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How do I remove Mechanical Clock Hands?

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Removing the Mechanical Clock Hands

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Removing Mechanical Clock Hands



Removing Mechanical Clock Hands is fast and easy to do. The following are hand removal instructions for German mechanical movements post WW2.

German Post WW2 wall, mantle and floor models



Removing mechanical clock hands for post WW2, mantle and floor clocks is quite simple. Turn the hand nut to the left while holding the minute hand with fingers. Use some small needle nose pliers to loosen the nut first. Once the nut is loose, you can turn it with fingers until it comes off. Then the minute hand will be able to wiggle straight off its square arbor and off of the clock. The hour hand is a friction fit, so just twist the hour hand back and forth and pull toward you until it comes off. If you have a second hand bit, that is only a friction also, so just grab it with fingernails, twist pull off.

American Antique time and strike



These type of movements come in two styles. If there is a minute hand nut, the first style is the same as above. Be very careful not to lose this hand nut. They are very hard to find and replace. The second style of mechanical clock hands will have a pin holding the minute hand on instead of a nut. This pin tapers, meaning it's fat on one side and skinny on the other. Just grab the fat side with needle nose pliers and yank the pin out. The minute hand will fall out with a washer. Save the washer and the tapered pin for ease of reinstalling the hands. If these items happen to get lost, Clockworks offers washers and taper pins for purchase, as well as replacement mechanical clock hands.

The content of this website is copyright by Clockworks and written by James Stoudenmire in year 2020

Last Updated: 2 months ago in

Updated on: 05/08/2022

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