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In order to start learning my Jacot tool and select the right size bed, I wished for a Seitz jeweled pivot gauge. Sadly, the prices asked for these gauges are astronomical. Currently on eBay from €350 and way upwards to over €500 !! Wild West prices In my Seitz jewel-box I had a "complete" range of jewels 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 & 19 in the OD size of 110 and 20,22,24,26,28, 30 & 32 in the OD size of 120. Marked 27x spots (1x1cm distance) on 10cmx10cm, 1mm thick copper-sheet and drilled them out with a 1mm drill. The holes for the jewel sizes 8-19 were reamed to 109 and the other holes reamed to 119. Cut the "to be jewel-gauge" at the size of 10x4cm, polished it and inserted the jewels; Left the holes open for the "missing" jewels; 21, 23, 25, 27, 29 & 31 and there are two more slots empty for 33 & 34; Whether I'll ever need these bigger sizes? They weren't in the Seitz jewel-box, perhaps for a reason? If I ever stumble over these sizes, I can insert them, the holes are already there. Those "missing" bigger sizes are also easy & safely to measure with a micrometer or gauge-caliper. For now, I have a jeweled pivot-gauge with a full range from 8/100 to 20/100 and from 22/100 to 32/100 in steps of 2/100, I think enough for making a start on my Jacot-tool Next, to finish this project off, is to find some small metal-stamps to number the jewel sizes.......

Here is my watch of today, It was a non-runner and I started about 7:30 am this morning and just finished around 4:00 pm my time. New crystal and strap, and re-lumed the hands, quite proud of this one a definite keeper! Before Front: And the movement, all in reasonable condition but LOTS of arm cheese on the case and sticky oils/grease inside: And the finished result (complete with fingerprints):

My wife took these pictures today. Not sure if there is a message that I am supposed to get The first bench is the one from my Dad. The second is the one I bought from Maine. The third I bought from someone in Wyoming. The last watch bench came from Dallas. The other bench is just a converted office desk. The last picture captures a portion of the room. This was not staged...and I am a little embarrassed about how it looks. That's me and Cromwell.

1970 Bulova Clipper 'BD'. Love that red dial.

This is my Vostok 2414 from the late 1980s. It was my first ever full (and successful) service. Photos in reverse chronological order. The final product. I like how the dial colour has cracked in different levels of intensity as the shade of the paint changes. Full wind. Couldn't be happier. I'm a bit of an OCD person... note: lift angle is correctly set to 42°. Not sure if this is visible at all . But maybe you can see the small black area between the pallet (exit) stone and escape wheel tooth. That's lubricant (9415). Took me a while to get close to the recommended 60-70% of contact area (maybe I went slightly above..). And it took me the same amount of time to film it with my basic phone+loupe+slowmo technique. Oh boy, it took quite a number of attempts to get that drop of oil done well (being a first-timer). But I probably spent even more time with that bloody shock spring!!! Including 2-3 hours of searching on the floor... When I received it, the watch wouldn't wind. Upon opening the barrel and removing the mainspring, I found that the bridle had broken off... I followed a cool trick I saw somewhere (can't find the source anymore) and used a lighter to heat the spring and then bend it backwards to create a bridle. To my astonishment, it works perfectly and I get the full power reserve. Just some pics of the movement.

Good day everyone, I just completed a watch for my wife's uncle as a gift, its a Seiko 6309 which was in pretty poor condition and a non runner for obvious reasons. I had to replace the crystal and the ratchet wheel which was completely corroded (see pictures below) I also had to replace a screw and the cannon pinion. A quick lume on the hands and polish the case and it was good to go. Let me know what you think: Before Front: Before Movement: Corrosion damage to ratchet wheel and screw(s) Here is the finished watch along with the time graph after 24 hours:

