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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/23/22 in all areas

  1. I'm not sure who is the basket case the watch or you.
    3 points
  2. Man, I tell you there's some savages out there. The escape top pivot was broken off and the bottom one bent. This wasn't from a drop, it was the top plate that was fastened down while the escape pivot wasn't located correctly. So the bent hands didn't surprise me. I think someone screwed up and then decided this should be a parts watch. See below pic of bent hour hand (minute hand looked similar). The plating on the hands also looked pretty scratched up. Yessir, already done. Ended up going the full DIY route, even making my own solution using Vinegar and salt. Just a pain to fine tune the mix and making sure bubble doesn't form on that small part. You can see the stick I used to constantly agitate the solution while plating. And the result: Not perfect, but a looooot better than what they looked like. And they straight. I was actually surprised by the thickness of the nickel plating; it survived quite a few polishing passes without issue, while the old plating came off with just two passes. Thank you very much!
    3 points
  3. Now 72, I've always been a "tinkerer". I don't remember ever taking apart a watch but there were a couple of Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engines that didn't survive a young boy with a wrench and screwdriver. Over the years "do it yourself" naturally taught skills and now the ease of ordering parts on-line and the seeming limitless library of helpful YouTube videos makes it possible to at least attempt repairing almost anything. My wife and I were blue water cruisers for a dozen or so years - living in very remote places along Central America and the South Pacific. That life will teach you a lot about self sufficiency and repairing diesels, refrigeration, plumbing, winches, and on and on. Either you fix something or you do without. We've been back in the States for almost two decades and hardly give a second thought to the conveniences of flush toilets, infinite fresh water, air conditioning in summer, and the miracle of fresh broccoli in the dead of winter. Wouldn't think of putting a wrench to the engine of our modern vehicles but there are plenty of small engines, hydraulic pumps, washing machines, and other things to keep me busy. I scrolled back through YouTube's History to find it was Fernando's "Collecting Vintages Watches" channel that recently started me down the rabbit hole of restoring older mechanical watches. Haven't yet taken the back off the Elgin pocket watch that's been kicking around in the junk drawer. But I've watched hours of relaxing videos and started a list of the small set of really necessary tools. Thankfully, I came across the often repeated suggestion to start with an inexpensive working movement to avoid the frustration of hard to find parts. Mark Lovick's course is in my near future and I look forward to the satisfaction and quiet work of tinkering with watches.
    2 points
  4. Getting back to using shellac, there is another application method, which does not use heat and stingy bits of shellac. Just disolve the shellac in Ethanol (Meths in the UK) to make up a thick solution. Then apply the thick solution with an old oiler. One small blob works its way around the jewel. Then just set it aside to harden, usually over night. Obviously not as quick as the traditional method but much easier to do for a beginner. I have used this method and can confirm it does work.
    2 points
  5. Thank you! Doing great my man, watches keeping me out the pub so my body thanks me Gonna be honest, plating is pretty simple after you've experimented on your own and figured out what works for you. But it's daunting when you start as you don't know what to expect. After watching a few vids, I can say the one below is pretty much the most accurate and comprehensive. Pretty much all you need to buy is nickel and you set. Having a decent power supply is also pretty important for delicate parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uy7QkLI8yU&ab_channel=bit-tech At the end of the day, you'll have to experiment with the solution you end up with. There's so many variables at play here that what voltage / time / object size worked for me, may not work for you. Took me a day to get it down pat, but now I can do hand from start to finish in 15 minutes. I haven't tried bigger objects like cases but that is my plan for a next project. EDIT: Oh before I forget. Agitating the solution is pretty critical with delicate parts. You absolutely don't want any bubbles that form to remain on the part for longer than a second or so. In my case the hands were pretty small and only needed about a minute of plating time so I was ok using a stick to swirl the solution, but on something like a watch case I'm going be looking at a magnetic stirrer. Then I can leave the part in the solution for longer without constantly agitating by hand.
    2 points
  6. I’m busy with one of two Tissot Seastar watches from the late ‘60s. This specific one using a 784-2 movement. As you guys can see, it looks pretty rough. It isn’t running (broken escape pivot), has bent hands, cracked glass, no crown or stem, etc. This isn’t a particularly desirable watch, so I get to either ruin it further or get it to work at least a little bit better lol. I’ll be posting random pics in this thread as I progress, but first job that I was really keen to tackle was the case and see what I could come up with. First time I really went to town trying to remove scratches, buffing and polishing and so far it’s encouraging Not perfect by any means, but a hell of an improvement over what it was. The bent and tarnished hands also need to be sorted, pics to follow. I was tempted to just replace them, but resisted that as I wanted to see if I could improve on them. And I’ve been itching to play with nickel plating. I’ll get some of those pics up tomorrow
    1 point
  7. Not for poising, but to securely hold the balance wheel while rotating the two opposing screws on the balance wheel in (clockwise). The watch is running too slow for the regulator adjustment to correct.
    1 point
  8. A lot of electric watches were like this no pallet fork and its electric no mainspring. The watches like this have a very clever design. The escape wheel is held in place with a tiny magnet. In one direction the balance wheel will pick up one tooth of the escape wheel. The other direction it goes by either not touching at all are barely touching. Or basically escape wheel moves a little out of the way it goes back in the place. An awards a very clever design that requires very little power to run
    1 point
  9. Judging by the pictures the stud position is wrong or the terminal curve is compromised. Remove the balance from the balance cock and re check the contcencicity of the spring. If the spring lays ok then re fit to the cock keeping the same profile. also whilst the balance is removed check both pivots, one or the other/or both may be damaged.
