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Jewel Cap Springs


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Hi

I'm working on a small lady's watch that has some jewel cap springs I've not seen before in my whole 18 months of watchmaking. 

Anyway, one is shaped like a 4 leafed clover and the other has a lyre shape. I think the clover shaped one is like a Novodiac spring and the lyre shaped on is hinged - sort of like an Incablock spring.

Any suggestions are welcome.

It was my mother's Bulova and it's NEVER been cleaned. Just getting the hair out of it made it go...

Dave

PS - I'd post a photo but, sadly, I don't know how.

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1 hour ago, Folkvisor said:

Hi

I'm working on a small lady's watch that has some jewel cap springs I've not seen before in my whole 18 months of watchmaking. 

Anyway, one is shaped like a 4 leafed clover and the other has a lyre shape. I think the clover shaped one is like a Novodiac spring and the lyre shaped on is hinged - sort of like an Incablock spring.

Any suggestions are welcome.

It was my mother's Bulova and it's NEVER been cleaned. Just getting the hair out of it made it go...

Dave

PS - I'd post a photo but, sadly, I don't know how.

What's the caliber?

J

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@rogart63 is correct. DO NOT try doing without the tool. YOu might be able to get it off by nudging with tweezers, but you'll never get it on afterward and 99.99% chance it will fly into the Nth dimension. You can use these little tools:

DSCN5186.thumb.JPG.df667ccddfb8274a3b538db98615379a.JPG

I also probably have spare parts for that movement...have to look.

J

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8 hours ago, clockboy said:

They are KIf size 2-2. I recommend you use a Kif shock tool or make one out of peg wood. I have removed with tweezers & peg wood but they can be real tricky without the correct tool. I have added a Bulova pdf showing the shock springs required.

KIF_Bulova.pdf

 

Just now, matabog said:

Just use two tweezers and rotate. Careful not to push too hard and brake it.

Thank you both for the information. I'm thinking I'll just leave the KIF DUOFIX spring alone for now.

Just as an aside, My grandfather was from Biled. At the time it was part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

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It is possible to remove and fit these Kif springs with a piece of peg wood and a pair of number 5 tweezers but they are very fiddly and as already said you will probably ping a few into space before you succeed, you used to be able to buy the springs in tubes of 10 and they weren't much money if you did want to try, they are like a bayonet fitting.

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    • Yeah, I saw that in the tech sheet but I don't see how it can be adequately cleaned with the friction pinion still in place. I've accidentally pulled the arbor right out of the wheel once when I used a presto tool to try and remove it. Mark shows how he does it with the Platax tool. Those are a little too pricey for me so I got one of these from Aliexpress and I just push down on the arbor with the end of my brass tweezers. That usually gets it most of the way out and then I just grab the wheel with one hand the and the friction pinion with the other and gently rotate them until it pops off. Probably not the best way but it's seemed to work for me so far.    
    • Thanks, Jon Sounds like a plan. Obviously I'll have the face on so do you think gripping with the holder will create any problems, but I will check in the morning to see how feasible it is but I assume it only needs to be lightly held. As for holding the movement instead of the holder won't be possible in this scenario as one hand will be puling on the stem while the other pushes the spring down. That was my initial concern is how the hell can I do this with only one pair of hands. All the other times I've had to remove the stem hasn't been a problem, apart from the force required to release the stem from the setting lever, but now I need to fit the face and hands its sent me into panic mode. If it had the screw type release things would be a lot simpler but that's life 😀   Another thing I will need to consider is once the dial and hands are fitted and the movement is sitting in the case I will need to turn it over to put the case screws in. I saw a vid on Wristwatch revival where he lightly fitted the crystal and bezel so he could turn it over, is this the only option or is there another method?      
    • Hi Jon, do You think that relation spring torque - amplitude is linear? I would rather guess that the amplitude should be proportional to the square of the torque. I had once idea to check it, but still haven't.
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