Come On! Take a shot!

Pictured below is an antique clock of Dutch Origin circa 1780. It has fallen off a wall and a local clock mechanism repairman asked me to piece it back together. Original glass/some cracked, cut nails and some extremely dry wood :) When I built my Shaker Tall clock, I had trouble with the mechanical movement and the owner of this clock offered to barter the repair of my clock if I could put this one back together. I have repaired 4 or 5 pieces of broken molding and screw hinges, but the panel on the front that covers the mechanism is split down the middle. Looks like someone tried to repair it with Nutty Putty and a Brillo pad. Actually I believe they tried epoxy. The wood is about 1/4" thick. Here lies the problem and the reason for this post. If you look at picture #3 you can see the edges are rough and don't match too well. I cannot put a wood strip down the back for 2 reason. He wants it to remain original and the pendulum will hit anything of appreciable thickness.

So...any suggestions? I was going to try and convince him to let me use fiberglass tape and resin on the back. Before I do, I was interested in any ideas to join the 2 pieces with the hope they will stay that way.

Mike
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Mike.
I'm with you on the fiberglass tape,a nd resin on the back.
One way to leave it as "original" as possible is to use butterflies to hold the pieces together, and put in a false back.
It's a lot of tedious work though.
Good luck.

PS. Maybe you could PM Bob Smalser. He does a lot of antique resto' work on boats and such, but "wood is wood".... Hopefully???

OK, I am taking this to the top because I need some help. If I have not explained the problem correctly. just say so. This is a tough rebuild and I need the expertise from this forum.
Mike

Butterfly joints might work, but it would depend upon the thickness of the stock. My first question is: what has been used in an attempt to close the crack? It looks like some type of glue, but it doesn't seem to have done the job.

If none of the wood has been removed from the original split, I would remove the existing glue (or whatever it is) from the crack, tape the back of the joint and use a very low viscosity eposy (I like Cold Cure from Lee Valley) to wet the wood. I would then gently squeeze the joint together and let it set up for 48 hours. I would then remove the tape and clean up the inevitable squeezeout by scraping to down to the bare wood around the joint line. The next step would be to put a 2" strip of 4 oz. fiberglass tape along the seam and put that down with 3 coats of Cold Cure. The tape will be invisible and the joint will be stronger that the wood around it.

Regards,

Ron

Darned if I know Ron, but it is like epoxy or Gorilla Glue or something. To be frank, whoever did this to an 18th Century Clock was NOT a woodworker.
Mike

as a bass player i feel i have to chime in for hide glue. try to joint the crack as best as possible, then reglue it with hide glue and repair discs along the back of the seam, all hide glue... my old bass has some crack repair discs on it, i will attempt a pic of the inside.

not terribly clear since its awfully hard to focus a camera inside a violin type instrument, but you can see some of the luthier's repair techniques.

if you use hot hide glue, if you screw it up, it can always be unglued with heat and moisture anyway.

Will you be refinishing the case? If so, You can re-glue and grain paint. I have done this with artist oil paints. It is extremley difficult but can be done. Glue, fill, stain, seal. Mix the background color and then streak the grain color in. I use a piece of glass as a mixing palet over the piece. Use laquer toners to even out the color, then finish. If you are not refinishing butterflies are the way to go but they will show forever.

Good luck
Ed

Thanks Ed: The owner wants NOTHING done to anything. So basically I am in a box. Probably my best option is to hand it back to him as is :) And pay for his fixing my clock.
Mike

If you can't "do anything" to it...how are you supposed to fix it? :eek: I do like the hyde glue idea...it's in character and maybe you can at least get it to hold together untill it falls off the wall again... ;)

I kind of had a feeling you were going to say that. The house I live in was partialy paid for with proceeds from selling my clock collection. Clock people are tough. Full restoration of that case is worth about 3K. It would increase the value slightly. Butterflying the back in my opinion would not decrease the value, but it is certainly the owners call. The bottom line is that you can't make chicken salad out of chicken stuff no matter how fast or long you stir.

Good luck
Ed

Try this http://jbweld.net/products/jbweld.php

Good Luck

JEFF

Jeff: Interesting. I was anchored at Georgetown Exuma, Bahamas in 2001 and stripped the threads on the bleed valve of my diesel fuel filter. Getting new parts was impossible. A screw air shipped in would cost on excess of $100.00 A buddy of mine from Austin was anchored near us and he came over with JB Weld. He filled the screw hold with JB Weld, then re tapped it and we gently put the bleed screw back in. Another thousand miles of ocean sailing and it never caused a problem. I bleed the diesel after that at one of the line fittings. It is great stuff, no doubt.

It would probably work on the clock, but as you can tell, the owner does not want much done to alter the clock. I will discuss all of the fine options offered here with him.
Mike

Thanks to all who replied and I sincerely appreciate all the help. I will discuss all of these options with the Owner.
Mike

This is a tough one. I thought someone who really knew antique restoration might chime in, but no one has. There might be other boards which have more of a bent in that direction where you could ask the question. Or perhaps call a local museum to see if they have ideas.

I wonder if you might be better off keeping the original just as it is and making a full replacement. I guess if I'm going to do a repair on a nice piece which is over 220 years old, I'd do it just right or not at all.

Fi on the person who attempted the earlier repair.