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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/07/20 in Posts

  1. I hope I have posted in the right section. It is a tool I guess. I would like to share with you if you don't already know a way to bring back the shine on old pocket watch movements. In the photos I grabbed an old barrel from the parts bin and dipped it in Shinebrite for about 10 Min. Then I placed it on bolsa wood and give it a scub with a medium hardness small paint brush for a few more minutes. Rinse it under the tap and yeah the shine is back. I do this with stained plated movements as well. Gets rid of tarnish better than other methods I know.
    2 points
  2. If I train her on repairing watches, I will be embarrassed over time:)
    2 points
  3. Move house? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  4. Hi! Haven't had much time for watchmaking practice, for way to long time!! But finally!!! Well almost done with the st 96 project. First started. And first finished. And, im very pleased! I have to say, it was very frustrating at times. Many small issues. Most done by my own "fine" work.. ? I did source a replacement balance. Or, I got offered by a gentleman. So, I did install it. But the watch did not run very clean at all. With low aptitude. Was a bit concerned, to say at least. But I managed to get it to work reasonable on the timegrapgher. So I decided to but the cannon pinion back, diel and case it. Well.. It isn't going to be easy, is it? ? Somehow, I do not really now how. The tub shaft on the center wheel. Was wrong.. I have no clue. But the cannon pinion was rattling loose fit.. When I realized. Well. some cussing did happen.. ? So, thank god. There is a donor movment to rob parts from. Bit disheartening to have to strip it back again..But decided I will improve the running quality, as much as possible. Well, at my skill level anyway.. ? That had to be the goal. And the possibility to "play" with my new ultrasonic cleaner. So, stripped it down again. Inspected it all carefully. But could not see any obvious problem. Put the wheel train and bridges in the sonic boom cleaner (sounds funnier, as an old aviation techie) So far, I have no real Watch cleaning fluid. But tried som 3M industrial cleaning fluid. Dunked a bit in a jar. And set the heater to 50 Celsius. And let it sit for 20 minutes. Rinced it carefully in isopropanol. Have to say, everything came out cleaner and shinier than before. Tried to clean the jewels with peg wood. But..he.. How do you guys get that done? Tried to sharpen as fine tip as humanly possible. But couldn't get it tru the jewels.. Assembly went well. Except the train bridge. Took a long time to get the timing wheel to align. But when that was fixed. Everything whent fine.. Now, having a beer, watching the timegrapher ticking a way with a slow variation of +- 4 seconds average. With that, Im a very happy camper!! ? Casing, dial and hands. Is tomorrows project. And BIG! thank you to all who has cheered on, answered my nooby question. HSL has to be mentioned extra nice ty! As he as donated a spare movment. Extra screws.. (don't ask.. ? ) Cheers all! And I wish you all a nice weekend with no pings! ?
    1 point
  5. I also picked this up. New condition, still in its original packaging for a quid. Looks ideal for "winding up" the Brexiteers. ? The listing stated “Unused but the battery has run out some time ago”.. I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere.
    1 point
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  7. Definitly nice and shiny now. If Shine bright is the same as the UK silverdip it will contain mild abrasives and ammonia, just have a careful sniff. it will clear you sinuses.
    1 point
  8. Certainly a universal movement holder, good quality too
    1 point
  9. I don't advice to use any old cleaning agent. These modern cleaners off the shelf who knows what damage they can do. Never ever use anything like Cillet Bang on antique clocks (antique) I mean any thing from the first decade of the 20th century. Heaven knows what it can do to brass and steel. You might think it looks nice to have a bright shining movement but that doesn't make it go.
    1 point
  10. Everyone here has been extremely insightful and welcoming. All of the feedback is awesome! I cannot thank everyone enough! Ill give some things a go! Wish me luck - will feedback results!
    1 point
  11. Solved by the wisdom of my wife. She said to use a hair blower on the socket and then push it it. It worked amazingly. The manufacturer should recommend this as punching it, jumping in and and taking a sludge hammer to it did not work. Simple wife trick...that’s why we have to listen to our significant other from time to time...and I’m the Engineer:)
    1 point
  12. I have put 224 lbs over the socket to push the ball in without luck. Sludge hammer may be the next move. For a $1000 bucks and import fee, this should not be an issue.
    1 point
  13. Please forgive the poor quality snapshot, but it all came together. I am over the moon! Here's my first completed fordite-dialed watch: I'll provide a more complete write up, better photos, and another completed watch example ASAP.
