Tinkering with time
Nebraska man repairs antique clocks from around the world
MITCHELL, Neb. — A fondness for an antique clock collection would eventually lead David LaBounty to becoming one of the world’s foremost experts on clock making.
LaBounty was dating his first wife when he first took notice of antique clocks.
“We met up at my grandparent’s house, and they had a lot of antique clocks,” he said. “When we got married, we wanted to reproduce that feeling that antique clocks kind of give. That ambiance.”
To try to reproduce that feeling, LaBounty purchased some antique clocks.
“They didn’t work. We were living in Kansas City at the time. We sought out someone who could fix them. I met up with a certified master clockmaker. Eventually, I went to work for him,” he said.
LaBounty has since become a certified master clockmaker himself and has his own shop, About Time, in Mitchell. A lot of people don’t understand exactly what it is that a clockmaker does, LaBounty told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald.
“I have had people say, ‘Oh, my dad’s a clockmaker. He built a case.’ OK, that’s a cabinet maker. I’m a clockmaker, and I use that ability then to restore antique clocks,” he said.
LaBounty said he sees all types of clocks come into his shop in Mitchell.
“I work on everything,” he said. “I see a lot of quartz stuff. A lot of cuckoos. I don’t see a lot of things from the 1700s like you would in a big city. All of that stuff gets sent to me. I’ve got six or seven from the 1700s that I’m working on right now.”
LaBounty said he gets some work locally, but a lot comes from online.
“I am part of something called the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, and they have a message board. People ask you questions. I’ll get on there, and I’ll answer the questions. Pretty soon, people realize you know what you’re talking about, because I’m answering the questions that nobody else can answer,” he said.
LaBounty is one of only a handful of certified master clockmakers in the U.S. and the only one who also is an accredited Fellow of the British Horological Institute.
To fix an antique clock, it takes some knowledge and research to figure out what is needed to repair it, LaBounty said.
“I have a research library, but you have to know what it is you’re looking for. Then, of course, you have to have the book that kind of shows it. For like a 1700s piece, you’re never going to find an exact representation. You’ll find stuff that is kind of close. I just received one that’s missing a gear,” he said.
For another repair, he has a gear missing teeth that he has to reproduce.
“This isn’t the most complicated repair. It has 52 teeth. They have to be the right shape and the right tooth form.”
To make that part is much easier now than in the past. He uses a lathe along with several different tools to make the gear.
“They didn’t have an electric lathe. Yeah. A lot of that stuff was hand done. It’s hand filed. To get it to look hand filed, I have to hand file it,” he said.
Not all repairs in antique clocks are easy.
“Some of the most difficult things to make are levers, especially if it’s missing, like on a clock from the 1700s. It comes in and there’s parts missing. You have to determine what was supposed to be there, how it’s supposed to function and what it’s supposed to do,” he said.
Clockmaking is becoming a lost art, something LaBounty said he and other certified master clockmakers are trying to combat.
“We’re dying out. There are maybe only six certified masters. So, as a group, certified masters are going to get together and try to get the certification process going again at the certified master level. We’re going to try and get some interest in younger people,” he said.
LaBounty said the certification process is important as is finding younger people to carry on the profession.
“Most of the people that get into this profession do it as a hobby. They’ve been doing it as a hobby most of their life. Now they’re reaching retirement age, and they think, ‘Oh, I’ll just hang out a shingle and I’ll fix clocks.’ Well, they’ve been doing it as a hobby, not as a profession. They don’t really know that, for example, Phillips head screws don’t belong in a clock from the 1700s or 1800s,” he said.
LaBounty had offered online classes on clockmaking in the past.
“Our server went down. When we moved it over to a new server, links got broken. The person who built it for us had since gone on and done other things, so we couldn’t get it back. But, I recorded the videos. Now, I sell training videos. I’ve got 30, almost 40 different DVDs that I sell on how to make a screw, how to service a certain part of the clock, just setting up the strike levers for a clock. There’s a lot involved in that. They are onehour to two-hour videos,” he said.
LaBounty serves on the education committee for the American Watch and Clock Institute and is trying to pass on his knowledge and experience in other ways.
“We are trying to devise ways to get this information out there, whether it’s through webinars or through textbooks or there’s actually a mobile classroom. I think it’s down in Las Vegas right now. Archie Perkins, a very famous watchmaker, was a certified master watchmaker and a Fellow of the BHI, so similar to what I am only for watches. When he passed away, his family gave an endowment to AWSCI, which was enough to purchase one of these huge motor home buses, and they put classrooms, watch benches in their classrooms, so it can go around and teach people what we do.”
To inquire about repairs or learn about clockmaking, you can call About Time at 866641-7051. You can also visit his website at abouttime-clockmaking.com .