How To Adjust Chime Hammers On Your Mechanical Clock

Whenever you purchase a new mechanical clock, the hammers inside will come misaligned to some degree. This means that once it begins to chime, it could sound very odd. If the hammers are misaligned seriously enough, you may not hear the chime at all.

In this video, we will walk you through the process of aligning your clock’s hammers to get the best chime possible. This should only need to be done with new clocks, or clocks that have had the movement recently taken out for repair. Aligning hammers is not a general maintenance process. 

Our goal here is to get the hammers centered on, and floating slightly off, their respective chime rods. We don’t want them touching the rods because that will prevent the rod from resonating, which chokes out the crisp strike we’re looking for. We also don’t want the hammers hovering too far off the chime rods. That would prevent them from hitting the rods at all.

Bend the hammer wire in whichever direction you need to get it aligned with the appropriate chime rod. Do NOT push the hammer itself toward the chime rods. Bend only the hammer wire. This is the same process for the strike hammer. Bend the wire, don’t move the hammer itself. It’s very important that you don’t loosen the collar on the strike hammer assembly either.

Continue to make minor adjustments, periodically allowing the hammers to hit the rods to test the sound. Once you get a firm strike that leaves the hammer floating slightly away from the rods, you have succeeded. You can advance the hands to trigger a full chime.

You won’t have to do this again unless the movement is removed for repair, or you buy a new one. Once you have the hammers aligned, they will stay aligned for as long as your clock is running normally!