Leaderboard

Just want to say that I am blown away to be in the exhaulted company of such YouTube superstars as Mark Lovick and Stian... Your videos have been a real inspiration to me and got me started on my interest in horology. Thanks for all your hours of time spent for making such fantastic content. Definitely what Youtube was made for, the visual swapping of knowledge...

Yea that little brass colored thing. Sometimes it doesn't drop back down when I loosen the knob and it won't grip the shaft well the next time I tighten it.

I suppose, your pivot polishing caused that difference. If a pivot end of the balance staff is falsely too high domed, this will happen in the corresponding flat position. How is your amplitude in vertical positions? If you want to know, if xx ms is ok or not, that number does not yet tell too much (0.8 however will be ok in any case). Essential is, how many degrees out of the middle is the balance in rest? That is the reason of the beat error. The very same error of 5 degrees will show: 1,3 ms @ 28800, 300° Ampl. (B.E.= 5°) 2,1 ms @ 18000, 300° Ampl. (B.E.= 5°) 3,6 ms @ 18000, 180° Ampl. (B.E.= 5°) That is why I regard the beat error in degrees only, which my PCTM shows. 2 degrees and lower will be near to perfect. Your 0.8 ms corresponds to 2.0 degrees! Of course you cannot expect such sophisticated measurements from Weishis and Witschis Frank

My basket shaft is wonky and to make it worse the screw that holds the basket bracket on the shaft was taped crooked causing the basket bracket to tilt slightly and the I.D. of the basket bracket is a little oversized and I am guessing you may be in the same boat as I am. This is defiantly causing the vibration in your video. I am going to have another shaft made, my shaft is 3/8" DIA (.375) then the shaft needs to be taped in both ends and a 3/8 stop bushing needs placed onto the shaft. It Is not that complicated of a procedure for any machine shop.The 300 series stainless steel rod and 3/8 bushing only cost me under $10.00 I am guessing the machine shop wound charge $50 - $75 to do the work. the only other thing would be adjusting the rod tension screws to get the proper "slide" up and down on the basket rod (see pic) That will greatly improve performance to a Elma like smoothness. I am in the process of doing this, I have the parts ordered and I will post the results.

Companies I've done work for on both new builds and vintage repair stipulated a beat error under 1ms on watches with fixed stud holders (in 6 positions, haha). I recall in some Vibrograf literature, written before the advent of digital timing machines, they said anything under 2ms will have essentially zero effect on the running. So you look fine there!

Thanks up to now this is the sort of forum I can deal with, everyones been friendly, answered my posts and arent pontificating...thanks for the reply... and surely that should be "Beginning"... Make a good first impression there Anthony...well done...

I posted on another thread about the watch bench I bought that was full of tools. Many of them suffering some rust. Well, I did the research. In particular, the Project Farm youtube channel (which I love) did a review of all the rust removers (well...maybe not all, but some of the obvious candidates). Happily for this crew, Coca Cola was included in the review. After watching the video, I decided to go minimalist and least invasive--white vinegar. A few hours in the soak and not much happened. So...sez me...I will add heat and a little ultrasonic action. So I put the rusty parts in a beaker filled with white vinegar, immersed into a mixture which was mostly water (did not matter, because it was just a medium to pass the ultrasonic waves). Wow. Fifteen or twenty minutes later and the rust was GONE. I wish I had taken a "before" picture but I did not. Even though Project Farm did not give high marks to white vinegar, it can be quite effective in combination with heat and ultrasonics. Perhaps Coke would have worked as well using heat and vibration...that will be a later experiment perhaps.

Today has marked the end of an era. The long and fulfilled life and reign of our Queen Elizabeth II. All of the UK and everywhere salute you ❤.

