Grandfather Clock Repair

[CharleyL]

Yesterday I spent some time in my shop, picking up and putting away, to make it useable again, but also started rebuilding the pendulum door for a grandfather clock that belongs to a close friend. The clock was built by his grandfather, I guess about 70 years ago, so it is very precious to him. Unfortunately, the design of the windowed door in front of the pendulum was built with a very small molding sized frame around the glass window to form the door, so it seems to be a bit too flexible. It has mitered corners, and the corners are splined together. All four corner joints have failed, even though there is a small triangular spline in each. What seems to be the main reason for the joint failure is that the old guy stained all of the frame, as well as the ends that needed to be glued together. I'm quite certain that the glue joints failed because the glue couldn't bond to the wood.

So here I am doing a favor for a friend, and I promised him to try to put it all back together without using new wood. Trying to clean the stain off of these corner joints for a better glue joints seems like an impossible task, as any trimming will result in a slightly smaller door frame and probably very visible fresh glued joints that will need staining. So I cleaned off the old glue as best as possible and have glued the frame back together using carpenters glue. I don't know what kind of glue the old guy used, but it certainly wasn't as good as carpenters glue. His glue took 70 years to fail, so it has to be better than how he made it.

I also removed the glass retainers that had been pinned in place with tiny brads, removed the brads, and repaired two of the retainers that were broken before it came to me. If the corner joints are good when I remove the clamps, I will clean the glass and install it into the door frame today. If I need to add any stain to hide the glue joints I think I can best do that with the glass in place.

I failed to get a photo of the door in pieces, but promise to take a beginning photo of the door frame in the clamps, and then following photos from here on. So far, this repair is going far better than I was expecting.

Charley

[Stick486]

So far, this repair is going far better than I was expecting.

this is good...
waiting to see the final...

[Cherryville Chuck]

Any stain from that era would have been oil stain. Water based glue and oil stain aren't a great combination. There may not have been much holding them other than the splines.

[Stick486]

Any stain from that era would have been oil stain. Water based glue and oil stain aren't a great combination. There may not have been much holding them other than the splines.

ooops... forgot about that...
if you treat the wood as though it's an oily tropical wood you'll be miles ahead...
something to consider, the original glue may have been hide or fish glue...

1.) Wipe the wood surface with a solvent prior to gluing.
Since the primary problem that tropical woods present in gluing is their oiliness, (with density probably being the second biggest problem), any of these natural oils and resins that you can remove from the wood surface will help the glue adhere that much better.
While it’s not a cure-all, wiping the wood with a solvent first goes a long way. But you have to be sure of two things: first, you should try to glue the pieces of wood to be joined as soon as possible after the solvent has evaporated from the wood surface. This is because the wood’s, or the stain's oils, will tend to migrate back to the surface of the wood where you removed some of the oils. Secondly, you have to be sure that the solvent you’re using is actually dissolving and removing the wood’s oils. A good way to gauge this is by checking the towel that you’re using to wipe the solvent to see if it’s changed to the wood’s or stain's color.

Note:
If you’re initially testing a solvent, make sure that the wood is clear of any small particles of sawdust that might make it appear as though the towel is being discolored. Try a cloth with water first as a baseline: it should basically stay white since the water does not dissolve the wood’s heartwood or stain's extractives. Some common solvents that you can try are: acetone, denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, and naphtha....

2.) Sand the wood to help open up the grain.
You’ll notice that sometimes on particularly dense woods, just after they’re out of the planer, that they almost have a shine to them. This is because the blades of a jointer/planer can actually burnish the wood as it passes through the machine. Sanding helps to break up this flattened/polished surface so more glue can penetrate into the wood. It’s tempting to take the wood straight from the planer or jointer and glue it immediately, but for stronger joints, especially in dense woods, it helps to sand the wood with medium-grit sandpaper before it’s glued. Also, previously glued wood is essentially sealed and the grain/pores need to be opened...

3.) Use synthetic, non-water-based glues.
Since water is repelled by the wood’s oils, using water-based glues like Titebond® can pose problems—though Titebond® II or III are usually better at gluing oily woods than Titebond® Original. Instead, use glues that aren’t water based, and/or glues that can bond a wider variety of materials like plastics and other non-porous surfaces (since that’s practically what we’re doing with these exotic woods anyways).
WeldBond glue (which is more of an adhesive) does well w/ meeting these criterias...
and just to muddy the waters.. there are some serious hot melt glues to consider...
.

