented to you for repair (uhhh, sans weights).

Specialized tools

Clock repair specific tools: You’ll need a fair selection of tweezers in various sizes. Get some plastic tweezers too: You’ll see why when you try to pick up steel taper pins with steel tweezers. I guess it’s somewhat more fun than getting kicked real hard. You’ll need a wire tool. It’s a t-shaped affair with a slot at the end. They come in various sizes. I call it a “tweak.” Really handy for tweaking things in hard to get at places. Pivot locating tools are a basic requirement. These are long tools with various hooks and tips for use in re-assembling movements.

Spring winder: Clock main springs are varying lengths of coiled steel attitude. Get a spring winder. Learn how to use it. Always use it. Get good snug fitting leather gloves. A main spring that gets away can and will cut you long, wide, deep, repeatedly and, oh yeah, totally without remorse.

Pin vises: Stephen placed some really good advice. I actually had arrived at that conclusion before I read his observation. I bought a set from Timesavers. They’re smaller than the ones that Stephen uses. They allow me to use very small bits in my drill press with very good accuracy. I chucked the appropriate sized pivot stock in the various pin vises and tested them in the drill press. They are very nicely made.

Staking punches: Handier’n a shirt pocket. These are pretty scary looking tools. You’ll need them. Do yourself a favor: Buy a nice set and some brass stock. Read the book and get busy experimenting. Understanding how to use these punches will help you accomplish pivot bearing repair quickly and accurately.

Ultra-sonic washer: Handier’n a second shirt pocket. You can’t repair a dirty movement. You can put the parts in an ultra-sonic and it will absolutely clean them up or you can spend a lot of time with tooth picks, cotton swabs and artists’ brushes and a magnifier. Take your pick. I would prioritize an $800 ultra-sonic washer ahead of a lathe, but that’s just me.

Magnifiers: These are a basic item that is kind of hard to get a handle on. There are lots of different kinds on the market. I prefer to use the small plastic jeweler’s loupe. My brother-in-law (who really is a jeweler) uses a Zeiss set much like Stephen’s. I know another jeweler from over in Lawrence (in Kansas) who uses a nice and really expensive set of Schneider’s. Bottom line in this is that whatever you use, it has to work FOR you as opposed to against you.

Work lighting: A common articulated sewing machine light is a very efficient way to light things up. Put a 5000+ degree kelvin LED head in it and you have a white, very intense, specular light that really makes your work easier and it doesn’t heat things up. You don’t need anything more powerful than a few hundred lumens. I also keep a couple of AA powered LED biscuit lights in my tool box (shirt pocket #3!). A good small LED headlight is good to have as well. The worst mistakes I’ve ever made were compounded by not providing enough light on target. With lighting it is my opinion that it’s better to have it and not need it than not have it and desperately need it.

Safe transport: Pick up and delivery is a serious part of your business. If you repair a clock and send it home with your customer and he or she calls back to tell you that it doesn’t work, do you know if it’s something you did or something he or she did? Doing pick up and delivery requires some way to carry clocks around safely. Get some decent looking soft side luggage and a bunch of bubble wrap. An 1161-853 triple chime Hermle movement with a moon dial on it will fit nicely along with the weights in a medium sized soft side suitcase. Obviously, the pendulum won’t but the 10 inch bob wrapped with bubble wrap will fit in the lower front pocket.
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I’ve been a clock repair operator in northeast Kansas since 2003. I learned clock repair pretty much on my own. I studied several books on the subject from different authorities and started simply as a hobbyist. I self-financed everything. Contrary to presidential finding, I did build it: Nobody else made any part of it happen.

Next to buying good tools, the best investment I ever made was buying a bunch of non-working clocks. I was seriously hobbying at it then and I put an ad in the classified section of the local paper that I’d pay up to $20 non-working clocks. I wound up with a carload of junk clocks and spent a couple hundred dollars on them. I started examining them alongside Phillip Balcomb’s books. It took me a while to figure out how to repair them and a couple of years to actually get it done. I sold all but a couple of them and a few that were simply junk. I learned a lot.

Then in early 2003, my wife commented that I had an awful lot of stuff, tools, a workbench and I was occupying a bedroom recently vacated when our daughter moved out. So, I went out and filed for a tax number and started repairing clocks.

Some of the things I’ve learned:

1. Good concise signs on your car windows and a nicely done, understated business card are a whole bunch better advertising than the yellow pages.

2. Customer care is more important than anything but technical skill.

3. Don’t borrow money for anything unless you REALLY need it and can’t buy it with cash up front (Know the difference between “REALLY need” and “REALLY just want”).

4. Don’t ever criticize somebody’s clock. It may in fact be junk, but a lot of times it’s someone’s family heirloom. If you have nothing good to say, say nothing.

5. Take time to visit with your customers. Get to know these people. This business is about time. Do not buy into the “time is money thing.” It will hurt you. If you can’t spend time on people, you gotta ask: “Just what is time good for?”

6. Network with people in other fields. You need to know some sewing machine repair folks, gunsmiths, folks who can repair tube radios and camera repairmen. No kidding. You will get requests for these services. One other thing here. In training for camera repair, pocket watches are used as training aids. The escapement in the older pocket watches is almost exactly like what is used in antique cameras (uhh, they’re the ones that break most often). One of the best pocket watch guys I know is a fella who repaired my digital camera.

7. Find a GOOD metalsmith. He needs to understand the differences among different formulations of brass and he has to be able to replicate the metal needed to rebuild broken components. The metalsmith I work with has rebuilt a lot of parts for me that simply are not available. When your reputation, your business and your customer’s cherished clock are all on the line, you REALLY don’t want to Ebay a pig in a poke.

8. Dress well. Don’t get fancy and don’t try to “make a statement.”

9. Be on time for your appointments. Nothing looks less credible and more rude than a clock repairman LATE for an appointment.

10. Protect your customers’ anonymity. Respect their expectation of privacy. You can talk all you want to about the clocks you’ve worked on, but don’t ever reveal a customer’s name, not to anybody, not for any reason.

Tools