Let There Be Light - Sneak Preview

Monday night we all spent some time staring at some lighting for the clock.  We have some work to do, but it was fantastic to see it lit up again after many decades of no real back-lighting.

More to come soon...

Friday Matinee - Thank You Cabarrus County

A huge thank you to County Commissioner Steve Morris and David Baxter for putting together this video in their "Out and About - Cabarrus County" series of videos.  Hopefully it helps more people understand what and why we are doing this project.

If anyone has more questions about this project, please reach out to us at cabtimesavers@yahoo.com.

As always, another huge thank you to the other folks involved with Cabarrus Time Savers and to Phil Wright for the dedicated efforts to making this restoration happen!  You are all very much appreciated!

New Dials Installed

We are excited to announce that the new dials are installed in the courthouse!  Everything went off without a hitch and the weather couldn't have been any better for us!

Huge thanks go out to Phil Wright, of the Tower Clock Company for his help building these dials and coming down for the installation.  Also, equal thanks to Monty Eudy and Alex Porter for all their help and extra hands.

Once the A.S. Hotchkiss-Seth Thomas clock movement is restored and functional, these dials will show the correct time.  Until then, the hands will all be locked to the same time. In the coming weeks, we will be looking at some back-lighting for the dials so the lighting can be planned and installed.

We have a lot more fund-raising to do to make this clock functional and make these dials read the correct time.  If you would like to donate to this project, please see our contact information above and reach out to us.

THANK YOU!

Here are some pictures from our installation day...

(Pictures are property of Cabarrus Time Savers)

The Clock from a Different View

This past weekend we hired our friend, Tyler Nottingham, to do some drone video footage and still photos of the clock tower specifically focusing on the dials before they are removed.  The County was able to come out and supervise the flight.  The same will be done after the new dials are installed.  Stay tuned for that footage!  We're very excited to see how it all turns out.

Show of Hands...

One more update before the installation.

(pictures provided by Phil Wright of the Tower Clock Company)

Clock Update - Dials Are Complete

Here's a wonderful update for our community!  Phil Wright has completed the dials and are ready to be installed in the courthouse clock tower.  We are targeting May the 2nd for installation.  These are really going to look incredible overlooking Concord.

(Photo courtesy of Phil Wright, of the Tower Clock Company)

Numerals Are Here!

We officially have numerals back from water jet and are ready to send off for final coating and mounting to the new dials.  This puts us on schedule to install new dials in the courthouse late spring time.

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.

Tower Clocks Around North Carolina - PBS/UNC TV

Thank you to PBS and UNC TV for broadcasting a show that included the care-taking of some beautiful tower clock installations around North Carolina.  These examples are exactly why Cabarrus Time Savers exists.  Click the link below.

Enjoy!

Clocks, Ferry Rides, and Parades - UNC TV

Dial Construction Begins for the Courthouse

Phil Wright has started construction on our new dials for the Historic Cabarrus Courthouse project.  These will be correct in design for the Seth Thomas Company and era correct for pictures that were shown in the 1930's.  It was recorded that the lighter face colors (only pictures are in black and white) were done in the late 1800's for better visibility.  The new dials will be back-lit, as updated in the 1970's so the clock can be visible after dark.  Back-lit dials were available in 1876 when the courthouse was constructed, however wood dials were installed instead.  Ultimately visibility always proved to be an issue, especially only being 34-inches in diameter.

Stay-tuned for more updates!

Laying out the guide lines

Phil uses a mock-up hand (Seth Thomas style) to assist with the layout

Once the hand design was finalized and scaled correctly to the dial size, cutting the new hands could start

Each hand is detailed by hand to be correct in geometry

The stack of hands ready for primer

First layer of primer complete

The paint process will continue and further work to construct numerals will be next.  Cabarrus Time Savers will be assisting with the numeral construction.

Below is a similar style of dial assembly that is being used as a guide for this project.  Also a Seth Thomas installation.

More Removal Photos

Here's some more action photos from Monty Eudy and from my phone. 

Ready for disassembly

Time to get the glass dials out that are not original to the building.  They will be replaced with new translucent dials that will visually look era correct for an 1876 Seth Thomas installation.

Removing the hands and motion works from each dial face so they can be packed up.

With the dials out, there was a pretty decent cross-breeze to cool us down.

The courthouse looks a little different without the dials.

Time to start disassembly 

Bubble wrapping all the fragile parts.

With the legs off, we mounted the chassis bed to an old pair of water skis.  Phil gets full credit for this clever idea!  It worked great!

The first hurdle was the steep steps from the dial room down to the belfry platform.  They are as steep as they look.

Ropes and rigging helped us get all the parts down slowly snd safely. 

Finally, the fifth and final set of stairs down to the main levels of the courthouse.  From here it was down to the ground level floor and out to the trucks.

More updates to come!  With the parts of the clock out, we can finally start the restoration process.

Stay tuned!