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How to Adjust Your Cuckoo Clock

A cuckoo clock is a popular novelty timepiece. A small mechanical cuckoo calls the hours. The time on the clock is regulated by the movement of a pendulum. The pendulum swings evenly back and forth. With each swing, the pendulum advances a wheel inside the clock. This wheel connects to other gears that, as they turn, operate all the parts of the cuckoo clock. If the pendulum does not swing evenly, the clock will not keep proper time. Adjust a cuckoo clock by adjusting the swing of the pendulum.

Instructions

- 1
  Observe the swing of the pendulum on your cuckoo clock. If its movement appears erratic, the clock must be "put in beat." Remove the pendulum from the clock by unhooking it from the wire to which it is attached. This wire is called the verge.
- 2
  Remove the clock weights by unhooking them from the chains. Take the cuckoo clock off the wall, and remove the back of the clock case.
- 3
  Grasp the middle of the verge, and bend it slightly to one side. Adjusting the verge adjusts the swing of the pendulum. Put the cuckoo clock back on the wall, and reattach the weights and the pendulum.
- 4
  Watch the swing of the pendulum. If its swings evenly, and makes a regular "tick-tock" sound, then the cuckoo clock has been adjusted properly. If not, remove the pendulum and weights, and try bending the verge again. Try bending the verge slightly further, or in another direction. Keep testing the clock, and bending the verge, until the cuckoo clock is in beat.
- 5
  Put the back of the clock case back onto the cuckoo clock. Attach the pendulum, and hang the weights. Set the pendulum in motion.

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