Another 404 watch bought in a lot of 20 (see below) so a cost of £2.85 each, Its a SIRO Cal. 296. This one fought me all the way, I needed to make a shim to lift the train of wheels bridge to allow the second wheel to rotate freely. The watch had no jewels in the main plate and bridges, so this is the only way I knew how to do it, ie on a jewelled watch I could re-position jewels, but this one just had holes in the main plate (anyone know a better way for next time??) Also the watch came with the wrong winder which I only realised after hours of trying to make the setting lever work, then another 2 hours searching through my collection of spare stems before I found one that would work. Finally I had to remove the damaged loom from the hands and re-lume them - I was left with a spot/clump of lume on the hour hand, but decided to leave it as it looked quirky and I kind of liked it ... and I was too lazy to do it again New crystal and strap (changed to a black one) and polished the case with Flitz (amazing stuff!). So here are the before and after shots: Before front: Before back: Movement: And here is the finished watch: Not bad for £2.85!

Here is the finished item

I was behind the bar at my brewery and got on the subject of watches with one of my customers. He asked if I could fix a watch his grandfather gave him. As an amateur I really don't want to handle other people's family heirlooms, but I told him I'd take a look and make the call. It's a BMW chronograph that his grandfather bought because it was #77 of 500, and he's very superstitious. No crystal, no hands, absolutely filthy. Okay, fine, I'll take a look. I looked up the original and was able to get close-enough hands from Esslinger, as well as a mineral glass crystal. After cleaning the case and bracelet, fitting a new crystal, I installed the hands. That's when I found out the stem for the seconds hand was snapped off inside the movement. What the heck happened to this poor thing? Luckily I found the Mitoya 6S10 movement on eBay for $30 shipped. Swapped the faces and hands, and et viola. Before: After: The crystal is so...crystal clear, you can't even see it in the photo. Check out the video here to see it...or at least my fingerprints on it.

Seamaster 145.029 cal. 861, 1970

My mentor just seals the part with a slip of paper with the description in a plastic bag. He has a sealer that seals and cuts at the same time. Then puts the little bag in small plastic boxes. Everything is labelled and organized. While me, I keep turning the house upside down looking for things that I know I have, and end up finding things that I don't remember having. Then I get distracted and forget what I was looking for. Anyone else like me, raise your hand.

I've not worn this Ingersoll for a while, so I decide it was time it got a day in the sunshine. This is what it looked like when it arrived back in Nov 2020.

This is a Longines Cal 280 which I started a while ago which was a non-runner and turned into a bit of a marathon when I ran into issues with the mainspring, I took the barrel and mainspring apart to clean as normal, but couldn't get it back together, which is when I realised that unlike many watches the sealed unit warning on the barrel rely means sealed unit. After a false start with a bad spare part choice I ended up having to get a whole new movement.... but as it turns out this was a good (lucky) call as I also needed to replace the escape wheel (broken pivot) and to replace the cannon pinion. Dial was in great shape and the hands just needed the lume replacing. Before and after shots below Before Front: Before movement: Finished watch:

I found a suitable new old stock band in my stash for the Amida 500 based 15 jewel, I serviced the other day, so its getting a little bit of wrist time. I also gave the hands a polish as they were looking very dull.

I have a Ø1.50mm Bergeon arbor holder and I absolutely love it. The 1.5mm size seems to be a decent fit for most normally-sized movements, but would probably be too large for a lady's movement and too small for a large pocket watch. I asked Alex at the Watch Repair Tutorials YT channel what size he would recommend and he replied: "The size I use almost at the time is the 150.", so that's why I decided to get the same size. Here's the video where he's using it and you'll find Alexs' reply if you look for it in the comments section. The arbor holder is much easier to clamp onto and release from the arbor (look at the picture). Also, it dramatically improves seeing what you're actually doing while removing and fitting the arbor from and into the inner coil of the mainspring. The head of the pin vice is most of the time so large it covers the entire arbor - and more - making it quite difficult to see what's going on. Absolutely not! It's just a whole lot less convenient in my opinion. None that I'm aware of I'm afraid, but we have some experts on Chinese watch tools on the forum so hopefully they can shim in!?