Hello and good day everyone. I'm still getting my feet wet with watch repair, and would appreciate your advice regarding some timegrapher readings of a service I completed yesterday. I bought an older Jerome Piquot watch off of eBay. I know nothing about the brand, I just thought the watch looked unique and thought it'd be fun to rebuild. Considering I paid under $25 for it, I figured if I botched it completely it wouldn't turn out to be an expensive way to learn a lesson in watch repair. It has an AS 1686 movement. The service went really well yesterday and it has been running in for around 9 hours at this point. I'm getting a beat error of 0.8ms. This AS 1686 does not have an adjustable beat error stud, I know that I would have to remove the balance wheel and adjust it manually if I wanted to. I'd like to avoid that if possible and just wanted to call upon the experience of here to see if 0.8ms is something they'd try to improve upon on this watch. Here's dial up running at +5 to +6 s/d, and has a very strong amplitude considering I didn't replace the mainspring, but I was meticulous with the cleaning and did polish the pivots with my recently acquired Jacot tool and remove a bit of extra side shake in the mainspring barrel. Here's dial down - running at -2 to -3 s/d with a slight amplitude drop from the previous position. I feel pretty good about the service, and was encouraged to see single digits after a short period of regulation. Would you bother with the 0.8ms beat error in this 60 year old movement? Also, does the amplitude drop of 21 degrees between dial up and dial down seem within reason to you? There is a bit more end shake in the 4th wheel than I'd ultimately like, but it is not so much that it would cause any part of the wheels to not be in contact with one another. It just meets the escape wheel not in the center of it's pinion, but it is still in full contact throughout all end play testing between both the wheels. As of right now though, I do not have a jeweling/Seitz tool needed to adjust for that. I think it is as good as I can get it with my tools & skill level. I'd appreciate any feedback you may have. Thanks.

Hopefully this early "Made in Great Britain" Dundee Timex will respond well to a service and a good scrub. I'm unsure of the exact date, but if there is an ink stamped clue inside I'll let you all know. Somewhere between 1956 and 1963 would be my initial guess.

Re-reading the posts in this thread a couple of years later I have just recently found an extremely easy, convenient, and exact method for determining side-shake. Got the method from Kalle Slaap at Chronglide YT-channel and you can see it in the video. Also, I've tried the metod hands-on and have written more about it in my Vostok calibre 2431 Service Walkthrough.

Have you checked for wear on the arbour holes of the main plate and train bridge? It’ll give you an excuse to dig out your staking set!

Lol yes. I was guessing from memory what it was. I just finished it last week except for a new crystal and a good leather strap. Thanks watchie, i will have a good read on that. I managed a good rate of upto 290 at full wind. But 2 of the verticals have a pretty steep drop. Of around 70 degrees. There was no spacer under the barrel of your walkthrough, but it looked like it had been rubbing quite heavily on the mainplate the same as mine had.

Mine has a little brass piece that the knob clamps on to. That piece can move up and down. Sometimes if i don't watch that brass can ride up if i don't loosen the knob enough and I don't get good clamping force. Maybe your brass is riding up by the time you get to the 3rd position? Otherwise, I'd check your wire connections. Maybe something came loose. Like the photos above, my rheostat was just twisted together with electrical tape on the outside. The other connections are easy to check cause they're just screwed to a block.

Down to 38.3 degrees Celsius now. Nothing can stop the watch fever though. In Sweden, it is tax-funded, except for the socialists for whom it is free Well, simply to more easily expose how extreme it is. A 30-second gain may not sound much, but 1500 s/d really shows what's going on. I guess you mean the Unitas 6325? I have done two 6325s and one 6380 (same movement with a date complication) As far as I know there is not supposed to be a spacer under the barrel. The second Unitas 6325 was one of my biggest challenges (at that time). I had to fix a whole bunch of issues before it got a reasonable amplitude/timekeeping. If you want to follow my struggle you can have a look at the following thread where some of WRT's finest helped me out a lot! Thanks!

Now that I look at my machine more closely, when I spin the rod by hand I do see the basket holder tilted. So what you're describing is dead on for my case. Please keep us updated!

I have a friend who used one for pre-cleaning partially disassembled movements. I think they never got very popular for several reasons; no ultrasonic, hard to really clean things when changing baths (it's really important), and if a part escapes the basket- it does happen- it gets to travel through the tubing hopefully ending up in a bath, which aren't as easy to get into as a regular cleaning machine. The upside is the baths have very little air contact, and being a floor unit on wheels they are easily slid under a bench or table leaving more free space. I think they came out with the idea of cleaning lots of assembled movements with holders that hold the whole movement. In those days that (cleaning assembled) had become standard procedure for many.