    1 point
  10. That was a much better video than what I was expecting. Then looking at the rest of the videos he has quite a few of them look interesting off to look at them when I have more time. Notice at the beginning he is a book and I stand corrected there are literally hundreds probably thousands of patterns of all requests. Which is why for this discussion we really need to know whether it's we can fix the existing hairspring because somebody had an accident or? Then the video does do a really good job of showing something and making it looks so simple where the skill set required to do that is a heck of a lot of skill set and that hairspring is of a very exacting nature anyway you can't just form one over coil on any old hairspring it has to be the right hairspring for the balance wheel.
    1 point
  11. Hello and welcome. I've never wrecked anything!!!! OK a few things, many things.
    1 point
  12. 1 point
  13. Nice work My Tissot has arrived so I shall be looking forward to the rebuild keep going look good
    1 point
  14. 1 point
  15. I see, that's cleared that up. Best of luck. I have always liked Tissot movements they are so easy to work on.
    1 point
  16. Now then matey not spoke to you for a while. How yooou doin ? I need to be picking your brains on this one, I want to learn case plating. You've made a nice job on the hands buddy. Ahh the classic watchbreaker. This is what makes it interesting and bloody annoying
    1 point
  17. How do hands get bent that's what I want to know! The case looks great - good job! Are you going to plate the hands?
    1 point
  18. First check that the screw is not blocking the stud and the hole is clear, lay the balance cock on its back and offer up the balance to the cock, move the stud into position over the hole and push in lightly then get a turn on the screw to stop itdropping out. Then lifit the balance and cock and fit into the watch. Untill all other checks have been made do not broach the hole. Thats a last resort job.
    1 point
  19. In 1991 my mother in law gave me this new Kieninger jubelee clock as a gift Searching the internet I stumbled over the following advise to buy new instead paying for service. That gave me the final trigger to service the movement myself knowing that I would get help by the experienced guys in this forum if necessary. I was concerned whether I would be able to restore the correct timing after reassembly because I couldn`t find any service literature about this specific movement. So I at least tried to read and learn something about locking cams, snails, "warning" etc.. Then I disassembled the movement carefully accompanied by a lot of pictures taken with my cellphone. For releasing the mainsprings I made a simple tool out of an aluminum pipe with handle and a cheap spare key. All parts were washed in alcohol with a brush and came out nice and shiny. I have to confess that I didn't remove the mainsprings not having a winder. So I just opened the lids and made sure that the oil was not yet hardened. As soon as I have a appropriate mainspring winder I can remove the barrels later easily by just pulling the arbors. For oiling the bearings I used the D5 that was handy from my watch servicing. I think it should work. To my surprise I found that timing of this movement can all be done without aligning the wheels during assembly beforehand. But it took me half a day to finally understand how the chime locking system with auto correction worked and how it had to be adjusted. Some pictures here: I'm happy with the result and want to encourage others to service their repair friendly Kieninger movements
    1 point
  20. Look up your serial number on Pocket Watch Database. There should be a link to the model, with a list of parts which should include the mainspring code. You can also take measurements and compare to this page: https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/reference/mainsprings which lists most (not all) mainsprings. You can then ask a local supply house which may carry an appropriate spring, or look on eBay. I would avoid old blue steel springs but even old alloys tend to be good. You can also look on CousinsUK, as suggested above, for a generic spring that will fit the movement.
    1 point
  21. Welcome to the forum Josh. That is a stunning watch. (The envy is strong in this one. (With apologies to Star Wars)
    1 point
  22. Hi Rich. One reason shellac is used is because fixtures can be reset over and over by applying heat. How come its loose rich, cleaned in ipa ?
    1 point
  23. The retaining ring holding the mainspring you usually isn't plastic. Usually on the modern ones is anodized aluminum. Most of the time it's colored on one side to tell you that that's the side that supposed to go out. Then when you're inserting the spring you do want to be careful that it actually does go down in if you use your finger or something you can get the center part in but you might not get the edge in see what do want to be careful that the spring it does get into the barrel before you try to remove the ring.
    1 point
  24. If you are getting orange peel I assume you are spraying your lacquer, yes. Orange peel is the result of an incorrect spraying technique, often the result from too much distance between gun/airbrush and subject, so the paint starts drying before it hits the subject, or you are putting too heavy a coat of lacquer down and it's drying at different rates. Try lighter coats with more dry time between coats, or try a less hot thinner so it slows the dry time a little.
    1 point
  25. This is a guy I have been watching on Youtube. He has some very good and interesting videos to watch some are for those just starting out. Here is a a nice one from him about Tweezers. He has a very good one on watch oils and grease. I have subscribed to his channel and I hope you will do the same.
    1 point
  26. Yep - better results with dynamic poising. I never use my poising tool any more - just the timing machine. I will show you guys my method one of these days.
    1 point
  27. I have ordered a few balance completes, and they came with two different impulse jewel. To my astonishment they both work. I assume this is because of this funny escape wheel what we have here. Going to take a pic later about it, it is really handsome trust me.
    0 points
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