Saved another antique alarm clock. Actually, I think this Waterbury is not quite antique yet, it’s probably about 10 years younger than the Westclox I worked on a week ago. If my vague skimming of internet articles taught me something right, it is that Waterbury ended up becoming Timex, a company that is still around selling cheap stuff.
Anyway - this one was way, way, way dirtier than the Westclox. It was covered in verdigris when I got it, and inner works were all gummed up with some sort of oil that was wholly inappropriate for lubricating a clock. I’m going to bet somebody in the past thought spraying the insides with WD40 or something similar was a good idea - until the thing stopped working a couple days later when the solvents evaporated and left a goopy mess on everything.
Lighter fluid and a lot of q-tips helped thin out and soak up a lot of the mess inside. I couldn’t quite figure out how to disassemble it enough to do as much cleaning as it really needed though. But it began ticking away before I finished, and after a few tiny drops of oil in the right places seems to be running strong. It only lost a couple minutes over the past 20ish hours, so maybe it doesn’t need further cleaning... but I’d feel better making sure it is completely de-gooped.
I might sell this one on when done. Just seemed like a fun mini project. It does have a mellower bell sound than the Westclox, which is nice.