More than 25 hours of work and $60 went into getting this "good" condition clock into "very good" condition. Had been untouched and in the possession of UserX for more than 25 years and probably hasn't run for more than 40 years. The glass was broken along with the clock face door hinge. The dial was in "fair" shape along and a wood plank that holds the chime was in poor condition. The clock movement would not work properly unless it was tilted from the right side. The body was really dirty and has missing gold paint near the base. Also had numerous paint chips missing. Now, most of those problems have been resolved. It is a really nice clock, but still needs a little work to complete.

There are several spots where the paint needed to be touched up and that work is nearly complete.

The finish is quite brilliant once it has been polished and is highly reflective. It has been stated that this type of clock is painted with black enamel. More specifically, the finish is "Japan Black". This is the same paint job Henry Ford used on the Model T. It is an asphalt-based enamel that is incredibly tough.

The front of the clock without the face or dial. The movement is very clean and runs very well. Most of the gold pattern is missing from the bottom of the base, but cannot be addressed until the paint touchup is complete. It appears that the original casting had this pattern as part of the original mold. You can't tell from the photograph, but you can see this pattern through the black paint in the right lighting.

There are spots that look dirty, but this is not case. The movement was thoroughly cleaned, but not disassembled. As a result, UserX was not abled to polish every surface.

Not much has been done to the back of the clock. The paint drips on the back came that way from the factory. One of the screws holding the back plate onto the body is not original to the clock. A replacement screw will take some time. The other 2 screws have been polished and clear coated. Do not know why they look rusty in this picture.

The door to the back of the movement has markings from previous owners.

Back of clock with movement exposed. The movement is held into place with 3 slotted machine screws. It can be difficult to get the screws into place. A split blade screw driver would make it a lot easier to install, but if you don't have one a small piece of tape or sand paper folded and taped over the end of a slotted blade screwdriver would work also.

Reads ANSONIA CLOCK CO, NEW YORK, U.S.A. PATENTED JUNE 18, 1882. There is also a number "5" in the lower right part of the movement. Of course, more initials from previous owners.

Movement was first cleaned using Liquid Wrench and WD-40. It has been stated that these type of oil solvents shouldn't be used since they tend to get all over the inner workings. On the other hand, if you remove the movement first and then spray it you may find that it cleans up the movement enough to get it working and not leave a mess. This is not a substitute for proper lubrication.

It was determined that the movement needed a thorough cleaning to see if any of the bushings are worn excessively. With this in mind and knowing the clock wasn't worth a whole lot, the movement was soaked in regular unleaded gasoline for 24 hours.

Took several days for the springs to unwind. This was accomplished by letting the clock movement run down with out the pendulum bob (weight). During this time the movement "clunked" a couple of times. This happens when the bands of the spring stick due to dirt or old lubrication. This can cause real problems unless the surface of the spring is cleaned. This can be accomplished using toothpicks and Q-tips soaked in solvent and scraping as much of the spring surface as possible.

The gasoline soak pulled out a fair amount of dirt and grime, but no metal flakes or shavings, and this is good. What was not so good is that the movement looked realy bad. It was covered with a green and white residue and appeared as if it had been at the bottom of a river for a period of time. The movement had no lubrication at all and could not get any of the gears to move without another soaking with spray lubricant. All of this was cleaned up in about 30 minutes.

The springs probably weren't lubricated at the factory, but through the course of its life someone has bound to sprayed or dripped something on them. The spring on the left is for the hour and minute hand movement. The spring on the right is for the chime. Takes about 30 minutes to clean both sides with toothpicks and Q-tips soaked in solvent. It has been stated that the main springs shouldn't get any lubrication unless they are for a mechanism larger than this one or the springs are contained within a barrel. Those types of movements need grease or oil since the springs are considered much more substantial.

This is a movement from someone else's clock. It was restored by a professional clocksmith or horologist. The movement was completely disassembled and then soaked in an ultrasonic bath, polished, repaired and then reassembled. Probably had some bushings replaced since that's why it was taken apart to begin with.

This is a another restored movement from someone else's clock. It looks like the bushing pictured near the top and right has been replaced and the one below it and to the right was hit with a punch (could be wrong about that). It would be cost prohibitive to completely restore the movement for the clock listed in this gallery.

This is yet a another restored movement from someone else's clock. Notice how it looks brand new. In order to disasseble the mechanism a specialized metal retaining collar is needed to keep the springs from unravelling. Have seen this done with zip ties. Of course, in order to clean the springs you would have to unravel it and then rewind it. This is not so easy without the proper tools.

This is what the clock movement discribed in this gallery looked like after a little cleaning. It is actually in good condition and it was determined that disassembly was not needed. Just a good cleaning with appropriate lubrication. The next several photographs show the movement with just light cleaning.

You can tell from this picture that there is dirt and residue on the outer edges of each of the springs.

