[HAM] Hammond oil/clock oil

[Doug Irvine]

To those who were interested: I have rebuilt a number of Hammond clocks, 
and currently have one I am working on. The oil for the enclosed 
synchronous motor, which runs these clocks,  Hammond oil, which as one 
of you mentioned is turbine oil, not whale oil. This oil was used in the 
clock motors, Hammond generators, and the "wet" reverb tanks in the old 
Hammond tone cabinets, HR, PR, cabinets. The oil was still being used 
until the dry spring reverb units came on the scene, which was about the 
same time that I became involved with selling Hammond organs, in 1957. I 
know that we still had HR 40 cabinets with wet reverb tanks at that 
time, however the dry reberb spring units slowly replaced them. These 
were made by Gibbs Manufacturing Company, which was a Hammond 
subsidiary. And the first ones of those were the necklace type, a proper 
pain in the butt as the slightest movement, or even heavy bass sound 
vibrations would make them rattle. They were fine in a home, sitting on 
a carpet. Sometimes! Hammond had a lot of these units and installed them 
in A-100 series consoles, until, thankfully, they finally ran out of 
them and were forced to use the enclosed tank type. Getting back to the 
Hammond clocks, any good oil, such as Singer sewing machine oil will 
work fine in the clock mechanism, however for re-filling the little 
motor, Hammond oil is best, or the Telespout All Purpose turbine oil 
which is available at hardware stores in the US and Home Hardware in 
Canada. This can be accomplished by finding the solder point on the side 
of the motor case, using a solder iron to remove the solder plug, 
ensuring the solder does NOT get in the case, re-filling the case with 
oil using a hypodermic needle, and re-sealing the case with new solder, 
once again ensuring that no solder gets into the case. This is a picky 
job, but it can be done, and if I can do it still at 80+ then any of you 
youngsters out there should be able to :-D !  My clocks are all from the 
late 20s, early 30s, and I have yet to not get one running. They will 
run forever as long as the power is not interrupted, and if it is, the 
clock must be re-started.Hope this helps, if you wish any more info, 
email me.  Cheers, Doug in BC