I bought two of these ARTIN 3500 models back in May to mess around with, primarily so I could give one to my brother as a gift. They caught my eye as they looked to be Copal 222 clones, and sure enough, they are!
However I soon found it would be no easy task to bring these back as they were not just clean and go copal motors. They were CLONE Copal motors, which I have yet to see. Sadly, the main drive gear from the rotor shaft on both of them was damaged, as there were plastic and not brass as found on most Copal setups.
The casing and the time set knob appear to the be Copal design with little change, so it would seem they cheapened out on the motor. To get it flipping again, I took a brass gear from my dead Copal LP-247, and with some luck I managed to press it on in-situ without having to drill the geartrain casing apart.
All in all, not a bad clock if you can get a new gear or repair the old one. And I still have the other one to fix, so I may try to get it running by repairing the original gear, if anyone has a suggestion besides two stage CA glue I'm all ears!
However I soon found it would be no easy task to bring these back as they were not just clean and go copal motors. They were CLONE Copal motors, which I have yet to see. Sadly, the main drive gear from the rotor shaft on both of them was damaged, as there were plastic and not brass as found on most Copal setups.
The casing and the time set knob appear to the be Copal design with little change, so it would seem they cheapened out on the motor. To get it flipping again, I took a brass gear from my dead Copal LP-247, and with some luck I managed to press it on in-situ without having to drill the geartrain casing apart.
All in all, not a bad clock if you can get a new gear or repair the old one. And I still have the other one to fix, so I may try to get it running by repairing the original gear, if anyone has a suggestion besides two stage CA glue I'm all ears!
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