Movement with pendulum and bob (weight) attached. The bob is not very shiney nor was it ever. It is a hollow, solid brass container for an internal threaded metal weight and shows the adjustment wheel for regulating speed. Turn the wheel toward the "S" and the bob will move toward the bottom of the pendulum. Turn it the other way and the bob will move toward the top and thus speeding the clock up. This adjustment is for getting the movement close to what it needs to be. Fine tune adjustment is done through the front of the clock dial where the number 12 is situated.

The end of the chime striker has a material on the end to soften the sound of the chime. Do not know what material it is made from.

At the top of this photograph is a fly wheel that helps regulate how fast the clock chimes. It has been noticed that there is some movement in the bushing that holds it in place. It is one of the fastest moving gears in the movement and is a likely candidate for wear. This gear is at the end of the train of gears, and in this particular case, has not caused any problems.

Pictured to the right is the pendulum arm. This arm attaches to a thin flat piece of metal that should not be altered in any way. To the left of the pendulum arm is a brass rod that loops around the pendulum arm. This brass arm has racheting teeth on the top end of the clock that helps regulate the escape (or rachet) wheel which makes a "tick-tock" sound. This brass rod may need to be bent in order to get the clock "in beat". That is, each tick-tock sound should be eveninly spaced.

Pictured center is the gear associated with the fine tune speed adjustment. A double ended clock key has the key that would facilitate this adjustment found at the top of the "12" on the front dial. To the left is the fly used to set the tempo of the chime. To the right is the escape wheel. It is the gear with the most consistant movement and is controlled by the rachet teeth attached to the top of the pendulum.

This plank of wood holds the chime. It looks a little dark for pine. It may have been stained. One thing for sure, it is not in good shape. The damaged wood was probably caused by small amounts of moisture over a period of decades.

The bottom of the support plank looks like it was originally painted a matte black.

There is a missing square dowel that needed to be replaced. It is supposed that the plank needed extra support to keep it from warping or splitting which is why there were originally 2 square dowels glued on opposite ends of the plank.

This piece of wood can be fixed without too much effort. The next dozen pictures show how.

Drilling tiny holes and gluing toothpicks as pictured here will aid in the support of filler that will be formed around the area where the original wood has rotted and turned to dust.

Since toothpicks tend to be tapered it is best to snip the ends of the toothpicks so that the thicker part of the toothpick is glued into the hole rather than the thinner end.

The area around the toothpicks was built up with wood glue and saw dust with a tiny amount of water added.

Once the toothpicks have dried they can be sawed off and sanded flush.

This is what the filler looks like after the second pass with the glue and saw dust mixture. It has been sanded and shaped with a rotary tool.

This is starting to take shape. All it needs is another application of glue and saw dust and it will be complete.

This is the other side of the chime supporting plank.

The chime support is nearly complete. The newly added square dowel was made out of a piece of pine and aged to look like a 100 year old piece of wood. A solution of "0000" steel wool soaked in vinegar for a day is brushed onto the wood and allowed to dry. Then a strong cup of hot tea was brewed and then brushed onto the wood and depending on how strong the tea is or how long the steel wool soaked in vinegar will determine how black the wood turns. In this case it turned the wood gray. A little light sanding and oil stain made the new dowel almost indistinguishable from the original.

Both dowels were glued to the plank with Gorilla glue instead of wood glue because wood glue does not work so well on stained wood. The end grain of each side of the plank and all of the repairs were stained and coated with polyurethane. This will keep moisture from damaging the plank any further.

The chime assembly was cleaned and rubbed with a small amount of sewing machine oil to keep it from rusting. Sewing machine oil is not a good lubricant for clocks because the viscosity is too low (meaning it is too thin). It wouldn't stay in the bushing and once it starts to run down the face it will pull most of the oil out with it. This is also true if you have the right oil, but apply too much. When you wipe any excess away this also tends to pull oil out of the bushings and you have to start over. Wow, that is really annoying!

The bottom has a single coat of hand rubbed polyurethane. It can be de-glossed later so that it is not quite so shiny.

This is nearly complete. Could used a little sanding on the edges to make the repairs more flush, but no one will ever see it since it is hidden inside the body of the clock.

The plank is held onto the body with 4 machine screws which have been polished and clear coated.

This is the original dial and face of the clock. The dial ended up getting stained and efforts to lift the stain proved to be an epic fail. Ordinary household hydrogen peroxide does a nice job in cleaning up stains on paper. Just dab the areas with hydrogen peroxide and let sit for no more than 10 minutes. Rinse with high PH water since hydrogen peroxide is slightly acidic. Gently dry the area with paper towels and then sprinkle and gently press a heavy layer baking soda into the areas that are still damp. The baking soda will start to absorb the stain. The failure started when during a final rinse phase a very weak solution of chlorine bleach and water destroyed the numbers on the dial. This happened within 5 seconds. This process has worked well in the past with modern art prints, but apparently won't work on 100 year old cardboard.

