Timer adjustment.

[seamus]

Hi all

I've spent a little while cleaning the timers with my tables (I've not put then through an ultrasonic yet), looking at the photos of the timers in various posts here they seem pretty much complete with all of the springs and coin bits and pieces but....

Both timers seem to run for just under 20 mins before the pendulum (?) stops ticking, one drops the bar after around fifteen minutes whereas the other drops it after eight minutes.

Now either the previous owner wanted to maximise revenue (there were a few old two shilling/ten pence pieces jammed in the coin drop when I got it.) or something is out of adjustment.

I've read through the posts in the maintence section on timers but can't see anything on how to adjust the duration of the game.  Is it just a matter of winding the main threaded rod in or out to change the time ?

And is it just a matter of hit or miss or do X turns equal Y minutes ?


Thanks

Seamus 

[Chris_Sav]

You have two possible adjustments; the ticker arm and the thrust bolt that sticks out the front of the rack that travels past the clock mech. and trips the bar latch.

You are governed by how long the clock will tick for and that is controlled by the weight on  the ticker arm. If the clock will not tick for long enough you adjust out the ticker weight and, if necessary, add some weight  to the ticker arm.

Once you know the clock will tick for a minute longer than your desired gane time you adjust the thrust bolt on the rack to trip the bar latch some time before you run out of tick.

You adjust that way around as if you move the thrust bolt back to lengthen the game first, you may run out of tick before the bar drops.

[seamus]

Thanks Sav.

I did manage to find an old post of yours where you had explained about adding blue tack to the ticker to someone else, apologies I hadn't seen it before.

I just wanted to check that the thrust bolt is the piece I have arrowed on the right, (I've got memories of fiddling with clockwork mechanisms as a kid and springs flying everywhere). It looks like this one has been sleeved so that may be minimising adjustment but I think I have some threaded rod in the shed if necessary.

Also is the large spring arrowed on the left just to provide pull tension on the handle ?, this one looks mangled so could be worth replacing at some point.

Thanks

Seamus

Attachments:

[Chris_Sav]

Looks like that clock has been through the wars!

Thrust bolt may be non original home made and does not look adjustable. Normally the vertical face of the travelling rack is threaded and a set screw (fully threaded bolt) with a lock nut provides the thrust. That won't be a problem if the current bar drops within desired tolerances by ticker arm weight adjustment (extra washers rather than blue-tac).

The spring on the pull handle bar is obviously nadgered. Only the finest music (piano) wire extension springs should be used. These provide more pull at the rest position and less excessive pull when extended. There may be a thread as I went into the science of spring replacement some years ago. The spring needs to be strong enough to hold the latch in place and take the weight of the bar, but not too strong so that pulling the handle becomes a tug of war!

[seamus]

Thanks Chris

I dig around and see if I can find the spring thread as I was just going to dig around in the shed as I thought one I had one from an old car that looked similar but I will try and get a piano spring.

The table was in an old chaps house who had had it a while in his smoking room (!), he was an old MP so he and his chips probably had time to sit around smoking. If you think the timer is bad the balls are worse, they are nicotine and aged stained to a murky yellow! I'm going to run the timer through an ultrasonic over the next few days to see how it comes up and see what difference it makes before I start fiddling with it.

I'll see if that travelling rack is still threaded to take a set screen as although the timer runs happily for twenty minutes the bar drops after about 8 minutes so I need to adjust it somehow.

Thanks again, I'll let you know how I get on

Seamus

[seamus]

Or sorry I've just realised what you mean, would slowing the ticker then slow the time to the bar dropping ?

I had assumed as long as the timer ran to approx twenty minutes (irrespective of bar drop) it was the thrust bolt that needed adjusting ?

[Chris_Sav]

Yes to both, Shortening the postion of the weight on the ticker arm will speed up the clock, lengthening the position wil slow the tick down.

However if the clock already ticks for twenty minutes then no need to alter the ticker arm  you need to shorten the thrust bolt so that the bar drops no less than a minute before you run out of ticking..

[seamus]

Thanks Chris

I finally put my glassss on and figured out how the timer worked.

A quick ultrasonic has got most of the crud off and the travelling bar set screw had been replaced by a length of rod with a small thread on the top. It looked to be about 15mm too long so after a couple of hacksaw adjustments it drops the bar after 15 mins and the timer will happily tick away to just over twenty.

I used your tip of brake cleaner on the rest of the mechanism and a few drops of oil and everything looks a lot better and runs smoothly.

What are everyone's views on oiling the pull bar and travelling rack top faces under the brass clamps ?

Seamus