Well, I've done it. Purchased a very dead Seiko 6309. Obtained two, also dead, donors. All looked horrendous on purchase. dirty, screws missing, only one very dirty case. Disassembles all. Checked every item for condition. Picked best. Assembled, oiled. Everything checked on install before moving on to the next part. Biggest problem was balance. All had motion after a while, but none kept motion. 3rd one worked. Demagnetised, Timegraphed, took an hour (+3s, Amplitude 168 - can't get it better, beat error 0.3). Used case from original purchase. Strap from 7009. It works, been wearing it for 3 days now. I know it's not much, a low end watch. But I did it. I've done other automatics, but none have actually maintained their beat without having to be wound manually. So, I'm here...ish. Going away in a few days for my 75th birthday. Back to the enjoyable hobby on return. Regards and thank you to you all.

I found this info for you. It is a swiss movement. The term Ancre Ligne Droite had a specific meaning. The Swiss styel lever was emerging as a standard form in the 1860-1880 time frame. It mean that the three pivots, escape wheel pallet lever and balance were in a straight line. The English style had the three pivots in a triangular lay out.

Not a watch, but a screw-head polishing tool. Offered on eBay as an auction, but the seemingly incomplete Lorch & Schmidt polishing set with a below mid-starting price got no bids, apart from my one in the last 5 seconds. However, only when enlarging the other sellers pictures, it seemed as if there were more collets hiding underneath the polishing disks and the polishing tool. This turned out to be the case. After quite some TLC of the parts and the wooden box, the set turned out to be like this; Less than 1/2 price than what these (be it fully complete) set are currently going for on eBay Three parts, for polishing screw-thread-ends, are missing ...... I can easily live with that

Reconditioned case and movement coupled with NOS dial and new strap. Amplitude could be higher but good enough for now.

Well, "Speak of the Devil and he shall appear". As I mentioned (somewhere) I've been on the lookout for a Steiner Jacot tool in good condition having a runner for centre wheels. Well, the wait is over. This "Zapfenrollierstuhl STEINER hochglanz vernickelt Bestzustand" (Jacot Tool STEINER high-gloss nickel-plated excellent condition) popped up on German eBay (not found if you just search for "Jacot tool"), and I was, to my great surprise, the only bidder and got it for £165/€190/$204 Usually, in this condition, they go for around $500, and there are "buy now listings" for $600-$700 and sometimes more.

My dresser drawer auction keeps supplying winners. This beauty is a Racine with a Gallet signed movement in a François Borgel stainless steel case.

Let me add the fact that the claws of a pin vice are more „aggressive“ compared to that of an arbor holder. That‘s important when dealing with polished pivots.

One of the more "interesting" properties of some older clear plastic objects (and this includes old film stock, and some old watch crystals) is that they are made from nitrocellulose. Of course this makes them interesting in a similar way to the way that radium dials are interesting. They have a certain level of mild peril associated with them. Nitrocellulose is the main component of old fashioned "gun cotton" explosive. Nitrocellulose film stock for this reason is notorious for spontaneous combustion, and furthermore for being almost impossible to extinguish, since it contains its own oxidizer. The reason more recent types of film stock are called 'safety film' is because they don't have this rather inconvenient property. With this in mind, and if you are up for a small and mildly hazardous experiment, you might want to replace the yellowed crystal with a modern alternative, and then try burning the old one. If it burns rapidly and rather alarmingly, then it is made from nitrocellulose. If it melts and burns rather poorly, then it is a more modern acetate based crystal. The usual caveats apply, you obviously do this entirely at your own risk. Don't forget to film the results. Burning down your entire neighbourhood may well net you a viral video. You can thank me afterwards.

Here is the start of the ST 96 manufacturing process.

I'm trying to learn the polishing of screw-heads, bluing of screws and bluing of hands. Stumbled over this 48mm brand-less, key-wound, silver cased, Swiss anchor, Breguet hairspring, porcelain dial pocket-watch which seems to me a nice candidate for the time-consuming operation. The allegedly running movement doesn't seem to be tinkered to death and judging the winding-keyhole, not used "forever". The hands are nicely delicate for bluing, so what possibly can go wrong? And it has, for a change, a doggy on the case-back If anybody recognizes the movement (with such a long regulator-pin) or can put a date on the watch or its origin, I would love to hear ....

