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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/20/19 in all areas

  1. Hello! Could anyone help me with some more detailed information (service sheet, manual, etc) for a russian chronograph Molnija 81322? It was (and still is, from my knowledge) used in MIG 21 airplanes. Two links that I've found: http://www.abbeyclock.com/photos/mig.html http://www.cockpitclock.com/MOLNIA%2081322.html Thank you, Bogdan
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  2. I have separated the HS from balance on these a few times. Side note these almost never come out of the box properly centered as you can see in the first pic out of a freshly bought movement.
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  3. Good choice you have made. You will use this tool knowing it will do the job properly, which will give you confidence every time you use it.
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  4. "Safety" would be provided in the form of an earth on the metal case, and a fuse in the plug. The only protection this actually provides is to ensure you *probably* don't burn the building down, assuming these two things do what they are designed to do. There will still be a big bang and a flash and a lot of magic smoke released if there is a fault. However, if the earth wire is disconnected (or if the earth pin on the mains plug is nicely covered in a thick layer of insulating crud), then when that red wire with the flakey insulation moves, falls off, or somehow contacts the case, the entire thing becomes live at mains potential (or perhaps a few volts below, if the crud is mildly conductive). This can make for a very disturbing and potentially fatal experience if you were to grab the metalwork. You would probably survive in a modern house with RCD protected circuits, but out in the shed or wherever, and "protected" by nothing but a 30A ring main fuse... you would probably be clean out of luck.
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  5. if you are asking me, no the watch has stopped completely. The hairspring looked like a cat had been at it.
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  6. Hello all, Imnew to the group, been collecting for only a short time. saw Marks youtube vids, and gave a crack at the basic course. I've retired from the open heart team and very used to working with loops on mm objects. This subject of watchmaking has always interested me, but family and work always to precedence.
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  7. Hoping for a sunny day
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  8. So, finally, the trigger has been pulled! After many considerations, I decided to order a brand new Bergeon 5500. You can see it here. Shipping included I paid £128/€144/$162. Not a bargain, but reasonable, I guess. I saw some definitive advantages: * Well tested professional tool. Meaning there's a good chance it will work and work well. * I can shop individual Bergeon dies for various needs as I go (silly expensive, as always), or shop a good quality Aliexpress set. * Shipping within Europe so it should be here within a couple of weeks rather than a couple of months (China). * Seller has 99.9% positive feedback ("Top-rated seller/eBay Money Back Guarantee). I'll let you know what I think when I've tried it! Finally, a big thank you to all of you sharing your experience, knowledge, and opinions in this thread! This is what makes WRT such a great place to be.
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  9. I recommend against that for user as screwdriver because it's way too fat and heavy, proper watchmakers driver are thin and light to get a good feeling. Cousins UK have "value" which means copied with attention. Same has Ofrei. I used Indian drivers for years without any problem on Seiko, but that's because these have wider slots than Swiss. Now I'll be getting some brand drivers when bought individually they aren't even that expensive. Very good ones are France made, A*F and others I'm sure can be found for a discount. Then I treated myself to the below, Ebay 202315546239, very nice finishing, handy dressing stone and a storage for blades. It's much better than a flimsy plastic chrome rotating stand that comes with cheap sets.
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  10. That old rheostat looks exactly like the speed controller in a very old train set my Dad passed down to me. It was a huge brick of a thing which sadly failed on its first attempt and I never did get around to getting another sorted but still have the train set.
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  11. Thought it looked broken . But now i look closer it looks okay. Maybe you should just leave it as is and oil it from inte inside. Sure looks like someone has tried to remove it before. Lots of damage.
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  12. Just in case you didn't know, and to save a lot of frustration, I think you're going to need a left hand threaded screw for that.
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  13. I'm with @GeorgeC on this i.e. this is not a shock protection spring but simply a retaining clip. This contrasts with ranfft which says that the 712 should have a Kif Protechoc system. It could be therefore that Elgin made the improvement to use a proper protection system later in the movement's manufacturing history.
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  14. A short one today. I was bothered about using rubber seals in the jars. I have never seen the original seal in a National jar, but thought anyway, that cork would have been far more likely. So cork it is. Obviously, you can't buy the seals and Elma (etc.) seals are all the wrong size, so the rest of that cork sheet I had was used, and I cut them by hand. These jars are quite a bit bigger that it's contemporaries and I think that is a legacy from these machines also originally being supplied with clock cleaning baskets, as an option. The jars are around 110mm square with around a 90mm neck size. Don't think I have seen any available as spares anywhere, so likely difficult to get hold of without the purchase of a whole machine. Anyway, I'm happy with these now.
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  15. I think now these are for Rolex indeed. Few sizes, some very close to the next, including a 31.2mm
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  16. nice work....I am also diving into a course on how to use a lathe
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  17. Your original description reminded me of a recent problem I had with a different movement. I switched screws.......The head on the screw holding the pallet cock turned out to look the same, but had a minutely thicker head. This caught the balance and stopped it. I felt really silly but it was a very rewarding fix!
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  18. The "luxury dies" set comes adapters. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32794479036.html It would be really simple to fit a screw into a plastic or wood bushing. it is normal to solve this kind of small problems when repairing watches or anything else.
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  19. 37.5mm Swiss-made Stuag, wears very flat and runs on a 17j ETA 900. Probably late ‘40s. Attributed to one of the few female (is that term still allowed these days?) -led watch manufacturers, Mlle Mireille Grebler (later Mme Mireille Franz-Grebler) who also came to control Cauny, before that particular brand became Spanish owned sometime in the 1970s. Regards.
