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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/26/19 in all areas

  1. Thought it may be worth to share; I received a pretty beaten up, none-running 1890-1900 cylinder-escapement pocket-watch. It had all sorts of problems, a list too long to go into details. Among those problems was a bend/broken minute hand. It inevitably broke off when trying to straighten it. The center-hole diameter of the minute-hand was 0.5mm and the length was 15mm. The hour-hand had a hole diameter of 2.0mm and the length was 10mm. Searching the internet to find an identical set proofed futile. The watch is a heirloom so originality was a priority. The hands turned out the be made of bronze, a copper-tin alloy. Therefor it made sense to attempt soldering but the part that had to be soldered had a thickness of only 0.3mm. Both parts had to be fixed in place with a sort of clamp capable to fixing both parts, being heat resistant and "none-sticking". A soldering iron, even with the smallest tip, would be far too big for the job and to avoid touching the parts, I choose to use a hot-air gun used in electronics for soldering SMD-components to a circuit-board. A few test were made which tin to use and at which temperatures. 300 degrees C with tin used in electronics seemed to work fast and made the tin to flow nicely. I used a soldering flux-paste. The clamp consisted of two metal rails, slightly diverting from each other to give many clamping options, bolted on a plate of gypsum. Pulling over a #1000 grid sand paper, I made two 45 degrees chamfered edges on either end of both parts; The two parts were clamped in; Applied some soldering flux, heated it all up to 300 deg.C and applied a tiny bit of tin. Once cooled down, I removed some excess tin with a small diamond file. Here a picture of the back side of the minute-hand; And here the front; the tin didn't flow further away from the soldered joint or around the edges Most likely not the strongest repair in the world, but when not touched it should be strong enough to do the job. On the picture the hand color looks black, but that's due to the lighting. In reality the hand hasn't lost any of its shiny patina at the front ...... Anyway, I thought to share this repair as one of the many different possibilities
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  2. After I watched a couple of Mark Lovicks videos on making a watch with parts sourced on eBay I figured I'd give it a try. I made two. This is my favorite. It's a divers watch with an eta 2824-2 movement. I'm quite proud of it. I picked up an H link shark mesh bracelet. I'm calling it the deep blue desk diver. Lol
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  3. "The guys in the beginning laughed and said it couldnt be done." Usually something like that is said because they can't do it and hate to admit that someone else can. Keep at it! You've already got it licked.
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  4. Roger that. I will have a look at those areas. Thanks for taking the time to provide input. Honestly im super pleased. I feel as though I have made good progress and clearly am over the hump in terms of getting this thing up and running. The guys in the beginning laughed and said it couldnt be done. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
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  5. Here is a service of the watch. The mainspring should be 1.15 x 0.09 x 260 x 8.5 or the Gr no. is 2797-X http://watchguy.co.uk/service-jaeger-lecoultre-automatic-calibre-481/
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  6. You should be able to replace the original slipping bridle attachment and conventional mainspring (as was the way in the early days) with a standard automatic mainspring. I’ve had the opposite problem where the replacement has been too strong, but this could also be due to the change from blue-steel to alloy.... What you need to do is what Omega recommended back in the day for automatic spring adjustment and measure how many turns of the barrel you get before slipping commences. From what I remember, it’s approximately 4.5 to 5 turns. Then you will also need to measure that current spring to confirm it is of the correct “strength”, ie. thickness and also check the length.
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  7. Hello Michael! Plenty of info on here, especially when working on those strange watches that don't say Seiko on the dial...!
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  8. Oh, and hello by the way!
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  9. here is a story about Swiss made watches -- i heard -- it may be true: they boasted making "the smallest watch screw" and sent it to Japan. the Japanese drilled a hole thru it and sent it back to the Swiss ! vin
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  10. What about the above mentioned paste and a non stick frying pan.Heat until solder flows and allow to cool.
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  11. I think partly my cleaning wasn’t as good as I thought it was, but the main issue was I think incorrect oiling if the pallet stones.
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  12. The reality versus the fantasy of interchangeability of American pocket watch parts? By the way if you haven't seen the video below it's quite interesting from the 30s. If you look at the video one of the reasons Elgin made so many watches was its factory was really really big. The number of people was huge was probably one of the largest companies in the world at one time as a guess. Multiple generations of Elgin families worked at the factory. So by the 1900 production methods improve machinery improves Elgin takes great pride which you can see in the video and making sure everything fits perfectly. But still a lot of and work hand fitting hand adjusting with a huge volume of people. So the problem with this conversation as we can all pick and choose examples to make our point which doesn't necessarily help with the original problem. For instance the second link turn-of-the-century mass-produced watch. Made for a whole bunch of years listed as a model three. Go to the website you'll find a lot of 12 size model three watches. Illinois parts catalog is rather interesting the parts are listed by name of the part then on the page illustrations the size and then the model. Canon pinion for 12 size model 1 to 5 all identical. Only one part numbers listed reality they do not interchange. They may have been mass-produced in a turn-of-the-century factory but notice how there made in batches. There's still a lot of hand fitting and adjusting true they're going to be better than cottage industry European watches but. So back to the original question swapping parts to fix the problem is a bad idea unless you know why your swapping the parts. So we think we know where the problem is let's look at those parts to see why there a problem. Then once we figure out why you have a problem what the problem is then we can figure out how to solve the problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys4ChOWYNy8 http://illinoiswatchguide.com/gradeautocrat.html
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  13. You'll definitely want the end getting drilled supported. Maybe your Lorch has a drilling plate, if not Clockboy's thread has a YT link showing a simple setup to do it. Agree these clocks use softer steel that drills readily with normal drills.
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  14. This being a family friendly forum..I concluded you were talking about tires.
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  15. Just for completeness, I took one of the bands from a battered old Hong Kong special LCD watch and gave it the brushed treatment. I started by cleaning the band thoroughly with detergent and a tooth brush, then giving it a quick scrub with 000 wire wool. The wire wool at this stage was probably not necessary, but it doesn't do any harm. I then "brushed" the whole band, and the clasp, first using a 400 grit sanding disk, laid flat on a wooden board, followed by a 600 grit sanding pad and then another rub with some 000 wire wool. I rubbed the face of the two band sections lengthwise, by holding the band flat with a small block of wood, and moving the whole arrangement (block plus band), keeping the pressure uniform along the band, and checking as I went to make sure things were going to plan. I didn't spend very long on this, perhaps 20 minutes total, taking care to keep the effect uniform along the whole length of the band. If I were to take a bit more care, I could probably make a much better job of it, but the band has gone from tired and grubby, with lots of scratches on it to, pretty presentable, with not much effort. Admittedly this is a very simple example, as the whole band has the same finish, but you can see that the method works. The watch is the same Casio quartz I posted about this morning as my "watch of today". As you can see the band does have a few other kinks and battle scars, but they are now far less obvious.
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  16. I have seen silly sods with those things strapped to thier ankel. My sister gave her husband a watch for Christmas. it beeps and he looks at the face and it tells him to go walkies.
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  17. Another mistake.. bent the spring the wrong side... i had to cut it off and bend it again however it seems that I fixed the mainspring and the clock started to work. Yes it is shorter now by 10-15 mm but it works. I am really happy. VID_20190221_231500.mp4
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  18. Seiko ProspeX SRPC39J1 Ordered this over the weekend & what a deal !! 258 buck$ + free shipping & no tax !! (Actual baby turtle not included.)
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