This is a dial from someone else's Ansonia clock. Right off UserX can tell there are problems with this clock : 1. The dial is positioned in such a way as to block the key on the number "4"., 2. The fine tune adjustment is also blocked in the 12 O'clock postion., 3: The screws holding the dial onto the body are not original. 4: The dial hinge has been resoldered, but probably not enough to keep the door on permanently., The dial is stained, but probably can be fixed. Not so sure the missing piece of cardboard dial can be fixed., 5: The brass ring that is soldered to hold the glass looks like it is loose (could be wrong about that). On another note the hands are held on with a pin and indicates this clock was probably made in the 1880's or 1890's. The typeface is nearly exact compared to the clock in this gallery except for the serifs on any "1" or "2". Have seen a few of these and the numbers do not look exact on any Ansonia clock seen. This might indicate that the dials were painted or inked by hand. Have great doubts about this since Ansonia produced 100's of thousands of clock every year.

Didn't really think mass production clocks had hand painted dials until this picture showed up. The Radium Girls were female factory workers in the 1920's who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials. Most of the women in this picture died from cancer due to radiation poisoning. Pretty sure the 2 guys wearing neck ties in the back didn't die from radiation poisoning.

This is the original condition clock face and dial back side. The dial was originally glued to a metal plate and it appears that the metal plate is made from some combination of lead, tin and zinc. Notice how little solder was originally used to secure the hinge. Also notice how the face and dial look like copper and not brass. This is often referred to as red brass. This has a higher copper content.

The hinge is barely soldered on to the notch on the ring. Cannot figure out how so little solder could hold the door on. If you look at the inside of the ring there is very little solder to hold the ring that retains the glass.

This has been resoldered and has more solder on the outside and inside of the ring.

Some would call this a solder blob. In this case, it is a little unfair. The interior side that holds the hinge had to be soldered in small incremental amounts in order to build up enough solder to guarantee it won't fall off. This has been sanded and polished, but will need more to make it look good.

This side of the hinge also needed a copious amount of built up solder to keep the hinge attached to the dial plate. It has been smoothed out, but needs a little more work.

The replacement glass is nearly an eighth of an inch thick and is quite heavy for its size. The solder connection is strong on both sides and should not be a problem for the glass.

This is after much sanding and much polishing. The solder joint on the interior of the hinge was extended in order to get the ends of the brass ring to stay in place. When installing the glass it is important to shape the ring so it lies flat and pushes tight against the clock face door before soldering the brass ring.

This is what the back of the dial looks like after installing the new dial. Since the other side has already been clear coated with lacquer the challenge comes from how to solder the back plate and the brass key hole collars on without bubbling the clear coat. This was accomplished by applying solder to both sides of the joint without them actually touching each other. This was done before any lacquer clear coat was appied. In this way all that had to be done was connect the separated solder points with hot solder which melts into the previous solder. Each joint took 2-3 seconds to solder. None of the lacquer clear coating bubbled.

This is the replacement cardboard dial for the clock. It is of a more natural color than just plain white paper. This is probably what it looked like when it was new. Took more than 4 hours in Photoshop in order to complete, but it is a 99% perfect reproduction down to the one pixel level. The printed face is actually a piece of paper glued to a piece of cardstock of the same color with Yasutomo Nori glue. This glue is a natural slow-drying tapioca starch adhesive that is acid free. Getting the cardstock to stick to the metal plate was accomplished with wood glue since the Nori glue would not stick to the metal. Since the metal plate is concave on the dial side the cardstock was glued to the plate first. It was smoothed out so it would not have any wrinkles. Then the paper dial was glued to the card stock. Afterwards the dial face was sprayed with 5 light coats of lacquer. This made the paper dial look more satin like the original.

This is the finished product. Notice how the clock face and dial looks a little more like 10 karat gold rather than brass or copper. Could not get this look with an ordinary metal polish such as Brasso. Brasso does a great job in cleaning, but to get that extra shine Simichrome does a much better job. There are a lot of metal polishes out there, but Simichrome stands out as among the best. Have had the same tube of this polish for more than 20 years since a little goes a long way.

The glass has been soldered into place and any residual epoxy the previous owner applied has been removed. Using epoxy is not a bad idea; however, solder is stronger than glue.

Originally, most of the exterior looked matte like the interior. Cleaned the outside with ammonia and dish detergeant and all of this old cigarette smoke came off and judging by the dark brown color I would have to assume it was about 40 years worth of smoke starting from about 80 years ago. On another note "Japan Black" paint will leave brown dust when sanded.

This is the bottom of the clock where the chime supporting plate goes. It would be nice to have felt pads on the bottom instead the clock scratching up whatever piece of furniture it is resting on. It is not a good idea to put any bumpers on the bottom of the wood since the clock is heavy and over time the weight may break the wood.

This is the interior before any cleaning. As it turns out, no cigarette smoke residue inside the interior. There are four pieces of cast iron that are screwed together to make the body. Each piece has the number 112 cast into the iron.

The clock pictured here is another Ansonia mantel clock. It is of a similar model to the clock in this gallery. The gold pattern on this one matches what the clock in this gallery should have.

Yet another Ansonia mantel clock with the same gold pattern. Notice how the black paint is not shiny.