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  20. I would think that this is more a retaining clip vs a shock spring. I recall another forum member mentioning this about the Kif duofix. He described that for a third or fourth wheel where the pivot didn't have a substantial shoulder to contact the hole jewel to arrest the shock beyond the 'spring' giving way, this shows that the spring/clip really was meant as a retaining device for the cap jewel. The incabloc style shock system allowed for the spring to absorb the smaller shocks and, if significant, the shoulder of the staff would contact the hole jewel to further protect the pivots.
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  21. Installation of the PWM Controller. This needed two new mounting holes to be drilled in the main base of the watch machine, the old rheostat fixing points being way too far away to be useful. Thankfully - and by one of those happy coincidences that just make your day, when they happen - two new fixing holes could be drilled and they would be hidden by the old control knob when it was in place. Happy Days! As can be seen in the photos below, the new controller occupies far less space and, just by itself, is a much safer solution than the original. I also hope that motor speed control will be far smoother than with the original. I will still make up an internal cover of sorts, just because I can, and I because am minded to. I cleaned up the old Bakelite knob a little and ran a little silver paint into the arrow head engraving, to brighten it up. And, as can be seen, the two new mounting holes for the PWM controller are hidden by the knob. Result! Finally, I replaced the original mounting screws for the old controller, so I did not have holes left on the dial. I think this is the best compromise I could have arrived at, as at least from the outside, the old machine looks to be still original and nothing visibly takes away from its undoubted age. After all - I am dealing with something likely to be over 75 years old and I was trying to take nothing away from that. That's it for the base unit - so all that remains is to remount the motor etc. to the base and rewire it all. The jars have been cleaned, I have fitted new rubber seals to the jar lids - I decided against cork as although likely to have been more original - I also had some nitrile rubber sheet to hand and used that instead. I can always refit this with cork later, if I find out for sure these old National machines used cork. Nothing "build related" for a couple days as I have other work to do, but hoping to get it finished at the weekend. Maybe a short testing video sometime after that. Thanks for reading.
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  22. Thats a new one for me so it is rare so DONT"T loose it. Here is a useful PDF showing the most common shocks. shock absorber – Watch-Wiki.pdf
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  23. Thanks. Not broken, the balance cock spring is identical. Huge ping hazard though. These function very much like the usual Incabloc springs in that you release the legs and then lift the spring out of the housing. Thanks, RMD
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  24. I have recently purchased a National, Electric Watch Cleaning Machine. Attached is a photo for reference and identification of the model type. As can be seen, it has a fairly typical design, reminiscent of many other types, particularly Elma Super Elite. In fact, I do wonder which came first - the National or the Elma. My musings on this point later. This is a very old machine, circa late 1940’s, 1950’s, but they seem to turn up sometimes on eBay, in various conditions ranging from the “beyond hope” and only really suitable as a donor for parts, and the “old but serviceable” and might-be-worth-a-punt-on machines. This one fell into the middle somewhere, as it was a bit tatty and the heating element did not work. On the plus side, it had all its original cleaning fluid jars and lids, and the motor and speed control gave smooth, controllable spinning and no play in the bearings. I went to visit the seller to inspect it and we did a deal on the spot. This is not always possible on eBay, but as the seller had listed it as for collection only (due to its weight), it was a possibility on this occasion. Once I had it home and gave it the once over, I decided that I would have to either do without heating for the drying stage, or find a replacement element. At the same time, it was very obvious that all of the original cabling was not safe to leave in place and it would all have to be removed and replaced. Any other electrical parts deemed unsafe would also be replaced as I inspected them. So - the idea of a restoration (of sorts) was born. Now - it is not my intention to restore it to the point where it could pass current electrical safety standards, but I will be making it as safe as possible, without losing any of the essential character of the original machine. This is not going to be for resale, so being safe to use is an acceptable compromise, in my opinion. I will however, perform testing on it once the electrical work is done, to make sure that the essential aspects of earth leakage, earth bonds and polarity etc. are passed. (PAT Testing included.) Whilst this is not likely to turn into another example of a superb restoration of an Elma Super Elite (as seen elsewhere on these forums), I hope at least to have at the end of it, a perfectly serviceable watch cleaning machine, and a restoration story - of sorts - of a vintage piece of English watch making and servicing machinery. So first off - the before pictures. This one is a good view of the machine and its cosmetic condition, as purchased. The base is a heavy, cast alloy jobbie, with its original crackle paint job beginning to flake away in places, where the years of cleaning chemicals have attacked it, but generally sound. The jars still had residues of cleaning and rinse chemicals present. The first wash jar (front left), was particularly grotty and can’t have been cleaned for years. Fairly ironic not to clean the thing, that cleans the things! Maybe it was just left unused and unloved for many years. The mains cable was a cloth-bound type I have not seen in years and could well have been original as it still had the old UK wiring standard colours of red/black/green. Also adding to the vintage-ness, was a very old, Bakelite three pin plug. This must have been one of the first of its type as I have not seen one in brown Bakelite before! (And I am 62...) Anyway, that’s enough for now, as I’m not even sure anyone wants to read much about such an old machine. If anyone is interested though, please add comments and I’ll add to the story as I make progress. At the very least, I hope I have found a potential solution to finding/ making your own heating elements for these old machines, which could also include providing replacements for Elma Super Elite, RM80/90 HCS511 etc. Machines. More details later...
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