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Knowing your lift angle is not a life or death situation for using the timing machine. If you don't like the numbers on the machine either because are too high or too low versus what you think you're seeing in the watch just change the lift angle to give your machine happier numbers. I know it doesn't sound like a very scientific method but it really doesn't matter that much. Because even if it's not exactly right you could still look at dial-up dial down and the crown positions and see how much it varies.. Then as this is a new timing machine additional information like PDFs. Probably not the same company who produced your machine but still good information. Also a link that lists lift angles just not American pocket watch lift angles. Then your question has interesting timing for me in that two things related to this question of come up this week.. First on Monday my boss asked the same question.. So I got to explain what American pocket watches came into existence timing machines did not exist at all. It's not until vacuum tubes become readily available do machines that can show rate come into existence.. Then amplitude measuring machines don't really come into existence at least in any quantity until we get to the digital machines.. Then the Swiss get obsessed with amplitudes and we have always nifty charts but they don't care about pocket watches. It's really only when the hobbyists get their cheap Chinese machine does it become a bigger problem.. The other reason why the question is interesting is at work we found a better way of observing the 180° for finding the lift angle. There is a link to a YouTube video no notice that the dot he has is easy to see.. We found that using a Yellow FORAY® Liquid Ink Highlighter With a UV flashlight works really really well. To understand that I have pictures attached.. Nice bonus that while it's a highlighting pen on metal standard lighting it's basically invisible.. That comes off in the cleaning machine it's not a problem.. The second reason the timing is interesting for your question is that the UV flashlight at work went missing and I ordered one off of eBay yesterday. There really cheap one eBay it's probably way brighter than what I had before and I'll let you know how it works when it comes. The reason we had a UV light it was given to us by some watch company it makes the dials look much prettier or anything on the dial that would florescent really fluoresces under UV.. But I'm guessing somebody in the front room thought the flashlight was broken and didn't grasp what it was and tossed it in the trash. Then I suppose something good with an obsessed boss lift angles below came from that. The only thing where I made a mistake I should I had the serial numbers that we would know exactly which model watch these are because you'll notice that it's not set like all 16 size or 18 size are not the same it varies. Ball Illinois 12 size 45° Elgin 12 size 55° Elgin 18 size 49° Elgin 590 16 size 21 J 48° Elgin GM Wheeler 16 size 52° Elgin 6 size 62° Hamilton 12 size 48° Hamilton 912 12 size 38° Hamilton 940 16 size 60° Hamilton 992 16 size 48° Hamilton 992B 51.5° Hamilton 992E 42°Louis Audemar 44° Hampton 3/0 52° Illinois 12 size 45° Illinois 305 16 size 48° Illinois 6 size 62° Lange and Sohne 40° Longines pocket watch 35° Waltham 18 size 38.5° Waltham 1888 16 size 60° Waltham 21 jewel 645 16 size 42° Waltham Crescent Street 45° Waltham Riverside 16 size 44° https://watchguy.co.uk/cgi-bin/lift_angles https://youtu.be/-Xgcck692js witschi Witschi Training Course.pdf witschi X-D-DVH-Di-Im-N_EN.pdf

I should have checked its thickness first thing and just assumed it was right because it looked like a automatic mainspring in good shape.

So I changed out the mainspring and amplitude is 280 now. The mainspring that was in there was .06mm thick...so half as thick as it should have been. I cant imagine why anyone would put one like that in there.

Most barrels have the cap at the bottom, facing the dial. In that case (with the exception of 8 day movements), the arbor will hook so that it winds anticlockwise. This means when you wind it into your winder, it is backwards so you want to wind clockwise. A big problem with vintage winders is often the arbors are very large in diameter compared to modern watches. Sometimes you can use a smaller arbor in a larger winder barrel and it works ok, sometimes it's just a big pain. Even if you have a vintage full set of Bergeons and a modern set, you still run into situations where it's all a big compromise. Also, often the hook on old winder arbors is waaay too long; this can kink the spring in addition to making it really hard to seat and unseat the hook in the hole. I always check the hook on unknown older winders and redress the hook as needed. With a perfect winder, for a non automatic watch, you have to be very careful when the spring is almost all the way in the winder. They want to slip in really fast those last few mm (it's like they know, like when you need a bathroom and you're finally near one) and you can snap the tongue off. It's a never ending strife, I watched a Finnish watchmaker lose about a year of his life from stress mucking around with a problem spring and he's an amazing watchmaker. In the end I wound it in by hand for him, mostly out of fear that he would start destroying the workshop (yes you can wind them in by hand without damage but it takes practice).

