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Hi Bob, Welcome to the forum and thank you for your service. I would never try to discourage you from getting into this wonderful hobby/profession, but please be aware, it does not cost just a few dollars to get into watch repair. Tools are expensive and in many instances the cheap knockoffs are worthless, especially when learning. You can get the tools needed to disassemble, clean, inspect, reassemble and lubricate a watch without spending thousands, but as soon as you start getting into task-specific tools, there are so many and they don’t come cheap. My suggestion is to start with the basics required to disassemble, clean, inspect, reassemble and lubricate only, and build upon that gradually as the need for other tools arises. The advice above regarding starting out on working movements is gold. Many of the non-running watches on eBay have been bought, tinkered with, deemed too difficult and then sold again, often with more damage done each time. Without experience, you clean and service a non-runner and it still doesn’t run. What now? Troubleshooting is difficult as a beginner. This can become very frustrating. I would encourage you to buy a working movement, and learn to strip and service it. If it isn’t running afterwards, you know it’s down to you, and as long as you didn’t damage anything you know that the parts you’ve got can form a ticking watch. An excellent movement to start with is the ETA 6497 clones from China, such as the ST36. They’re not expensive, and although it finds use in some larger wristwatches, this movement was originally designed for use in pocket watches, so everything is larger and easier to see and handle. Once you can service a new ST36 and have it running better than it did when it arrived, you’re definitely ready to step up to working vintage watches and then think about repair of non running or poorly running watches. As far as cleaning solutions go, you will not do better than the commercial watch cleaning and rinsing solutions that are available. You’ll find plenty of suggestions for home brew cleaners online, but the professional products are superior and you want to give yourself every advantage you can, especially when you start working on vintage movements containing hardened decomposed lubricants and often years worth of other dirt and dust. Alcohol is ok for cleaning or rinsing movement parts that don’t contain any shellac. The pallet fork and roller table contain jewels secured with shellac and will tolerate a rinse in alcohol but not prolonged exposure. Methanol dissolves shellac faster than ethanol, and isopropyl alcohol dissolves shellac slower than ethanol. Just in case you don’t know already, the radium on the dial (and likely the hands) of your Dad’s Elgin is highly radioactive. It is safe enough when safely contained within the watch case, but the moment you open the watch and especially when handling the dial or hands you must take precautions against inhaling or ingesting any radium. Best Regards, Mark

Hi And welcome to the forum, best watches to train on are cheap but working watches as if they don’t work after your ministrations it’s your fault. Getting broken watches defeats the object. When you work on these and they don’t work afterwards you don’t know whether it’s what you did or was it knackered before you started , so try and make life easier without accumulating junk. Attached a file which is worth going through TZIllustratedGlossary.pdf