Recently a customer brought a New Haven kitchen clock to me for C.O A. which it did need. It did not run longer than a few minutes. After a cleaning and oiling the adjusting began. The primary problem was inconsistent beats. I removed the escape wheel and "rounded" it on the lathe and then of course had to polish out the burrs left on the teeth which was completed but the beats were very erratic. The Timetrax electronic timer showed a wide variation and any amount of adjustment wouldn't correct the problem. It was determined that the existing escape wheel was not cut accurately with respect to even spacing between the teeth.
I then installed a new escape wheel and verge with crutch just purchased from a reputable supplier. It was out of round with respect to the center pinion. This one then had to be put in the lathe and rounded also along with polishing the teeth. The verge needed adjustment which was done.
Then the primary problem resurfaced: a wide and unexplained variation of beats but even more so than the original problem.
Well, it seems I may have found the culprit. The crutch was loose at the point of attachment to the verge. It is a brass rod of course set into the verge and peened but from the process of adjusting and re-tempering the crutch/verge joint became loose -just enough to allow an ever so slight movement at each beat.
After re-peening the crutch it seems to run properly but I'm not bragging until it runs consistently for a week or so.
I just wanted to share this frustrating saga to encourage you to carefully check each part with respect to proper function.
Any other stories with this kind of frustration out there?