Weldbond Specifications & Instructions.pdf

Hot Melt - Selection Chart.pdf

[CharleyL]

The work is complete and it's back on the clock. I wanted to trim the mitered corners to remove the stain and also get the angles closer to 45 deg, but if I did, I would need to make and cut new splines and the stain would need repair. So I cleaned the stained ends carefully with DNA, then applied Titebond II and clamped the frame back together, getting the joints as tight as possible. They weren't all tight because of being mis-cut to start with, tight at the outer corner and a gap at the inner corner, I used 90 deg picture frame clamps to be certain of at least keeping the frame square. Oh, did I ever want to fix those joints, but put it back together as best as I could.

Today the glue was dry and the glass fit in the frame. I had also repaired the retaining pieces yesterday, gluing one together that had been broken in half, and another that seemed to have a thin veneer on both sides, and I had glued that back on too. So I put them back in place. He had mitered the ends of these, so fitting them required figuring out which went where. I used my pneumatic pinner to pin them in place about every 4". A glass cleaning both before and after putting it in the frame, and I cleaned some varnish off the glass around the edges too.

A phone call to my friend and he was here in 10 minutes. He confirmed that the mitered corners were that way before, so it was back together like it had been. I/2 hour later he sent me the photo of the clock with the door back on it. It feels good to rescue a friend once in a while.

Charley


Unfortunately, my cell phone and my PC are not in a photo sharing mood tonight, so no pics. I have them in the cell phone, but they aren't showing up on my computer. Maybe tomorrow....

[Cherryville Chuck]

I just email photos from my phone to myself. Then I can download them off my desktop. I find it easier to post from it. Plus I have the free version of Irfanview so I can add annotations to the photos and number them sometimes.

[CharleyL]

The missing photos are now attached. A computer re-boot seems to have solved the problem.

Charley

[Stick486]

wow!!!

[CharleyL]

It took me more computer time to post all of this than it did to do the repair with all of the time spent trying to post the photos ! I should have just tried a PC Re-Boot last night.

Charley

[HandyDan]

It took me more computer time to post all of this than it did to do the repair with all of the time spent trying to post the photos ! I should have just tried a PC Re-Boot last night.

Charley

The best way I've found to post pictures it to hit the preview button and then copy and paste the pictures. It's a good idea to hit the enter button 3 times after your text and between each picture to break them up. I often hit the preview button between photos just to check that I posted the picture I meant to.

That's what works well for me.

[Nickp]

YEOWSER...! That clock is beautiful...!

[CharleyL]

That clock looks great....from a distance.

The old guy that made that clock did not have very precise tooling, especially when it came to getting correct angles for joints. There are joints in the clock cabinet with the same problems as the mitered corners of that door. He was frequently off by several degrees in his mitered cuts. When cutting exact lengths for pieces, he wasn't very good either. I think he measured and cut each piece singly, as several places in the clock had pieces that were identical, like right and left, that were not very identical in length or width. The fact that he was able to build a project that large with the tooling and methods that he used was quite an accomplishment, and my hat is off to him for doing it with what he had. It's an heirloom that my friend cherishes and I can understand that, so fixed the door back to original as close as I could.

The friend of mine who inherited that clock also inherited the woodworking tools from his grandfather, but he doesn't know how to use them. He spent his whole working life delivering mail for the post office. A hammer and a screwdriver are about as high tech as he goes. His grandfather's table saw, band saw, jointer, etc. are all sitting together and collecting rust, and they are all what was considered homeowner grade when new, so far from the best, even when new. He won't get rid of them, but he can't use them either, and I've tried several times to get him interested in woodworking and failed.

So, because he is a good friend, I keep repairing things like this door for him. Friends help friends.
He came over yesterday because I was getting rid of some surplus stuff that was getting in my way. I had told him that I was about to throw out two brass ceiling fans with the lights and he wanted them. While here, he helped me move all that I was getting rid of out to my truck. He took the fans and a couple of other things. The rest was taken to a local thrift shop in my truck. I just wanted it out of here. If they can sell any of it, great. They did seem very interested in most of it. The three ice chests were grabbed out of my truck first. I don't think we had ever used two of them.

Charley