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Bent flaps... :-(

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    Bent flaps... :-(

    I have purchased a 'job lot' of flip clocks including one 'Vedette' (French). It was supposed to be working 100%, but unfortunately it is not...

    Atleast two, maybe three hour flaps have been bent quite severely (perhaps by the sunlight?). They are bent in such a way that the flap gets stuck and only changes @ 20 to 30 past the hour.

    I am trying to think of a way to straighten them. Unfortunately they were made by Vedette themselves and do not seem to fit any of my spares-clocks, otherwise it would be an easy swap.

    Perhaps heating it up ever so slightly in the oven and then immediately press it back to shape and put some dead weight on it? Simply bending it does not work and I am not even going to seriously attempt because I am sure they would break :-(

    Has anyone had this issue before?

    #2
    I was thinking of the Heat idea myself of getting them back to shape. This would be super tricky and would be kinda tuff . I heated up a radio tuner a few times to get it straight on a Panasonic , you just have to be careful.

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      #3
      Yup, it worked!

      First I started @ 50 degrees celcius, for just 10 minutes. I used a flat plate, on top of that a smal, very hard round very flat plastic object. On the plastic object I put the flap, on top of that a heavier, slightly bigger ceramic bowl with an almost flat bottom. After 10 minutes it looked ok, but not quite, I gave it 10 more at 75 degrees celsius.

      The next one I did for 15 minutes at 75 degrees celcius and the third and last one, again at 15 minutes at 75 degrees celcius.

      The result is not 100% perfect, but damn close to it!! I did not expect this... If you feel the flaps with your fingers, you sense that they are not 100% straight, but inside the clock, you do not notice it and they to not touch each other anymore...

      Wow, I am very pleased with the result and of course with myself :-) Will post a pic of the clock as soon as it is entirely finished!

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        #4
        Great Job man ! I'm glad it worked out for you !! It worked for one of my Panasonics. Great Job!
        Cheers,
        Shane

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          #5
          Attached 2 photos of the repaired clock! It looks great, it's just (unfortunately) not keeping 100% time. It might be the battery, will change that for a new one.

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            #6
            flipoclock Digging this thread up, having recently acquired a copal 801 with a similar warped tile issue, I will give your temps a try as a excellent starting point! My initial concern was damaging the numbering, either by the heating or attempting to weight the flaps down.

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              #7
              Nice fix, thanks for sharing! I think different clocks may have used different materials, so with a different clock I would start again at a low temperature.
              Nice clock also, btw. Is that wooden board an original part of the clock, or a later mod?

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                #8
                The clock in the pictures is 100% original and still in my posession by the way, after I repaired the flaps, the clockwork started acting up and I have not found the time to look into it. It has a quirky, very different clockwork, not known to me.

                Best start too low indeed and work your way up from there.

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                  #9
                  Sounds good, I will share how it goes, I have some smaller flaps from a parts clock with warping that I will test out first. flipoclock do you feel the acting up on your clock is due to the warped tiles just not fitting perfectly? On the one I'm looking at, it's like focused sunlight hit the minutes flaps for a period of time and warped a handful to varying degrees, with one falling out.

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                    #10
                    Nah, I suspect my clock has a mechanical issue with the clockwork itself. After the bent flaps were straightened again, it worked flawlessly if only for the fact that it was not keeping time 100%. I tried adjusting it with the adjustment screw on the side but that did not work well either. I put it aside only to find it back now after having moved houses and now it will not start at all and I have not found the time to look into it, but the flaps are perfect now and I cannot imagine that the flaps, having been bent, would have something to do with it.

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