The "Montine of Switzerland" slim GP 17 Jewel dress watch got a few cosmetic touches last night. The hands were straightened out, repainted and re-lumed, and the case back was re-finished, and of course the crystal and strap are also new. Ignore the slight grubby marks round edge of the new crystal in these pictures. They are caused by the polish I was using, and I did remove them later. The new lume is actually surprisingly bright, even with a small amount of pigment added to tone down its overly new looking yellow colour. Much more so than the original tritium pips on the dial, which have pretty much lost their luminosity. This is what I started with.

This week all the gear I needed to get started with Nickel plating arrived. A DC power power supply, magnetic stirrer, and nickel anode material. I made the Nickel liquid sulphate a couple of days ago and tried a piece brass rod. Seemed to work. Tonight I machined up a couple of dummy watch cases out of brass plus just a flat washer and set about cleaning and preparing them. The first piece I did with the following settings: First was 5v at 1A for 15 mins. Turned out ok. Plating was dull but polished up fine. second, slightly thicker and more reminiscent of a watch case I did at 6v at 1A - no good. Possibly not clean enough. I rebuffed and polished the nickel off and did it again at 5v and 0.8A for 15 mins and it was good - but still dull out of the solution - polished up nice though. third piece was done the same to verify settings. All good. my solution is a bit cloudy, possibly the cheap vinegar or cheap salt! Well worth the exercise as I have a degree of confidence an actual case will plate. Oh and each piece I turned half way through to avoid shadowing. Very happy and will only get better. A few pics attached:

I would be happy to do it if he lived in the states. Once, someone on this forum sent me a 2824 that had the well known keyless works issue and I fixed it for him for free. I think he paid me for shipping...but maybe not. Currently, all of my work is for free...which is why I suddenly have so many new friends.

Ahhhh, I got it! Such a great feeling. I slathered on some HP-1300 and eventually got it open by gripping the stem outside the barrel with a pin vise, then turning the ring with needle nose pliers. Thank you so much!

For the people interested, I like follow up and conclude my monitor-arm experiment. The new gas-spring monitor arm (Atumtec ATMS032) was purchased of eBay for the grand sum of €47.50, including shipping. The back of the Vesa plate had a plastic bracket which allows the screen to be uncoupled from the monitor arm. Instead of following the idea in the video given earlier in this thread, I saw opportunities with this plastic bracket. That plastic bracket (with two M6 holes) fitted nicely to the back of the microscope bracket. The microscope bracket had already one M8 hole in it, so it required drilling one more hole and to cut M6 thread in it. The other hole in the plastic bracket was enlarged to allow a M8. To make sure that the plastic bracket wouldn't crack, due to its hollow inside, washers were used to fill the gap. This all worked according to plan; Combined a nice tight fit with the monitor arm; Installed the monitor-stand to the table, electricity for the ring light, mounted the microscope and adjusted the gas-spring tension. With the monitor-stand positioned roughly in the middle of my work-desk, a large area can be covered, and the microscope can be swung out of the way when not needed. Now the big question: Does it work !? For me, YES it does !! Is the arm rock-solid? No, the arm is not rock solid. But with the 0.5x Barlow lens it works quite well. Much better than I had anticipated. When adjusting the height of the microscope with the big knob or adjusting the magnification, yes the arm "wobbles" a bit, but one can still see clear and adjust clear. Having no reference to an expensive microscope arm, I doubt whether my setup "wobbles" a whole lot more than such an arm. I would love to hear from people, who have such an expensive arm, whether these are rock solid when adjusting the knobs? Once you've adjusted the height and magnification, the monitor arm comes quickly to a rest and the view is crystal clear. The picture will start to shake if you bang the desk with a hammer, but by which arm it wouldn't? If I need the microscope on its "original" base, all I need to do it to uncouple the microscope from the monitor-arm, remove the plastic bracket (2x screws) and it's ready to be installed on the original base. The only alteration done to the original setup was adding one M6 hole. Perhaps the official arms are better (?), but you have to grab much deeper into your pocket. For me, I don't see any reason for purchasing anything else, as it works very well. Off to my next Endeavor

Damn this forum!! Another tool to put in the Shopping Cart.

