Copal gear tilted on Poppy DR-236

[Rolling]

Hi guys,

i've been passively reading topics on this forum for quite a while but i guess now is the right time to join the flip clock fans community!

At the moment i'm trying to repair a Copal motor in an Poppy DR-236 alarm clock/radio combination



The motor is running fine and most of the gears are turning well. So the clock runs fine for a couple of minutes but then gets stuck and the flaps won't move anymore. After closer inspection it seems, that the last gear get's a little bit tilted and blocks the mechanism (left picture is in OK stat, right picture after couple of minutes with tilted gear).



It seems the last gear gets stuck because it's not perfectly centered on the axle and has a little bit room for movement. Maybe it's also tilting, because of the second last gear isn't perfactly round. I can't quite make that out.

Do you have any ideas on how to approach something like this?

[Johan de Jong]

If the gear has movement on the axle then it might be that the gear has cracked and you can fix it like shown in this post: https://www.flipclockfans.com/forum/...al-gear-repair

But if it is the axle itself that tilts (and it looks to me that that is the case) then you have a different problem. I think the axle should be supported on both sides (not sure, in some motors it is only on one side) but that it has shifted and comes free from the plate on the left. If that is the case you may be able to prevent that by shifting the gear a little further to the right on the axle.

[Rolling]

Hi Johan,

sorry for my late response. The last coulpe days were quite hectic but i finally found some time, to try to fix the Poppy flip clock.

You were absolutely right! The axle was the problem. It was very loose because it seems that after all these years it wasn't supported on the left side anymore. I feel quite stupid for not figuring this out!

The solution was to move the axle a little bit to the left and then move the gear further to the right to make good contact with the second last gear:






Anyway - thanks's for your quick response and professional advice. I can't tell you how happy i am that the clock is up and running again!

[Johan de Jong]

Nice illustration of the problem and the fix.
Good to see you got it working again!