Leaderboard

A little tip. If after cleaning you are not sure if all the dirt has been removed put a few drops of oil around it and move it about, if the oil is clean you know it's fine, if dirty it needs more cleaning.

I anneal clock springs if to long. Cutting the spring to the correct length I do with a diamond disc attached to my Proxon. However to drill the hole I have to anneal, also clock springs also need a slight bend on the end to stop slippage. The same principles I presume are the same for watch springs.

Small victories are what life is about!

I came back to this watch today and when I looked at the caseback seam under a scope I could see there *was* a lip where a case knife would fit but when the last person who worked on the watch put the caseback on they put the lip underneath the lug, which is curved towards the caseback. That made it difficult to get access to as the lug was in the way, but I was able to get a razor blade in the lip and pop the caseback off.

All arbours should have some end shake. A pivot worn to a point that its too short to reach end stones, lets pivot shoulder rub on the jewel housing, so the balance will turn as you shake the watch but the movement will not run by the torgue mainspring delivers. All too often all shelac is lost in unltrasonic, causing pallets misalign or move in their slot. Make sure impulse jewel is not loose, that again happens when all shalac gets washed away in ultrasonic, another common headache is when a shim falls out as you remove the cock and you wont notice there was a shim there. PM sent. Regs

I have no advice to give but would just like to mention that I tried annealing the bridle of a Generale Ressorts automatic mainspring in an attempt to reshape it. However, the result was just that the bridle lost all its elasticity. I used an alcohol lamp like this. Perhaps I heated it to much. Perhaps if you go gently!?

I have dollar watches that I have restored, because I like them and wanted examples from an important part of watch history. I'm glad whoever owned them originally did not throw them away, even though they weren't considered "repairable". I don't sell watches or services at the moment, but have lots of watches with "cheap" chinese movements in them. So far no problems that I can't take care of myself, but then again these watches don't see the use that watches used to get. Maybe they will wear out like my 50 year old TImex watches, and have to be thrown away (Just kidding, my Timex's are just fine). Cheers!

I always remove them. I usually use large levers that are made for such work. You can also tap the arbor through the cam but you want to support the plate near the hole, there are tools called crow's feet that do this.

It could be removed by tapping / pushing the pinion through the cam and gear as it certainly looks friction fitted. However I personally would leave it in situ unless you suspect it needs re-bushing.

Looks like you need an upgrade to one of these..