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Leave the end of the sweep second hand as is ( with worn or larger diameter) as this ensures easy fitting of the sweep hand on its arbour, tighten the tube at its mid- length with a nail clipper. Good luck Correction , the end of the tube of the sweep second hand.

I'm going to call this one a success story and enjoy wearing it. Thanks for joining me for the ride!

Cheers, couldn't agree more. As for keeping time, I was able to regulate it within 10 seconds a day, and we'll find out about the reserve (and whether I put the automatic works together correctly ) when I wear it for a while.

If I remember correctly the reason the tariffs were first introduced in 1930 was because some watch companies were selling watches that claimed to have adjustments that were not in fact present and claiming more jewels than were present, for a price less than watches that did in fact have those adjustments and jewels. So consumers were being duped and getting less than what they paid for, which put the entire watch industry in a bad light. The import duty made it non-financially viable to claim adjustments that were not in fact present. So, in theory, the move was to protect the consumers trust in the watch industry, while also lining Uncle Sam's pocket with some sweet import duties. Google Books has a fascinating transcript of a 1955 congressional committee that was investigating how some watch companies were gaming the system to avoid paying the import duties, which the government claimed had cost them around $250 million b/w 1930 and 1955. Various heads of the American watch companies testified with some really interesting background on their company operations. JFK was one of those present during the testimony. If anyone is interested you can download a PDF here.

Just a big thank you to dadistic, I finally got round to finishing of the lathe. I got the 0 morse taper, it's not a perfect fit but it will do the job, I've ordered a nice new jacobs chuck, so it's already to go. Cheers again for your help.

Indeed...and I have been following the other thread, so I went right to the document (which I had already printed from the ranfft link) to validate the mfg. from the code on the balance cock. In an ultrasonic filled with ammonia based cleaning fluid? L&R Fine Watch cleaning solution. I would think a quick disassemble would be necessary since a thorough rinse might be challenging. Oddly, no. I checked this before making the post. Happily, the watch is running so it will run down naturally. I have seen you say this before and it is absolutely a maxim of any mechanical/electronics venture--watchmaking--circuit boards. The problem is of course, finding the thing you saved!!

did you know if you went back early enough in American pocket watches that the movement almost never came in a case. You go to the jewelry store the movements would be in one display case the cases would be somewhere else you got to pick and choose. then there is the other problem between now in 1918 is quite a long time if for unknown reasons somebody decided they didn't like their case arose worn-out odes or whatever there's nothing to prevent you from swapping to another case. Often times you look a pocket watches and you can see other casings screws now that's a definite giveaway that the case was used for another watch. So basically all it means is between when it was made and when you've got it somebody put it in a new case. this by the way is a very good thing. Thoroughly oils tended to be organic oils they would go bad with time the watch would come to a nice safe stop and not disintegrate by just running forever without lubrication. So if you're lucky somebody will take great grandpa's watch put it in the sock drawer and it's been sitting there for the last hopefully a very long time of years then all your watch needs is cleaning possibly a mainspring.because the unfortunate reality of a watch that's been running continuously is probably didn't get normal servicing which in the early days would've been yearly and things start to wear out so it's much nicer if it's all gummed up and not running

I'm currently being distracted by another discussion and thinking about swiping your picture. Notice there's an import code on the balance bridge and the words unadjusted I suppose I should be nice and give everyone the link to the other discussion of why that's interesting https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/24653-three-letter-code-on-balance-cock/#comment-202685 I'm glad you said before you rediscovered watchmaking because otherwise you'd be in trouble. Watchmakers never throw anything away including old parts. if you have access to the case then you should build a release to click and let both mainsprings down as it looks like you have two barrels. Other lattes I don't think your inability hold onto either barrel and let the power off slowly it probably break something. That means you're stuck with the other two methods letting it run down by just running which I doubt it's going to do in its current condition or by pulling the balance of pallet fork. You could try getting the watch to run the way it is now by doing a modern practice of what's called pre-cleaning. In modern shops like those at work on Rolex watches they will run the watch through a special cleaning machine assembled everything's assembled hands and dial are off but the watches assembled and it's cleaned so it makes it a lot easier to evaluate and make adjustments before they disassemble and do the final cleaning. Occasionally I'll do that with the pocket watches at work and then I'll discover that I forgot the with the power off and the watch will be running again. So if you're concerned about letting the power down in the dirty condition it's in pre-cleaning might be an option and then at least you can let it run down safely or take the power off at least there's not as much dirt and things.

First step in security is 24 hour private security force like Jasper the destroyer. Second is an American flag and a NRA sticker. I just finished this bit of deception. I also have a small safe with rocks in it in the bedroom closet.

Steel guitar strings go from about 0.10 to 0.5 mm. A 'G' string should do nicely at about 0.17mm. Or sharpen an old oiler to a fine point.

