“Careful with that oil Eugene.”

[Harmonk]

Just a timely reminder why you do not try and oil synchronous motors (see pic).
I think that the previous[FONT=Calibri] owner tipped the Russian oil reserves into this one which of course just sprays out of the motor onto the flips and sticks them nicely together [FONT=Segoe UI Emoji]

[flipoclock]

Yeah, I actually come across this quite often when buying clocks, that are 'seemingly' unrestored... It's a whole lotta work and when you're unlucky, you did not get everything and when you let it run, after a week, the tiles are soaking again. You should actually take the whole mechanism apart and clean it, but yeah, that's quite some work as well (in some cases).

[Jumblejeff]

I have bought 2 or 3 clocks that had something like that picture on the tiles. When that oil dries for a loooong time it’s really hard to remove.

[flipoclock]

Oh yeah, when it is still wet, it is relatively easy, but indeed when it has semi-dried or dried, it is almost impossible to fully remove...

[Johan de Jong]

OMG! I have seen some like this as well but not his bad. Some people have no idea what they are doing and just try to solve every issue with a generous dose of WD40.

Often I have spent a lot of time in cleaning each tile with water and soap and a soft cloth. And one time where I could easily separate the mechanism from the electrics I submerged the whole mechanism in water and soap to see if it speeds up the cleaning. I am even considering to buy an ultrasonic cleaner for this purpose Not sure though if that will not also remove the numbers...

[eathan21th]

I also met this kind of problem before. I would take the whole mechanism apart and put the flips part into the warm water with some dishwashing detergent to clean the oil. After that, I would try to let the flips part as dry as possbile by using tissue or dishcloth before assemble it again.

I tried this method on serveral flipclocks, and the results were good.