The February 2006 meeting included brass polishing and lacquering techniques.  Lindsay Bramall unveiled Libra XII, his latest work in progress, converting a French drum movement to a striking torsion pendulum clock!

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Lindsay starts with 1200 wet and dry lubricated with kerosene on badly tarnished bases, then buffs with a soft loose mop and green "rouge".  The final polish is done with Wenol or Autosol applied with facial tissues which have short fibres and less prone to scratching.  Wattyl clear lacquer finish is applied sparingly from a can which is slightly warmed in hot water or in the sun.  This lowers the viscosity and increases atomisation.   The brass is not warmed since this would increase the evaporation rate when the lacquer met the brass and reduce its flowing characteristics.    Mistakes are cleaned with acetone.  When clearing the nozzle after spraying, Lindsay puts the nozzle in a small jar to collect lacquer for coating small parts.

Richard Fawdry uses Brasso and 0000 steel wool to get the tarnish off, followed by Ajax cleaner to remove any Brasso residue.  Then very hot water to remove the Ajax.  The base is  then handled with gloves  until the lacquer is applied.  Interestingly, Richard uses medicinal paraffin to oil his clocks as it has no additives.  Richard also showed the result of using Liberon gold wax on the French clock in the background.

Greg Kelly's contribution to the cleaning debate was a dirty sock - not just any sock, but an athletic sock.  The various textures can get into tight corners and grooves without leaving lint. 

An example showing the 4 stages of Lindsay's methods is shown at the left.  Doug Thompson showed a couple of the jigs he uses for retaining parts when polishing.  Another couple of tips
  • Silvo will remove small scratches from plastic domes
  • Rouge and metho can be used to remove small scratches on glass
Doug Thompson shows a couple of his clocks under restoration, a Herr 4 glass and a Kern with unusual rolling Roman numerals
Some 4 and 5 glass clocks exhibit cut glass floral designs as these Herr's and Kundo show.
Here's Lindsay's latest Libra - a striker!  An ingenious lever system above the escape arbor reduces the power to the fork pin by a factor of 10, otherwise the escape wheel just locks up.  He explains the difference between the 400-day clock and French gear trains.  Even so, the Japy movement causes the pendulum to rotate 2 complete turns.  It runs for 8 days.
The escape wheel is from a Schatz movement.  The velvet is from Spotlight, a store with various colours to choose from.  The columns are from a tiffany Neverwind.  The pictures on the right are from a Silesia GB c1910 dial with an attractive crowned crest