Eyup matey. I was meaning more for the pin vice that has less control than a collet, a lot of beginners wont have a lathe and collets. maybe with good control. Personally myself i would probably risk it. A broach ? I use acupuncture needles for lots of things, homemade oilers, hooks, tweekers, pushers, pullers etc. These start at aound 0.18mm and go up to 0.3mm, around 5-8 quid for a box of one hundred. Stainless steel , very bendy and worth having in your tool kit.

Good point. Maybe I was lucky There is risk any way you do it though. If one uses a numbered collet same diameter as the tube then it mitigates some of the risk I would think. Further, If tightened just to the point where the tube no longer can move, not further, then that should be enough for a first pass try.

Hose it off with water That is not the way to clean such a movement not unless you want the steel to rust.

Put a rod in the tube (a needle might do it) to prevent it collapsing completely when you use the nail clippers

She'll get used to it!

you're options are 1. stalk fleabay for a movement or a roasted doner with a good disc (expect to pay out at least 100 on a very good day to 300 on a bad day) 2. dial refinishes can redo the hour disc thats about it. the minute plastic disc is reproduced and can be found on fleabay easily enough.

It ran pretty decent apart from the rate originally. You wont want to hear this but I think i would be very closely inspecting that all of the train and escape pivots survived all of the off and ons. Easy to miss and ignore damage when frustration and eagerness to reassemble takes over. Before getting back into that though take WW's advice and follow the manuals forgetting about anything that you have done up to now. You may be lucky and another clean and relube may have some better results.

somewhere I thought I read it on his website that he was asked to remove the offending bestfit books because of copyright infringement. But https://watchguy.co.uk/cgi-bin/files so at the link above you can see you can download stuff like tech sheets and all sorts of nifty technical documentation like possibly a bestfit book. scroll down to the miscellaneous technical and then in there is the word bestfit click on that I always find this website a little strange in that when you click on whatever you want to download you basically go back to the homepage and the download link is at the very top of the page you'll see that it's actually appears to be two separate volumes but there it is and it's free but there is a problem with the PDFs and that is their PDFs. They're wonderful if you have a general idea what's in there in the witschi looking for but ideally really went the physical blocks also. They want to pick up the physical books from time to time and found through them because there is so much information here it basically becomes impossible remember everything in their. Job that means everything to pick up the book you'll discover new stuff but it's all very useful and helpful stuff. then looking at the website where I purchased mine from $10 for something that's worth its weight practically in gold it's well worth it somebody's responsible for scanning it and having scanned documents it's a real pain so somebody did this they should be rewarded. But here's something you can't download sort of and it's not $10 hits $100 basically that's the online version no pictures no PDFs of the book. But if you want to cross reference parts you can do that. https://mccawcompany.com/product/bestfit-material-matsys-for-life/

Wow. I think that's the priciest screw I've ever heard of. (Insert ribald jokes about screwing, screwed, etc. here)

In the Seitz catalogue it shows them used with a flat anvil at the bottom, and the lever to create the force. These are designed for slightly loose jewels, so only a very slight movement of metal is required. For an arbor slopping around in a bridge, I will still be using two round punches (top and bottom) in my staking set. And a hammer - it's "hammer-time" (ref Kalle Slaap)!

I didn't have an anvil large enough to support the large plate, so I used the "face plate with 3 clamps" body from the Seitz catalog, page 19 (https://ihc185.infopop.cc/helphand/pdf/seitz.pdf). I can take a picture when I'm back home later if you'd like, but there's not a whole lot to see. Just imagine the hole reducer punch with the face plate on the bottom.

Mike's already beat me to it, but these are the ones I bought. https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/seitz-jewelling-reducing-jewel-hole-tools?code=J30577 I use it with the regular jewel press, no hammer involved. The lever will give you a huge mechanical advantage.

I hadn't realised until I just looked, my jewelling tool has hole closing bits. I don't know whether you are supposed to just press the lever, or hammer on the top ?

Generally teeth of wheels/gears are not supposed to be oiled, but I have seen exceptions: in the documentation for some movements, the teeth of the winding pinion are oiled. Take a look here: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/22363-oiling-teeth-of-winding-pinion-yes-or-no/ Till today, I’m not sure how to feel about that.

I second Tom's assertion about misdirection. I'm a semi-retired private investigator who used to set up security measures for businesses on the side. My own watches are *not* easy for me to access (but not time-consuming either) so if a burglar had no idea where to start looking, they could conceivably need to tear my house apart for quite some time before finding any of my watches. It's not just a simple matter of stashing them in "the last place anyone would look", it's also a matter of forcing the thief to ask "Do I really want to bother with the hassle of checking there?" You can never get a perfectly secure place; if it can be accessed at all, there exists a thief who can access it. All you can do is slow them down. And I made up my mind to slow the potential burglar down as much as possible. Gives time for the coppers to arrive, you know.

Thank you Nucejoe. