Back working again after keeping perfect time for 90 years

This project was the restoration of a family heirloom. This Smith Sectric Bakelite mains electric clock had been in use during all my living memory. It must date to pre 1941 because that’s when the brand name was changed to Smith Electric.

So, after about 90 years constant use it finally stopped in September 2024!

After some investigation I found that the likely problem was that the insulating resin that covered the copper coil in the motor had corroded away. I carefully cleaned off what remained without damaging the coil and found some modern insulation varnish which had to be laboriously painted over the whole coil, covering all the metal.

Then it was just a case of reassembling and re-soldering the connections and testing it. Bingo! It worked first time and is back up on the wall keeping time on the next 90 years.

This was the problem. The ancient resin that insulated the electrical coil had broken up causing the motor to short.

Insulating Varnish is the modern equivalent of the resin that had broken away. The coil got a bit unravelled during removal of all the old material so it had to be carefully repositioned and ‘glued’ in place with lots of thin coats of the new varnish.

Once all of the copper coil was insulated it could be fitted back in place inside its metal case and re-soldered back onto the power connections.

My Dad was a radio and TV engineer and it was his old soldering iron, and 1970’s solder that I used to restore the connections!

With the connections restored and the insulation completed the motor was set back onto the spindle and screwed in position on the back of the stylish Bakelite case.

The final step was to screw the Bakelite cover back over the motor, reconnect the power and set the hands to the right time.