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Just thought I would post a pic of one of my Christmas presents, a delightful surprise from my wife. As I have often said I am just an amateur tinkerer so although it is small it is nevertheless quite good for what I want (restrain comments please). It is mainly the polishing and finishing aspects I am interested in and I have no doubts about the limitations.. It will probably give the engineers and pro's on the forum a good chuckle though. It is a Parkside Mini Bench Grinder PMDS 100 B1. Idle speed 3000 to 9000 (variable), 20 min continuous use caveat. 50mm Wheels and it comes with a variety and a couple of mops. 3 year warranty. Working Speed 8 - 24 m/s. Purchased from Lidl for £20.00, so far it seems to do what I need. All I have to do now is work out what all these different coloured compounds are for (just joking) Cheers, Vic

This is how i check for magnetism and how i demagnetize a watch with my DIY device:

I thought I would share my latest mishap. I was repairing a quartz (Ronda 715) which had a faulty date change. The fault was traced to a mis shaped date jumper spring. So I had to make another. I was checking it's size etc. and moved in close to get a closer look & PING straight into my mouth. I did not swallow & it did clean it up a bit I suppose.

Or the courier as these items were delivered. My last order of items from Cousins. Finally I have everything I need to be able to use my ultra sonic cleaner for clocks and the grease for the keyless works on watches, so I'm now finally set up for servicing clocks and to be able to strip down and clean, oil and reassemble watches. I'm still not completely set up for replacing cracked jewels on watches, but atleast I can start on watches now. I'm quiet excited, the next big hurdle is to convince the wife and kids that a small corner of the games room needs to have my workbench set up in it. I've still got my $1000 from my scholarship sitting in its envelope waiting to pay for my work bench and LED light and I want to get it. Picture of my latest delivery which includes Bergeon green watch lume kit so I can also now try my hand at reluming hands.

Just a painted dial , applied indexes, printed logo . I didn't see any clearcoat peeling or any thing else unusual .

Thanks FJS. I'd heard of that site and even looked at it. An old geezer forgets...

If you can identify the movement, you will most likely find it listed on the 'Ranfft.de' website. Among other details, the hand shaft sizes are given. Regards.

And here's my Sturmanskie, which I purchased new, years ago. The plating is worn off the crown and I replaced the pushers, but it still runs very well. Gryf

Looks like you have quite the collection. I'm fairly new around here as well, there is plenty to learn from this place and everyone is very accommodating.

Welcome! That's quite the pile of goodies

Yes it seems to me that the demagnetizer You have is strong enough for the spring bar remover but not strong enough for a whole watch. The answer is in the description. I am working with a strong magnet at my workplace

The Bergeon One Dip (there are other versions) is tetrachloroethylene not trichloroethylene - still potentially a hazard but not as dangerous, at least under current guidelines ;). Stephen

This watch could very easily give someone without experience or tools a lot of difficulty, I advise against it unless you're okay with damaging the watch further. So try to find a professional for a reasonable quote first before attempting. Price of repair should be anywhere between £25-50 GBP in my opinion. Though some places will only send it away for a new dial and service, in which case it will be extremely expensive. (mostly large chain jewelers, independent jewelers and watchmakers will be more helpful) If the chapter ring has 'posts' that insert into the dial this should be do-able, if not you may find no one will want to try it. Or at least, only remove it from the dial so it doesn't rattle around and jam the hands.

The easiest way is remove the movement. There is no point in taking the glass out; you will only have to put it back in.

Acetone dissolves cyanoacrylate perfectly, so be careful. For sticky hairspings, I have used a combination of naphtha and then Greiner water-based solution which is basically a strong soap. I rinse (quickly) in isopropyl alcohol which also has degreasing properties too. Not that I'm an expert, but thought I would share my experiences.

Interesting thread. Having a lot of trouble with a hairspring that is sticking together tonight i search the forum for one dip. Found this? I have tried almost anything trying to clean the hairspring but nothing seamed to work? Until i thought what the h... . I try acetone. I have read about it somewhere that i might work? And it did. Tried google one dip and found out that Bergeon solution is tricloretylen and acetone? Thought that tricloretylene was forbidden? I am not recommending it as the shellac could melt with acetone. This was a Seiko so they aren't using shellac. Also read that instead of one dip you could use brakecleaner for cars or motorcycles. Nothing i would try though.

I can think of many times I've had a "spring ping" and I would have been elated had it landed in my mouth. Most of them landed in outer space... in a black hole... in an alternate universe...

Seems we have a few of the same interest. I like to mess with some electronics, wood working now watches.. In general I like fixing broken stuff I am not an expert at anything, but in most cases I can hold my own and get the job done. Thank god for the internet. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7usqy0ib4hvkib0/AACtQqWU04bhn6NQHfj6ODiIa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/08brzllftklna5e/AADl5_GJa_vP2TGEyAYat8Cna?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0pbn62e9klcmfzk/AABpDiBtUh4J0X11BwOkmSpua?dl=0

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

This beater got wrist time today. I love this thing. It was one of my first serious purchases when I settled down from buying anything that ticked. It's got a horse hide strap that I made. This thing is awesome. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Looking quite spiffy with a new crystal . I had never noticed the bend in the red GMT hand before . Keen...

Today it's my Hamilton Jazzmaster Chrono. It runs a Val 7753 and one of my favorite, day to day watches.

Wow , nice lume . I put my watches under a light bulb for a few minutes after opening them . I leave the caseback on , but very loose while doing this , and tighten after I remove them from under the bulb . I was watching a Breitling Youtube video where they put the watches in a warming oven for a few minutes before tightening the caseback to remove moisture .

So a new day is upon us and today is the day for something a little different. Today I chose a Dynasty Jump hour watch, I think these are possibly the manual forerunner to quartz digital watches.

Yes I figured it out thanks as the attach option was hidden in the "More Options" section. I'm not used to this particular forum software but will soon get used to it. I'm interested in more or less all kinds of watches, mostly mechanical analog watches but the 1970's LED and LCD watches are kind of fun too which was why I chose to wear that one yesterday. I was never a fan of them at the time but have grown to like them more over the years. You don't see many of them around anymore, especially on someone's wrist! and so it seemed appropriate to wear it. As it is now a new day, a new watch was called for and the pick of te day is a slightly tidier retro Jules Jurgenson Quartz watch.