Thread: We Have Skills Too !!

Fortunately, (or unfortunately) my company was deemed essential and therefore I and my crew haven’t missed a day yet due to the virus and lock downs. But I am sick of having the least groomed looking property on the street this year.
Every neighbor around here has been off or ‘working from home’ for the last 5+ months and their properties look great!
I’m just focusing on next years parties and hope to have the yard such that it shows better by the fall..
Found a use for the 200 lbs of sand I replaced this year in the pool filter. Was thinking it might make good blasting media for the car but decided to go with glass for that so grout for the new deck made sense.

And wanted to use up more of the flagstone and add a retainer along the new west hill and cedars.
So this is getting carved out and back filled with limestone. Will tie in the west side to the south side of the property quite nicely and help define some areas for gardens next season..laborious turning big rocks into smaller square rocks, but kinda of zen like at dusk swinging chipping hammers..

Domestic duties done, today I can play with the MG some. Found a fella sort of local with some bits and new old wood he never needed for his restore. Road trip this aft to take a peek..
Enjoy your Sunday gents!

Originally Posted by Mcbladescar

I don't know about you Mike but I'm kinda getting sick of the scenery on my permanent stay-cation

I 'think' that the permanent stay-cation would be inside a box hearing the dirt being shoveled on top--

Originally Posted by cudarunner

I 'think' that the permanent stay-cation would be inside a box hearing the dirt being shoveled on top--

Hahahaha!!!
I stand corrected

Some may recall when I posted about purchasing a nice vintage mantel clock from FleaBay and had it shipped to my friend Joel (Benz here at SRP) in ND as he knew of a very good watch/clock repairman.

When it landed Joel said the box didn't have a dent or scratch in it but after opening it the clock was in really bad shape due to the seller not properly packing/padding it.

I complained and got a full $100 refund from the seller. I did meet them part way and didn't ask for the shipping charge back. So I was out $30.

See here:
https://sharprazorpalace.com/beginne...t-now-780.html

Joel took the clock in and the gentleman he was going to have do the work had a 3 month back load and so the guy highly recommended a near by clock maker. So to the other guy Joel went. Lo and behold, the damage looked much worse than it actually was and I gave the OK to have it fixed. I didn't even ask how much it would cost.

Right about then COVID 19 struck and the shop was closed as is wasn't deemed necessary so I guess the clock just sat on a workbench.

Then Joel passed way the day before Easter. I didn't find this out until about a week later when I called his home and a cousin answered and told me the bad news.

I had actually spaced the clock off but when I came to my senses I realized that I didn't know where the hell the clock was! So I started calling places in Bismarck ND that worked on clocks and finally found it in a jewelry shop that the clock maker worked out of. While they couldn't be open for business he could work on clocks and watches that were sent in.

The clock maker had it up and running but was wanting to keep it for several weeks to make sure all was right and I told him no problem.

I called after several weeks and he told me he wasn't happy and needed to keep it longer. Again, no problem.

That was several months ago and I had just decided to say FI and wait to hear from him.

He finally called and said that he'd shipped the clock out via UPS and I asked what I owed him. ---------------$205 total including the shipping.

Well the clock landed and was very well packed! So I carefully unpacked it and placed it were it will stay and placed the pendulum weight on and went to wind the clock. Uh---wait, there's no key to wind the clock with and I thought sure that a key was included.

So I dug up the saved sellers pictures and yes a key was shown---but it wouldn't work with this clock anyway as it takes two different sizes--One to wind the clock for the week and a much smaller one on the other end to either have the chimes ring or not ring and to adjust the clock to run faster or slower.

So off to FleaBay and I found one made specifically for this clock's movement. The seller had a warning that it only fit this type of movement and included a picture and it looked just like mine so I hit the buy button and another $35 was gone. So the total for my clock comes to: $240--at least the funds were spread out over time.

OK, the clock was wound and as per the clock repairman's recommendation I waited till the actual time was were the clock was and gave the pendulum a nudge to start it.

It ran for less then a minute and stopped.

To make this version of War and Peace shorter, after a lot of frustration I finally figured out that the El Cheapo entertainment center I had the clock on was about 5/16" off level from the low end two foot out (according to my 2' level). So I cut a 5/16" shim the depth of the center and installed it under the low end and now the clock works perfectly!

Shim under the low end--



The level's bubble after the shim was installed--



The clock has Westminster Chimes, which means it chimes on the quarter hour along with the hour. This is a bit different to my clock but it's quite similar:


I've really been enjoying the peaceful sounds. They don't wake me at night----until it's just a wee bit too early to rise, but I usually need to use the loo by then so I just shut my door before going back to sleep.

Boy, those chimes sound good, like having Big Ben in your house. Glad it all worked out for you in the end.

Bob

Showing my lack of clock knowledge I think that it is interesting to be able to wind the chimes or not.

I can imagine you in the light of an Aladdin lamp listening to your clock!

At work one time I was in a waiting room and listened to the clock tick-tock. I was working and it was bothering me. Usually waiting rooms have no clock.......LOL

I mentioned that to my coworkers and they replaced it with a silent one shortly!

Originally Posted by 32t

Showing my lack of clock knowledge I think that it is interesting to be able to wind the chimes or not.

I can imagine you in the light of an Aladdin lamp listening to your clock!

At work one time I was in a waiting room and listened to the clock tick-tock. I was working and it was bothering me. Usually waiting rooms have no clock.......LOL

I mentioned that to my coworkers and they replaced it with a silent one shortly!

I can imagine a power outage and having the Aladdin lamps going and listening to the tick tock and it would probably be pretty relaxing.

While I have yet to play with the chime's ON/Off I'm pretty sure that all that it does is either engage or disengage the mechanism not wind it. I hope that makes sense.

As far as the tic tock goes, when my dad would get a new pup, he'd play with it a lot and when it was bed time he'd drag out an old windup alarm clock, wrap it in his undershorts that he'd just changed out of and put it in with the pup. Dad believed that the tick tock would remind the pup of it's mothers heart beat and the human smell would provide some reasurance of being safe. Whether or not any of that was true the pup would usually sleep pretty good.

Where’s the full clock shot Roy?
Westminster chimes are great. Ring an extra chorus at the half, three chorus at the 45, and the full 4 score with hour gongs, on the hour. Wish our clock had a mute mode, either on or off..

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Where’s the full clock shot Roy?
Westminster chimes are great. Ring an extra chorus at the half, three chorus at the 45, and the full 4 score with hour gongs, on the hour. Wish our clock had a mute mode, either on or off..

Here's the seller's original picture. Note the key in the foreground--



This is the correct key for this clock/seller's pic. I found it a bit pricey--but beggars can't be choosy



Here's the clock in it's new home just a few minutes ago--

I feel like sh@t if my heartbeat gets down to 60/min.