If I am not misunderstanding your point again, With the fork out, impulse pin ends up in same position by coming to rest of the oscilator , regardless of direction, amplitude, angular velocity, speed, acceleration etc of the oscilator, as long as the bend is within safe boundaries of elasticity of its material, within this limit hairspring displays perfect elasticity for all practical purposes.

Look at the barrel arbor. Identify the upper and lower pivots. so to place correctly into the barrel. Check the hook at the center that has a flat protrusion, while the other side is tapered. That flat must engage the flat cut that is toward the inner end of the mainspring. Otherwise the mainspring cannot be wound. Videos are great but sometime you want the clear, plain language description from a good book and its illustrations. Recommend you get some beginner repairer ones. Yes. On an automatic you will have to manually guide the bridle into the drum at end.

Usually the best place to start for any watch repair discussion is who Made the watch and its model number. Then something you might find helpful is having a set of the bestfit books. Fortunately now they're available from link below in a really bargain price. The reason I point out these books is they have an entire section on shock absorber systems. They have an entire section in their book on shock absorber systems. The problem is there are lots and lots of variations that all look almost identical. https://mccawcompany.com/product/bestfit-encyclopedia-books-111-111a-digital-download-pdf-version/

If I understand the question correctly, it is "is the hairspring stiffer (i.e. more powerful) when contracting than when expanding? Or put another way, is the force to cause a tiny deflection with the bend higher than to cause the same amount of deflection against the bend." As long as it is the same deflection, then no. I think it will be the same force in both directions. However, I don't think the deflection of the spring remains in a constant ratio to the angular deflection of the balance wheel. The number of turns on the hairspring reduces during expansion, so each degree of deflection will cause proportionally more bending (or straightening in this case). This means the hairspring gets stiffer on expansion, and softer on contraction. I've managed to convince myself at least. Does that make sense?

I'm attaching an image you don't actually need the banking pins to put the watch in beat. You're supposed to line the roller jewel up with that invisible center line that conveniently is easy to see if it was between the banking pins.

Not yet. I took it apart and the only thing kept me going is that it seems i am a very bad watchmaker so a little bit of practicing was just one step forward in the right direction. I cleaned the parts manually because they were very dirty and some of them are rusty too plus my ultrasonic does not work anymore and the national watch cleaner machine project has not even started yet (apart from buying a cable and a corc sheet). I got some green stuff here and there which reminds me the stuff u get when a battery is leaking. All in all i think a new dial would be a waste for this movement, but I am going to try to put it together anyway. Going to post about the result.

Then just as a reminder while people move the banking pins to adjust the amplitude their purpose is a safety feature and their supposed be adjusted for that function then you're supposed to play with the stones afterwords. Otherwise you'll have your safety features not set correctly.

Its Sekonda time again, or perhaps (according to Auntie Google) "Время Секонды.".

I'm a bit of a fan of Russian watches, and in my opinion not only are they pretty robust, but with a little care, they can be very presentable. Just to illustrate that point, here are a couple of 404 club members. One is 9ct gold and originally cost the best part of £1,000.00 and the other is a USSR era 20 mikron gold plated Sekonda. Now I'm not saying they are equivalent, but neither would either of them embarrass you at a formal function. Sure the lines of the Sekonda are a little more solid, and the hands and case, perhaps not quite as well finessed, but on the wrist it is a pretty close match, and I know which one I would be less worried about scratching.

Welcome Jakub, enjoy the forum.

Here’s a photo of the slightly odd stand that the clock mounts on to make it a mantle clock.

This all comes down to your personal taste, these brass clocks are bolted together from many separate castings to clean the case properly you would have to break it down to its component parts in order to clean, I would soak in a weak clock cleaning solution, then clean with Brasso and re soak the parts and then clean in detergent. As you have pointed out the idea is not to remove every defect or scratch you see, it is an absolute must to lacquer the brass after cleaning or all you work will soon be lost and the case will again tarnish. Clear lacquers will not alter the colour of the brass, but you can also buy gold tone lacquers these if applied correctly will give you a finish almost indistinguishable from a gilt case. The clock below I have just finished its a carriage clock that I bought years ago but have just got round to servicing, the case on this was very tarnished and dirty with plenty of old polish, the brass was also pitted this I can live with so would not try to polish it out I used a mid tone gold lacquer mixed 50/50 with a clear lacquer to get the tone I wanted, the clock should remain like this with no need to polish for many years.

1 small dot of 9415 applied to every 3rd tooth, installed new main spring, and she started up beautifully. Did need just a slight swing to get it going after a few clicks, but I understand this is normal as the cylinder escapement design doesn't allow for self start up like the Swiss lever design? For a 100 year old watch I am just happy to have it ticking again, and not too concerned yet about its time keeping abiity. Regards Deggsie