In a place where I work, there is a grandfather clock. I was reading the memos and one said, “Do not wind the grandfather clock. This is why it keeps breaking, too many people are winding it. When you overwind a clock it breaks.” Then it says only maintenence can wind it from now on.
OK I get that, but what exactly does overwind mean. Does that mean you’re stretching the spring in it or something like that? And is it like fun to wind a clock. I only work there one day a week, but I can’t imagine everyone would be in line to wind a clock.
I guess in the old days when watches had to be wound you could overwind those too?
So I guess I’m asking, what exactly is overwinding? Is it just stetching a spring till it breaks or something?
I don’t know about grandfather clocks, but with smaller old-fashioned clocks and old-fashioned watches you can snap the mainspring free so it is no longer attached at both ends. I don’t think grandfather clocks have mainsprings, but maybe you can crank the weight up high enough that it jams?
Is it like fun to wind? I never had an old type of watch that you had to wind it. I keep laughing when I read, that too many people are winding it. I mean is it so much fun that people say “I can hardly get to work today, so I can wind that grandfather clock.”
I have a mechanically powered watch that I wind. It’s not a chore, but it’s not something I’d say it’s fun to do. It’s just what you have to do to keep it running. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds. I like watching the second hand, though. It runs in a graceful, continuous sweep around the dial instead of clicking from one second to the next.
Grandfather clocks are universally weight driven. One weight runs the escapement, the other one runs the chime mechanism. Overwinding pulls the weights to thier mechanical limit, stretching the cable they hang on and possibly causing enough friction in the escapement that it jams.
Winding a watch isn’t particularly interesting, but winding a genuine grandfather clock is a thrilling experience because it makes all sorts of fun noises.
HOW do you overwind a grandfather clock? They operate off of weights, not a mainspring.
To wind the grandfather clock, one pulls the chain for the weight until the weight is at the top.
Overwinding a mainspring clock or watch isn’t hard at all though, one winds it until the spring snaps, as it can’t compress any further.
Almost all modern mechanical watches are automatics, which are wound by an internal rotating weight that moves as you change the position of your arm. A clutch will engage when the tension of winding gets too large, thereby preventing the mainspring from being wound too tightly. Most of the better automatics can also be wound by turning the crown by hand; some of the more basic movements cannot be wound by hand, and relie completely on the movement provided by changing position of the watch (for example, swinging the watch in a arc until it starts running, and then putting it on the wrist)
A few mechanical watch movements are not automatics and must therefore be wound by turning the watch stem (which has that button like crown on the side of the watch case. Again, almost all mechanical non automatics have a clutch that prevents the mainspring from being overwound and damaged.
Table clocks, mantle clocks and grandfather type clocks may have mechanical movements that lack a clutch to prevent overwinding…so the unaware person who winds it may in fact damage the mainspring by overwinding.
I like old time pieces. I don’t have anything fancy, but I do kind of like winding my 1948 watch every morning, it’s just a little ritual that signals the day is starting, also I REALLY like winding this old wall clock I have that uses this big rusty key to wind.
Traditional grandfather clocks are powered by gravity pulling down on a weight. The weight is suspended on either a thin cable, or on a chain.
Chain-hung weights are almost always “wound” by opening the front of the case where the weights and pendulum are, grabbing the loose end of the chain and pulling straight down. There’s a sprocket just out of view above that the chain goes around. This kind of clock is difficult to “over-wind” - the worst that will happen is the weight gets slammed into the sprocket, or the chain is yanked loose from the top of the weight and the weight then smashes whatever it lands on - the cabinet, pendulum, your feet, etc.
“Fancier” clocks have cable-suspended weights. To wind these, you generally open the door over the face of the clock, insert a winding key into a hole in the face, and twist. With these, you can pull the cable out of the weight, and if you’re too frisky, you stand a chance of harming the ratchet mechanism.
Either way, clocks are fairly delicate things, and can definitely suffer if too many people mess with them. If Maintenance would simply keep the winding key and//or the key for the door, that would make it much harder for random people to wind it.
Thanks I’ll have to look at it closer. It’s a beautiful clock and probably seven feet tall. I’m five ten and it’s looks more than a foot taller than I am.