On the San Juan elk hunt a few months ago, I had purchased a wall clock, much like the one in this picture.  I had it hanging near where I sleep in the camp trailer, but after just a few minutes of laying there with that clock only about a foot away from my head, the ticking got to be WAY too much for me to handle.  If I was going to get any sleep that night that clock had to go away.

Well, had I known then what I know now, I would still have that clock.  It is now in the possession of Wapiti…that is, if he still has it.  He may have chucked it by now…it was a loud sucker!

Well, still desiring to have a clock near my bed in the camp trailer, I have been going into the local Deseret Industries store looking for just the right one…last week I found one that would do just fine.  I bought it for a dollar and brought it home.  It’s way too fancy as it is for the trailer, but what I bought was the workings, not the fancy smancy stand up clock that it is.

I have had it sitting on my desk near to where I am typing right now and for the last week I have been listening to it “click, click, click, click” away.  Now you and I both know that if I can hear that thing clicking during the day while I’m messing with this computer, just what would it sound like high up in the quiet mountains during a hunt, when the world is so silent you can almost hear the footsteps of a mouse crossing a dusty road?

CLACKKK! CLACKKK! CLACKKK!  CLACKKK!

NO way would a guy be able to sleep with that noise going on.

So, I got to thinking, what can I do to that silly clock to make it quieter?  Ah Ha!  The all knowing “Web”!

I searched for “quieting a noisy clock” and of course there were several people wondering the same thing…imagine that.  And most of them got the same smart alick remark to “remove the battery”!  But, there were two sites on there that told me exactly what I needed to know.  One was a written explanation as to what was needed and the second was a LOONNGGG almost 11 minute video of how to do it.

Well, I read the explanation and then took the 11 minutes to boringly watch the video.  It was worth watching even though the guy explained the same things about 50 times and took much longer than he should have using a screwdriver to open up the works of the clock.

So, what I found was that if you pop off the plastic cover from the back of the works and “carefully” remove the little plastic gears, down to where there are no more gears in the case.  You can then put tiny bits of gun oil or some light lubricant oil in the small holes where the gear hinges go, the gear faces themselves etc.  And then reassemble the thing to what it was.  It takes all that clicking sound and makes it just plain “go away”!

My clock is now so quiet, I had Sherry listen to it this morning.  I held it to her ear and said “Listen to the clicking”.  Her response “There isn’t any”!  And that is exactly right…there isn’t any sound at all coming out of this clock, and before you say I have yet to put the battery back into it, I have and it is keeping perfect time as well!

Before you go and dive into your vintage hand-me-down clock to try and make it quiet, I have to tell you, as far as I know, this only works for those little plastic kind that takes a small battery to operate.

Bears Butt

December 24, 2013

EDIT:

December 25, 2013

The kids all came over to the house and we exchanged gifts, but one of the gifts was from an unknown source….AND, the package was marked to “bearsbutt.com”

When I opened it up what to my surprise!  THE LA, NOISY CLOCK from the elk hunt!

The first thought that went through my head was that it had been returned so that I could make it quiet!  I took it out of the package and told a short story about the noise and then handed it to Hot Spark to listen to how loud it was…she put it to her ear and said, “I don’t hear anything”!  She handed it back and I put it to my ear and could hear nothing!  FIXED!

Thank you to whoever returned the noisy clock and was able to fix it!  The next time you see it it will be installed in the hunting trailer!

THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

Bears Butt

December 25, 2013