    1 point
  14. Quick update: I've cut my first series of fordite veneers, and I'm in the fun-but-difficult stage of assembling my first run of dials. Here's a scan of my first workable batch of fordite sections (ranging in thickness from 0.3mm to 0.5mm). The final patterns of these will change, as I'll be grinding them down to their final height. (This is a good thing, as some of the patterns below are pretty uninspiring. It'll also be heartbreaking, as some of my favorites below will likely shift too.) It's coming together!
    1 point
  15. Unless you fancy a challenge it's worth looking at the websites of the usual parts suppliers first. The Resources page you'll find a link to at the head of this forum is a good place to start. I can see for instance Cousins has both male and female stem parts listed. I'm sure other suppliers closer to your neck of the woods might be able to oblige too. Also a good tip to a newbie is not to focus exclusively on the movement model you're specifically dealing but be aware of models in the same family. In your case http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&ETA_2375 will list other members of the family. Often you'll find that parts are listed against the first member of the family ... so that's the ETA 2370 in your case. A quick ebay search on 'eta 2370 stem' brings up for instance https://www.ebay.com/itm/ETA-2370-watch-movement-part-404-female-split-stem/132105059577 With these breadcrumbs I'll let you take over...! ?
    1 point
  16. I got thinking I should lay this out, the way I’d do it. Which is not to say “best” or “only” way... to get that deep, wet look shine, the most important thing is flatness. Or consistency of curve on curved surfaces. So, we need it flat, and to stay flat. For these index rings I’d start with shim stock. It is ground flat and parallel. It comes in plenty of thicknesses. But shim is much flatter than flat stock. This makes life easier. the jig you have is great. Good thinking there. I’d prepare it with a random orbit sander. Work through the grits; probably could start at 600 with shim- get a uniform “white” color to the surface and then change paper to 800, then 1000, then 1500 (maybe). Now we buff. Be mindful of the grit size in the buffing compound isn’t larger than the size of the paper you finished with (or you’re wasting time abs money). All sanding is wet, with a drop of dish soap in the water. Now I’d make a hole in the center of the ring holding jig so it can be spun, say with a drill. Then bring the ring into the loaded wheel rotating- never stop on the part. Wheel and part moving when the touch and when they separate. clean clean clean. Three most important words.
    1 point
  17. This is coming along nicely! i’ve been following this and finally I can contribute. If you want to get a “black” polish on the index ring, you need a large, lose and flappy wheel with very fine rouge. A small Dremel wheel is going to produce swirl marks that’ll drive you insane. Even on the sides of a watch case, I use a 6” wheel, not a 1” wheel.
    1 point
  18. So, I've debated sharing the proof of concept picture below, as it's with an imperfect fordite dial slice and the fordite itself hadn't been polished. It's not even a particularly compelling cut of fordite; I'm going to be selecting the most visually appealing dial veneers I can. The failure rate of the section cuts is quite low (the material is really easy to work with, and stronger than it looks), so I can afford to be selective in my dials. This was one of my first attempts at a complete dial. The problem here is that I didn't start with a perfectly flat and even piece of fordite -- after gluing it to the brass dial, my total dial height ranged between 1.05 and 0.95mm. I ground this down by hand using 400 grit sandpaper, but inadvertently exposed brass on the dial underneath the fordite in doing so. Starting with a thinner, perfectly even disc of fordite will prevent this from happening in the future. The new larger saw blade should be arriving in a couple of days, and I'll do some more cutting ASAP. Here, I also glued the fordite with G-S Hypo jeweler's cement, which may have encouraged the thin parts of my fordite veneer to peel if the adhesive wasn't even in spots. My next attempts are going to use a very thin layer of 330 epoxy instead, which I've "thinned" by heating before mixing. So, this picture is not a good end product. As proof of concept and feasibility, however, I'm really proud of this picture. Total dial height here was 0.5mm, not the 0.4mm I'm shooting for. Despite that, the hands cleared everything quite well. I will say that the case I'm using does have a protruding tube -- the stock dial for this case has a very small notch cut out of it to accommodate the tube. The brass dial blanks I'm using *dont* have this cutout, so I'm going to need to file one in future attempts. It's going to take a lot more work to get everything to the point where I'm satisfied, but I'm confident that I can pull this off based on last night's progress. Also, I'm committed to sharing my techniques and process openly. So it's honest to show failures, even if they're embarrassing. Finally, I scanned another piece of fordite. I'm sharing it not because it's particularly interesting visually, but because it shows the colors embedded in the "Jeep / Dodge" fordite I'm using. I love the metallics!
    1 point
  19. I would soak it up with cotton wool, take it outdoors, put it in an open can and set fire to it. Will quickly burn away.
    1 point
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