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I presume when you say by hand you mean using a Jacot tool. The rubberized abrasives I have never used & looking at the pics I would say they are too course. I use as little force & grit size as possible. This is one area where watch & clock repairers prefer different methods. Unless the pivots are really bad I prefer to use a burnisher & oil slowly, slowly on my lathe making sure I keep the burnisher absolutely square. I have finished polishing clock pivots before with Brasso but not watch pivots. If the pivot is really badly scored I use a brass slip charged with diamatine. For really bad clock pivots I start with a buff stick. There is a lot of information & ideas on this subject on the net. However a good point to remember is the following when working with pivots: Polishing removes metal , burnishing moves metal.

Waiting for time to finish the job off - hopefully in the spring because I need a new shed to store the stuff that's currently in there.

You certainly got that one right Ray, and I think the Seiko looks better! :)

You see, I bet if you were an apprentice you would know all about it Geo! ;) Roger

You lucky man. See if you can get any free samples! :)

Excellent Job, it just proves that you can polish a turd! :)

Hi Marc, Your post REALLY makes things clearer for me. I was at my bench last night looking at the hairspring assembly very closely. What I was looking at and what I was seeing in my books and online didn't jive so I wanted to make sure I was moving forward correctly. I did notice the brass lever and nudged it gently and did see some movement but left it at that. With your pics and info I can now continue knowing what the process is. I am trying to avoid the "hairspring overcooked-spaghetti disaster" which I have read is inevitable for first timers :biggrin:. Thanks so much Marc for taking the time to point me in the right direction. Cheers! Roger

The kink that Will has pointed out would be enough for me to want to replace the spring as it is a potential breaking point; however, I don't think that he spring is "set". The main coils look well spaced and it has a healthy reverse coil on it, so I would be surprised if it's not providing enough power. Also, I believe that a lack of braking grease is likely to result in the mainspring failing to slip rather than slipping too early. The way that braking grease works is that is holds against the shearing force between the bridle and the barrel wall, allowing the spring to be wound up, until the shear force reaches a certain strength, and then it allows the spring to slip. As it slips the shear force reduces to below the braking limit and the bridle once again grabs the barrel wall. I could be completely wrong on that though :-) Try winding the mainspring by hand (use a screw driver in the ratchet wheel screw on your Seiko as I don't think it has manual winding) and see if you can feel when it slips. If you can get just a couple of turns on it then that should be enough power to run for considerably more that just a few minutes. When you reassembled the movement after cleaning it did you test the free running of the train without the pallet in place? A puff of air on the escape wheel should be enough to spin the whole train easily, and a couple of clicks of power on the mainspring (again use a screw driver to turn the ratchet wheel) should spin the train first of all the right way, cause the train to overshoot the springs fully unwound position, and then recoil in the opposite direction for a couple of turns of the escape wheel (or more). If the train won't spin with a puff of air or there is no recoil then you need to strip the train back and reassemble one wheel at a time, each time testing the freedom of the train for power loss until you find the problem, which could be anything from a bent pivot, broken jewel, incorrect end or side shake, damaged wheel or pinion teeth, etc, so it is important to always thoroughly inspect every part after cleaning and before installing it. If everything in the train is free enough to see recoil from a couple of clicks on the ratchet wheel then reinstall the pallets and put about half a turn of power on the ratchet wheel. Now by just very gently nudging the pallet fork from side to side with the tip of a clean oiler you should see the pallet fork snap smartly across to the opposite banking pin. Also, if you stop nudging the pallet fork just before it snaps across and take the oiler away, the pallet should return to the banking pin you were nudging it away from (this is called draw). If it doesn't snap across or draw back then carefully inspect the pallet stones for any chipping or damage, and the pallet arbor pivots and jewels. If it does snap across nicely and draw back properly, then the issue is likely in the balance assembly. I hope this helps.