[HAM] Hammond oil/clock oil

[rob roth]

Thanks for the tip on the solder plug! How much oil should I add? Fill 'er 
up or what. Thanks!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Irvine" <dougandmarie at shaw.ca>
To: <hammond at zeni.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: [HAM] Hammond oil/clock oil


> 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
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