The case may be a lost cause but I can save the movement

The case might be a lost cause but I can certainly save the movement of this Ingraham Ocean series gingerbread clock. The clock came to me in fair condition but it was missing a key element, the glass tablet and for that reason, I am not inclined to source a replacement, the clock is just not worth it.

There were several shards of glass at the bottom of the case and I suspect the glass was broken during its journey to the auction house or at the auction house itself which is unfortunate. I could substitute with clear glass but that would diminish the value of a clock that is not worth much, to begin with.

Ingraham Ocean Line, pieces of another clock in foreground of auction photo

However, I can save the movement and the dial as well as a door catch, perhaps use it for future projects or for spare parts.

It was dirty as one would expect and it has not seen the inside of a professional repair shop judging from a rather sloppy click repair. The repair appears to have held and I will tidy it up and leave it.

The movement is interesting and clearly late manufacture. The number 11 is stamped on the movement which might indicate that it was made or about in 1911. Regardless, it is from the pre-war period. I also see steel pieces such as the intermediate wheel, the centre cannon, the fly and the count-wheel hub.

All the parts were placed in the ultrasonic and cleaned following which I replaced the wheels between the plates to recheck for wear. It looks like 5 new bushings on the front plate, 2 on the strike side and on the time side, and all the upper wheels in the trains. On the back, the third wheel requires a new bushing as does the second wheel and the escape wheel.

Black dots mark where new bushings will go.

Eight bushings in all, which is fairly standard for a movement with this degree of wear.

Mainsprings are cleaned and oiled

I have not worked on an Ingraham movement in some time but recall that the strike side is set up quite differently.

The count wheel is mounted on the second arbour (unlike most which mount on the main wheel arbour) and advances by means of two pins that extend from the third wheel lantern pinion. The third wheel is a combined locking wheel and pin wheel. There is no cam on the arbour, instead, there is a space between two pins that allows the lever to drop at the same time the paddle drops into the deep slot on the count wheel. The fourth wheel is just used for warning and not for locking.

Reassembly and testing

All went well. A couple of adjustments had to be made but otherwise, it is running well. I will leave it on the test stand for a week or two.

The movement will go into a bag and be stored for a future project. I already have plans for the harvested clock parts but if I find another Ingraham gingerbread in the Ocean series, I might consider resurrecting this one if the tablet is intact.


Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.