# Problems with striking clocks

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-striking-clocks/238915>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 8, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-striking-clocks/238915 "2004-04-08T06:42:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-striking-clocks/238915/1 "2004-04-08T06:42:59Z")

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For about ten years now, we’ve had a table clock, wound with keys, that strikes on the quarter hours. Recently, however, every time I try to set it (it can only be set by moving the hands) the minute hand will not move forward at all until I move it back a few minutes. I sense that the hands mechanism is somehow sensitive to the wound or unwound status of the chime springs, but they are both fully wound up: the clock uses one winding spindle for the time mechanism and two other spindles to wind up the chime springs. All three spindles are driven by the same key.  
I wonder whether this matter–I consider tinkering with the clock’s innards to be beyond my ken–is best left to a professional clock person…

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**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-striking-clocks/238915/2 "2004-04-08T20:14:31Z")

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My wind-up clocks will do that occasionally, and moving the hand back a little does fix it.

I suspect it has something to do with moving the hands, but haven’t quite figured it out. It seems to happen less often if, when setting the time, I move the minute hand veeeery carefully past the chime times. Like I’ll get to 6, stop and then gently move till I hear the little click, instead of just whipping it round and round. It _is_ sensitive to the chimes.

A couple times the hour hand got stuck, too. It just stayed at 1:00 while the minute hand kept going. So I had to move it backwards a little to unstick it.

I’m not sure if it makes a difference whether the chimes are wound or not. I don’t always wind our chimes. (They’re so freakin’ loud, and I have insomnia sometimes) The hands still sometimes get stuck.

Shrug. Since I always get it going again, I’m not too concerned about it. Not enough to tinker with it anyway. If I couldn’t get it going (happened once) I’d take to the clock shop.

Guess I’m not much help, sorry.