TL;DR I nearly lose the battle with the mainspring, at 6:35 into the video.

Most mainspringunwinding videos are made by experienced clock repairers, so you rarely see all the things that could go wrong. Unlike those repairers, I'm a total novice: this is my first clock, and the first time I've tried to use this tool to unwind a spring. I'm lucky I didn't cut my fingers or ruin a mainspring.

I've cleaned all the parts of my nonrunning, $10, Montgomery Ward, 30day, Korean clock except the mainsprings. In this video I attempt to Let Down (completely unwind) the mainsprings using an inexpensive Loop End Mainspring Winder, so that I can clean the springs.

Things didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I found this type of winder requires that your mainspring wheel (gear) is securely fastened to its arbor (center shaft) which isn't the case in this inexpensive clock.

Through most of the video I'm unaware of the dangers I'm facing: that if I lose my grip on this powerful, 30day clock mainspring, it could fly open all at once, flinging sharp steel everywhere.

My plan now is to buy a much safer clock mainspring winder, such as the Ollie Baker style Spring Winder: https://timesavers.com/i8944167olli...