brake clean or carb cleaner for clock movements?

Brake Fluid and Nano Lubricant = Time Repair Magic!

by Gus Searcy
(Yorba Linda, California)

Time Haunt Magic

Hi, I am fres to this form (Oregon whatever form for that matter) but I thought my recent undergo mightiness be helpful to someone.

Introductory a undersized background:

I wealthy person a Leslie Howard Miller Longcase clock which I bought new in 1981. It was serviced and oiled professionally in 1992. No other service of whatsoever kind has been performed since (yes I know that is not decent way to take care of a clock).

Information technology has a - UW03049B -Urgos Movement.

A couple of weeks ago it stopped ticking and despite my efforts to rhenium-correspondence and level the clock (I live in Golden State where there was an quake recently) it would only tick for a couple of minutes and so hitch.

Please keep in mind as I described the following I am non a clock person of whatsoever kind, I don't know the names of parts, the language or the proper choice of words, soh delight excuse me.

I called the local clock repair shop. The owner is knowledgeable (at to the lowest degree I thought then) and he repaired my cuckoo clock for me in the past. He emotional me $50.00 for a divine service hollo, came to my household, looked at the time and within in seconds of review said the movement was malfunctioning and had to be replaced.
This is because the Duma-hickey that connects to the whatch-a-ma-call-it was a very poor design. There was also very much of metal on metal wear, he said.

He went along to say that the movement could not be saved and I had to buy a new movement which would be $1000 positive $200 in labor, he then paused and said that's if I do it nowadays, because prices are going up!
Fortuitously for me I do not yield to such gross sales tactics.
And then I told him no, paid him the $50.00 and as soon every bit he left went on the Internet.

The first thing I establish was I could get a unprecedented movement for about $704. Also according to the mill, that drive had a life expectancy of about 20 years.
Given that without proper criminal maintenance IT had lasted for over 30 years I didn't sense in that location was anything defective about the movement.

So I patterned at this point my movement was trashed and I had null to mislay in trying to fix it myself.

So I went on the Internet again and searched "how to washed a clock

movement" and below is the answer that I found"

"Take out the movement out of the case. Take it out-of-doors and wash it down thoroughly with a spray can of brake cleaner from the auto store, crop-dusting it into complete the crevices. Dig unfashionable around the pivots with a pointed toothpick, to remove as much crud as possible. Pickpocket an old toothbrush in Coleman fire and call off down everything you can turn over. Don't dunk it. Let it dry. Cast a toothpick-dab of light oil along each of the pivots and nowhere else. Drip a few drops into each of the mainspring barrels."

I thought this sounded too easy and could information technology possibly work? I knew how Pteridium aquilinu fluid dry cleaner worked and could uncovering no flaw in the logic so I thought, why not try on! After every last, in my head, the movement was already trash anyway.

So I followed the directions equally declared preceding and was amazed by the amount of gunk and junk I was able to remove from the movement. In real time, with all the oil and guck removed I had to envision out the best way to mother the trend re-oiled. Remembering what clock man same about the metal on mental wear your regular lightweight oil colour may non be decent. Indeed back again I went to the Internet and discovered something named " Nonolube".

Accordant to the advertisements by the various companies Nonolube was more just an oil. Somehow it had microscopic diamond ball bearings (don't shoot the messenger I'm just stating what I read) that helped metal on all-metal rubbing be greatly reduced. Price for a bottle of this magic potion was $16.00 and I patterned "What the heck", so I got it. The day it arrived I again when backbone to the Internet and looked up "how to oil a time movement" (and have I told you how a great deal I love You-Tube?). Following the instructions I applied the Nonolube in all the recommended locations.

With all of that accomplished I reassembled the grandfather time. "Holy mother of God, weapons of mass devastation, it work"!

It is working to this day and keeping ideal metre. I'm writing this Post thus that it may give extraordinary other person the confidence to try this cleaning and oiling approach before giving raised along the movement.

My total investment was about $26.00 and 3 hours of time.

I hope this helps.

Gus Searcy