More Progress from the Tower Clock Company

Phil Wright and the folks at the Tower Clock Company continue to work on our courthouse clock parts.  In addition to building us new dials and faces, they are also restoring the gear assemblies called "motion works" that give the minute and hour hands the proper ratios from the clock's movement to tell time as we see it on the outside of the building.  In addition, they also restored the wood "lead-off rods" that turn each of the motion works assemblies.

Here's what they looked like before removal

Here's some pictures showing the progress on the motion works components and freshly restored wood lead-off rods.  All the original parts are in very good condition.

Next the proper paint will be selected for top coating on the steel parts and Phil will machine a few small brass parts to allow proper mounting to the new dials.  

Stay tuned for more updates soon!

Thanks for reading!

We Need Your Help - Please Donate

We have had several people approach us about how they can help or how they can donate to help fund the parts and pieces required to make the Historic Cabarrus County Courthouse clock work again.  If you would like to donate, please send a check or money order to:

Cabarrus Time Savers
P.O. Box 1094
Concord, NC 28026

Please make payable to "Cabarrus Time Savers" and please provide your name, company name, and contact information so you can receive recognition for your contributions.  Cabarrus Time Savers is a 501c3 non-profit organization.

We are working on a way to donate online via PayPal.  We should have that available soon!  In the meantime, anything donated would be greatly appreciated.  All funds go directly to the restoration of the clock, including parts, materials, paint, and hired labor for processes we can't do ourselves.  We strive to do as much ourselves as possible, but some tasks just have to be outsourced.

If you would like to donate in person, please contact us directly at cabtimesavers@yahoo.com.

We are still collecting for Phase I of our restoration.  Phase II and III calculations are currently underway as the renovation gets deeper.  We expect these costs for the last two phases to be in excess of $35,000.  We will update our needs as we learn more.

Here are our current goals:

Thank you to everyone that has donated to this restoration and everyone that has even shown interest in this project.

Cabarrus Time Savers

A.S. Hotchkiss Restoration Progress

It has been slow going on the clock movement restoration.  Layers upon layers of dirt, debris, bird and bat unmentionables, and unfortunately a "newer" paint job that needs to be removed.  The effort to really start removing paint has begun.  Virtually no original paint has been found on any of the wheels or moving parts.  It seems anything that could be unbolted was removed, stripped, and repainted.  The chassis itself has the only original paint, so far.  It appears that it was sanded to prep for the "newer" black paint job, thus destroying a lot of the original hand painted art work, as well.  A bit remains, but all is in bad repair.

Here's what I have uncovered so far...

Here's a reminder of what the catalog advertised

Here's a few pictures of some of the arbor, wheel and pinion restoration.  Still a long way to go to get all of these looking correct.