Looking at the vid I would guess the basket is at fault or it’s not being secured tight. When fitting the basket it should be a a tight fit. I have owned/ used one of these machines for the last three years with no issues whatsoever.. As always it’s a case of the elimination process. Such as spin without a basket to see it all is true. Try a different basket etc etc. The pic shows the springs that add tension by pressing on the top of the basket .

There sure is something wrong with that.

What’s the quality of the baskets like? I’ve been uhm’ing and aah’ing getting one. I know full well I’ll end up rewiring it and making it safe, but the big thing is the baskets for me. I’ve read that the coating on them flakes off and end up in the watch parts - not sure if that was an isolated case?

Yea. If the seller doesn't help me, hopefully Esty will. If not them I'll do a credit card charge back. Hopefully it never has to come to that. In the solution the speed control works great. And yes the voltage is right for my country.

Was your machine able to control the speed when it was in the solution? Also, is the voltage correct for your country?

Mine would shimmy when I was in the spin cycle (in the jar, out of solution) causing the basket to creep up out of the jar, flinging solution everywhere. Then it died. Total waste of money for me as the guy selling it refuses to answer any of my emails.

After waiting for months for the watchmaker to return me (I requested the return as he took too long to bother looking at mine since last summer), I finally got it back so I proceed to start disassembling but I got stumped a bit with that watch when it come to removing the movement. I removed the back which is screwed and removed the antimagnetic shield, I see the movement fine so I removed the two screws holding it to the movement ring. However, the ring is firmly set in the case with what seems like hard rubber pieces between the groove (look like this <o>). I figured out it might be because the movement needed to be turned a certain way to remove it. Since the stem look "broken" without crown, I tried to remove the stem and disassembled the movement enough to access the winding parts and used a knife to slowly pull the stem out of it. Upon removing the stem, I noticed it is not broken but a split stem so it was a surprise (if there is no caseback, i would know but with a caseback, i thought it was a standard one). I guess this mean the movement is front loading ? Guess I need to figure out a way to pop the crystal out. I tried turning but there is no way it can get out.

I'd say i've had very good rust removal results with white vinegar, but it is an acid so will totally eat away at machined faces if left on there too long...when I first used it on a motorbike I was restoring I left some ball bearings in it overnight and they were just rough black balls by the morning...So an hour or 3 at most for delicate parts like watches. it will turn them black if they are rusty and will leave them pitted where it takes the rust off... I have heard of the wonder stuff Evapo Rust that is totaly inert, friendly to the environment and lasts forever and is very effective but only for Americans I am afraid...or from that there T'internet but 1 amount of it should last a watch maker a lifetime so a good investment I reckon... here popular mechanics know more than I do about it, they've tested them all...Its what they do... https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/g2312/best-liquid-rust-removers-test/

thats a great point. i'm so used to usings micrometers on "regular machinist stuff" that to use them on pivots is a whole new world to me. The Seitz gauge has been a great addition to my bench. that, and a pin gauge set idea from dadistic? I think it was, has advanced the hobby into some new realms.

Hope you are ok Watchie. Drink plenty of water to stop you dehydrating, also electrolytes that you will lose through sweating. Sounds unpleasant and it isn't nice tasting but even if its just a tad of pink himalayan salt in your water is better than nothing. And keep nice and warm. Sweat that little bugger out.

This is what it looks like when I'm spinning parts in the air. I have the parts reasonably spread out so the weight is distributed evenly. What do you guys think?

I use the term stability, and again I think that it is important to be specific, and say with respect to what. Temperature change is a great illustration of how an oscillators frequency can change with a change in operating condition. Because metals often expand with increases in temperature, and metals may lose their springiness with increases in temperature, the frequency of the beat of your watch will change some amount when the temperature changes. Much of the horological art has been about finding materials and designs to compensate for this, and modern materials and designs are much less affected by changes in temperature. Being "adjusted to temperature" is a lot less important than it used to be, and you can see this in the removal of the adjustment features in a modern balance assembly. Some folks here may be able to tell that I have been diving back into Hans Jendritzki's book "Watch Adjusting" I am trying to learn the material in that book as best I can, doesn't mean I'll be able to *apply* it, but I at least want to understand it! Cheers!