Cylinderhöhenmasse, it's for measuring the cylinder height in the watch for cylinder escapements. Never seen one before.

I still have every watch I've bought but it's not many. I have one from each grandfather, one of which I wore throughout my military career, the Timor. I'm only just learning about them now, so any information would be great.

I have heard it said you are not a collector of a brand unless you have 3 examples. I have 4 Clinton's with3 of them FE 3612s (day-date automatics). All 4 have bidirectional diver / world time bezels, except for the blue dial one for which I am hunting for an original bezel. 2 of the 3 autos have a problem with the winding stem mushrooming from the the setting level stud, I believe. The third auto has a very dificult pull on the stem to get into setting mode so it seems to be a design flaw as the others were a total nightmare getting the stem out of the movement. Waiting on a replacement stem that I will use to finish the rebuild of the blue and black dial version then likely order another 2. The blue dial is in very good shape with what I think is an original blue rubber band.

How lucky was i ? While sorting out storage for the balance staff stock i noticed a staff container with around 50 of the AHS 43 staffs i had been looking everywhere for on the net, yey staff stock comes in to play . This was my first go at replacing a friction fit staff, easy peasy. The hardest part was lining up exactly the roller cresent with the impulse pin. This was done from both sides of the staff, firstly free hand from underneath by loosely staking the staff down on to the balance wheel so as to line things up. Then to flip over to tap the balance wheel down. Fitting the hairspring back on and to install the balance assembly left to do, fingers crossed I've made a fair job .

Eyup watch peeps i hope we are all well. Does anyone know what these capsules are made from ? The closest i can find to these on the internet is gelatine capsules. Answer sorted. Yes they are gelatine, popped one in my mouth and it dissolved. I now just need to wait for the balance staffs to come out my other end.

Part of a well “balanced” diet!

It's quite possible that the problem is that your crystal isn't acrylic at all, but rather celluloid. Celluloid was the early "unbreakable" alternative to glass for watch crystals long before we had acrylic and one of the problems that you get with celluloid is that it discolours with age, typically yellowing. You can't polish it out either as it is all the way through. I suspect that there is something in the Polywatch that dissolves celluloid, it ought to be absolutely fine with acrylic since that is specifically what it is made for polishing. One of the other undesirable qualities of celluloid is that it degasses, the products of which can accelerate rusting of steel.

Everyone take a deep breath.... talking about oil's is like talking about religion, politics or someone's Mom....

Yes. Especially cooking videos. If you have tried YouTube recipes, you'll know what I mean. But funny cat videos....

Grandpa's old watch is having some wrist time today with his original bracelet, Inside a Raketa 2609 HA. Repaired twice, two replacement escape wheels ( dont ask ) one replacement pallet lever, one stem and one rather reduced size crystal . Came to me not working for 50 years in poor shape with a rusted in solid stem .

The bench - still a work in progress.

I have to agree whole heartedly with John and others comments. Been down that road. Paid the price. I'm now 19 month into the hobby. Could I do what you are going to do? Maybe, but it would be a heck of a struggle. I can disassemble, clean and reassemble. I now have a certain amount of expertise. Could I have done it in my first 6 month? First to admit it. No. Please take care. Please continue to read beyond this part. When I first started I was swayed by YouTube (I've started only two weeks ago) fibbers. Looking back on their tweezer skill, it is obvious they had many months, and a lot of money behind them judging by the tools they used. When I came to put the balance and escapement back together, as I did not have the light touch, I had to purchase new balances, and escarpments (yes, plurals) as a result of being so naïve. Learning to oil also caused problems. You'd be surprised what is the difference now between my oiling. Think barrel and thimble. Taking apart is easy. It is so cheap Reassemble is hard and expensive. I can now watch a YouTube video and understand why they do something a certain way and what will be the outcome. I can see the problems and know how they need to be fixed. I'm still learning. I am at the stage where I am attempting to perfect skills that need to be at a certain level. Mainspring installation and Hairspring adjusting. I need these, as to service my own watch is a dream for me. What I don't need is a nightmare. I bought my watch in 1966 for £23.50. It is now worth £1,750+. Everything I learn, and probably you, will be learned visually from the internet. I've learned by physical mistakes. You will learn what a 'Ping' is. Hold the tweezer too tight (I'm sure I was holding something). This is a great hobby. Very rewarding and satisfying. Without listening to the members, I would not have many of the skill I have now. Can I hold my own against a professional? Let's not be silly. Can I provide a professional standard? I'm getting there. Hope the above comments can help you. They are information, not requisites. Ross

My first wrist check here. Thanks for having me. I was wearing two watches today to go meet another collector. We had a fun time talking watches. Don’t mind the time on the Elgin. I didn’t set it.

Watching Leo Vidals video about how to blue hands, at one stage he uses copper / brass shavings to distribute the heat equally to the hands. Most of the materials, or kinda equivalents thereof, used in this video I already have. Missing were fine copper / brass shavings. I guess for the most of us, not too expensive to get. But if you live in one of the Nordic countries, where the national sport seems to be to make everything as expensive as possible, a small 500gr bag of mixed sizes copper / brass shavings on eBay, including postage, sits around $20, of which the postage takes the biggest part. As mentioned in the video, one has to take care of the possible impurities in those shavings and the finer shavings are better. Thinking about how to get copper / brass shavings cheaper, the idea came to me to chop up the fine copper-strands inside an electrical lead. You can cut them as fine/short as you like, as many as you like and they are clean, no factory sweep One meter yields more than needed; I do assume that these will work just as well and that they can be re-used .......

Lost of bad experiences with Cousins in this thread, so I though I'd share my positive experience with their customer support team! I purchased a set of Bergeon screwdrivers with the rotating base, and noticed that the base was very "crunchy" and didn't rotate properly. Sounds like the bearing had taken a good beating. I told them this and they sent a new one. They didn't even want the old one back. Maybe it depends on whether the support rep is having a bad day or not?

what's interesting in watch repair is there's more than one way of doing things. I think there's a better way to do this. Because pushing the spring in after the fact does require really strong fingers can scratch up the inside of the barrel and sometimes it just doesn't work. So maybe there's a better way just a little modification to his procedure and everything would be fine. before we get to the modification of the procedure just to see the problem. In this particular example we have an Elgin spring. It has a protruding T and a square hole and the brace part that holds the whole thing in place. the modification to the procedure is not to wind the entire spring into the wonder leave a little bit sticking out. in need to leave enough to work with this might have been a little on the short side. You don't want to leave the lot out because it becomes much harder to get it into the barrel. also pay attention to diameter the winder it has to be small enough to go in and still accommodate the mainspring that sticking out. now comes the interesting problem of video would've been better as I don't really have enough hands to properly show this but I'll try to describe the procedure. I usually hold the barrel in my left hand and the winder in my right hand. They start by inserting the end of the spring and angle into the barrel followed by the winder itself. Once you grasp what you're doing it's really easy to do this I think it took less than five minutes to put the Elgin spring into the barrel from out of the package. It just seems confusing with the wording perhaps now for those eagle eyed people you'll notice that doesn't quite look right? This is because I photographed three separate T type mainspring insertions and by the time I got to the Elgin I didn't photograph everything so this happens to be a Hamilton. So basically inserted in don't worry about where it goes just get the whole thing into the barrel. Then you can rotate the handle of your winder until the tea part is over the hole or slot. then I usually use my largest screwdriver push the mainspring down verifying that it is in the slot in this case. Do not assume that it's in the whole and/or slot you have to visually verify which is why you have to pick it up and look and see yes it's where it's supposed to be. so the key here is with a little bit a spring sticking out your rotate the winder until it's over the whole/slot then you push it in and look at the other side to make sure you see something like this. In other words the Elgin has its protruding part into the slot exactly where it's supposed to be but we can't quite push it out yet we just need to verify it is where it's supposed to be. now we get to one of the most important steps you can't just push the spring out and hope that's going to stay Where it currently is it will probably jump out. This is where the back end of your tweezers would work or I usually use my largest screwdriver. basically going to put pressure on the protruding part that sticking up and hold it in place. Now you can push the spring out when you're holding it in place and it will stay where it is. then of course once the spring is out you do want to make sure that it actually did stay word supposed to be I don't recall ever having it jump out so but still you want to check. Also into putting the lid on of course make sure that you align it with the part that sticking up.

I acquired an L&R Master off eBay months back. It was dated 1954. It looked tired and after receiving it ran really poorly. So, I embarked on a rebuilding project. I am writing this because I found some sources for parts and services that may be useful to others, and it had taken me a long time (I’m talking many months) to find them all and get the work done. Link to pictures of before and after are attached at the end. Thanks to all on the forums and other sites for info, diagrams, and pics that helped me along the way. I cant recall where I got everything so a general thanks! The process was as follows (to help those taking this on): · Took the whole thing apart and stripped the paint down to the bare aluminum. I ground off some bad casting bumps while it was stripped. · I tried to crinkle paint it myself with VHT Wrinkle Paint but just couldn’t get it right, so I stripped it again and decided to send it out to have the body (including the motor housing) powder coated. So, the motor had to be completely disassembled before sending for powder coating. · All parts I was reusing were cleaned and polished where needed. So, you really need to have abrasives and both a workshop polishing wheel and Dremel. · The rheostat was not smooth and would cause the motor to jump speeds. But turned out it was just dirty with hard carbon build up so a good cleaning and some gentle scraping of the contacts and it was fine with smooth resistance all the way through the range. I also hit it with some very fine sandpaper (1200+ grit) lightly then cleaned with acetone. · Trying to get the rheostat knob off it crumbled into small pieces, but I found a good one on eBay. The knob as well as the motor brush housings are made of Bakelite on these old machines, and it doesn’t polish well nor necessarily hold up after about 70 years. · The heating resistor was good. Resistance was tested and was as marked. So cleaned it up. · The light bulb socket was good so just cleaning needed. Bad bulb but I found bulbs to fit on the internet and bought a box of #41 2.5V E10 base. · Then there was the motor. OMG. It ran but rattled, buzzed, and didn’t always turn. Bearings, wiring (I am lucky I didn’t fry myself when I turned it on after receiving it), and some burnt out armature winding wires on the rotor itself would cause it to not always start. Also cracked wire going into the stators. Finally, I decided to try to have it rebuilt. Very hard to find a company that rebuilds these Fractional Horsepower Motors. After searching for what seemed months, I found a company in California that would rebuild the armature and stator. · The brushes themselves were good and easy to replace if necessary. But one of the brush holders was cracked. I found a company that made brush holders that almost fit (larger by just about 1/32” with some slight enlarging of the motor housing brush holder hole. Drilled it out to 1/2” they fit perfectly. · I added a fuse and an IEC plug to the back. There is very little room on the back so finding an IEC outlet that fit was an effort. When getting new switches, I decided to get an On-Off-On switch for the motor Forward-Reverse. It’s normally an On-On switch. I didn’t want to rely on the rheostat to stop the motor. So I can leave it on a setting and switch the motor off. I also use a switched power line. I just never liked the fact you cant fully turn off all power to the entire unit given there are liquids and electricity in close vicinity of each other. · Grounded the whole unit of course. · The jars are original but had no covers so purchased on eBay both screw on and lay on replacements from someone that makes them via 3D printing. They are not as nice as the originals but work well and are lower cost and new. · The impeller had a crack, but I was able to repair it by brazing the crack and filing it smooth. You can easily braze aluminum carefully using an aluminum brazing rod and propane torch. · I did all the wiring and soldering myself. Those courses in collage in electronics helped Fitting the wires into the motor housing is a real challenge if you don’t have an original pic of the inside. Someone had already been inside the motor and the wiring was a real mess. Thanks to others on this and other web sites where I found wiring diagrams and wiring photos of the underside of the unit. · I used rubber coated wire between the motor top and the main tube because it just seemed softer and more flexible compared to some vinyl or PVC coated wires and that moves when moving the motor to the jars. The one thing I didn’t do is try to renew the motor and control panel labels. I have seen some others that look like they were able to do it but for me with the lettering and all it is just too detailed to paint by hand, so I just cleaned them and gave them a clear coat to protect them. Note that I did find a company www.dyna-graphics.com that could create duplicate overlays with all the L&R lettering, etc. (industrial decals) that could be applied to the control panel. Normally used for electronic control panels. But they had a minimum purchase, and I didn’t want to spend the money. Bottomline it was a long process and the motor rebuild was expensive. But with all spent its about what you might pay for one online that has been rebuilt like new and normally you don’t get a like new motor. Here is a list of companies that I used for parts and repair: · Gundy Powder Coating - Bayshore New York · Eurton Electric - Whittier, California. They rebuilt the rotor, armature, and stator (I put it back together myself and pushed on new bearings and fit the brush holders). · Motor Bearings - MiMotion https://www.motion.com/ Brand: MRC (SKF) Size MFR#: R6ZZ. The existing bearings were marked making it easier to replace. · Brush Holders - Phoenix Electric Manufacturing Co. (the bad part is they have a minimum order size. They come as a set, and you must buy 10 sets minimum. Each set includes the following parts: Part #1520-BC-660-895 (the holder), Part #AE-51-TP (the screw cap). · Switches – Gaynor Toggle Switches got them on eBay. Any good toggles should work ok. · Heater Light Bulbs - #41 2.5V Miniature Light Bulbs with E10 Base (purchased from Bulbtown.com but available multiple places). · Jar Covers – eBay sellers, 3D Printed. Link to Photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!ArzY7G4e4SiEhe5TWmrNvCMc7vV9AA?e=TsAh9E Thanks bob

Eyup watch peeps. Thought a thread about random ideas and tips we have might be of interest. If i can kick one off with something i thought of last night while wrestling with a hairspring. At 1 oclock in the morning trying to figure out a ridiculously low amplitude on a cheap swiss movement was testing my patience. Power was good with a nice escape wheel back spin, pivots on the lever looked good and the lever flicked nicely over once installed. A well shaped hairspring was put back on the marked up balance fitted to the cock and installed back into the movement. Looking inside it looked pretty naff, all bent up at one side and rubbing on the bal cock, so a slight twist at stud should pull it into place. Needing to be right up to the stud was proving arkward to get to even with the smallest tweezers i have as i wanted to be directly above the spring to twist. Checking out the dial side i noticed a very conveniently largish hole directly below where i wanted to be. Largish hole but not quite large enough to get the tweezers in and be able to twist. Being a rough arsed joiner i love my days of tearing stuff apart on houses and first fixing, its all big hammers and crowbars and makes me very happy . I have a few specific bars and one in particular that is fork shaped is great for twisting joists over to straighten them out when nailing in noggins. moment, some kind of thin fork shaped metal twisty thingy. Looking around the watchroom at all the random shite i have I'm not seeing what i need, " i need to make something " . Then i clap eyes on a pack of needles, golden idea me thinks. Taking the smallest needle and honing off the eye gave me the smallest forked prybar known to man. Who said joiners are thick ? Nah we just pretend to be then we get the easy jobs

Just bought myself an early birthday present. I've been eyeing Seiko 6139 series chronographs for a while, and finally enrolled in Mark's level 5 chronograph course. Been keeping an eye on eBay and the plan was to piece one together from various watches and parts, but then this 1972 6139-6012 came up in nice shape, with the railroad bracelet, and as far as I can tell a reasonable price. It'll be my first chronograph, so I'm looking forward to it!