Terrific job on two very interesting time-pieces, Sarge. I recall seeing the tail-swinging-cat clock on the wall of your kitchen a few years back; I always thought it was pretty neat. Definitely looked like a throwback to pre-WWII sentiments. I'm glad to hear it's been restored to operation.

I've been playing with a cuckoo clock for awhile, trying to get it back into operation. I've got it to a point where it will run for about 15-20 seconds before it stops. The chime works fine. An estate sale find from a couple years ago, I suspect it just needs a good cleaning/lubrication. When I got it, the weight for the clock mechanism was pulled all of the way to the top, and I recall my grandfather, a great fan of cuckoos, always telling me not to pull the weights up too high on his. It seems they sometimes bind on the mechanism if pulled to high. Whatever, that wasn't the problem here; my son and I hung it up over the Christmas holiday, put the weights on, and would bump the pendulum. The mechanism would work and the weight gradually descended, it just won't stay running. Whenever I can get a moment, maybe we can make the run over to Littutz and your man to have a look. I tend to be a bull-in-a-china-shop when it comes to these sorts of things, so I've not tried cracking it open.