Line voltage issue? rheostat took a dump?, first 2 off the top of my head, just guesses. when you see how the rheostat is wired in you will be shocked! I'm getting ready to post my unit soon. Hey guy's finally got my cleaner finished and I would like to share with you what I did So you know I do have a prototyping back ground and am currently a mechanical contractor(H.V.A.C.) use this information at your own risk. Picture below shows the wiring compartment. I removed the wires from the terminal block and soldered the ends of all the wires and re inserted back into the block. these blocks are not too bad so long as you don't over crank the screws. I had to re do the rheostat, this is what I saw when I un wrapped the tape, yes tape! Looks to me like an India style western union style splice, horrid! I soldered the wires properly and sealed with some glue shrink. This whole machine is put together with slotted screws so on the fasteners I need greater access to I used Allen head screws and had to re tap the threads. The wiring on this unit is OK meaning it is good enough, the quality of the wire is nominal This machine draws very little amps so wiring size wise it is OK but on the other hand the assembly process is VERY poor and that is why like everyone else said THOROUGHLY CHECK ALL THE WIRING OUT BEFORE USING THIS MACHINE. This unit is not grounded and does not have a fuse or breaker so I got rid of the un grounded cord and made up a 2 wire with ground power cord and installed a fuse holder in the existing hole on the base of the machine. The 40 year old MIL-SPEC tank fuse holder dropped right in. I used a 1.25 amp fast blo fuse my amprobe showed .3 Amps RLA no heater and 1.4 Amps RLA with the heater and motor on. I ran the heater and motor on a full timing cycle, I think 12 minutes straight to see if I could get the 1.25 Amp fuse to give up the ghost but it was fine. Your machine may have slightly differing characteristics (sorry for the poor pics) I got a picture of the motor and heater assembly just for s**ts and giggles All in all I just went through the weak points of this cleaning machine and tweaked what I thought needed it. I think It runs well for what it is ...... an entry level cleaning machine. I cannot compare it to the Elma as I do not have one to compare it too but for my use as an amatur I think it will serve the purpose. Here are some before and after pics, best regards, James.

I'm still waiting for this to become affordable.

Hey, I am blessed that you got to use what I recently discovered!! If you have a Samsumg flat panel TV that wont turn on, I can help with that too!! These switch-mode power supplies sprinkled about this consumer electronics are really finicky about ESR and ESR is a function of aging. Sadly, lots of stuff ends up in the land fill that just needs a few caps replaced.

Hi VW I would advocate the use of a watch broach in a pin vise to open the hole slightly. The method I would use is insert the broach attached to the pin vise and with no downward pressure on the vise/broach the weight of the vise in the vertical being enough and then retry, if not enough repeat and try again. the idea being to remove as little as possible each time . Cheers

Normally this check is done clean and dry, but clean and oiled is OK too. Ideally it should move with a blower but just moving it by hand will tell you if it's free. You need some endshake, not excessive, and as said above it shouldn't have too much "tilt", this is a sign that the holes need to be closed. If holding with a pinvice you have to watch that the pinvice isn't influencing things. I prefer to capture the ends of the arbor in the flats of stout tweezers.

I did pay on PayPal with a credit card, but this was 10 months ago and outside of the time frame where they could have helped. It was in the middle of a cleaning cycle and it just stopped. There wasn't any type of burning smell. I just went and checked if there is a humming sound, and it actually started spinning! I've tested it more than a dozen times over the last two months and it never spun up so I'm not sure why it suddenly decided to start working. I did wonder if the original problem didn't come from all of the solution that winds up on the inside of the bottom base, where all the wires are running. It gets really wet in there because the arm keeps creeping up, flinging solution out of the jar. In the first and second positions (cleaning and first rinse) it works fine when in solution but in the third position (2nd rinse) it creeps up out of the solution and flings the solution everywhere. However, when in any of the three positions and in the spin cycle when it is just above the solution spinning off the excess, the arm/basket will creep up out of the jar. So I was basically just tied to the machine during the entire cleaning cycle as I have to physically hold the arm so it stays in place. Now that the machine seems to be working (for now), any ideas on how to get the arm to stay in position?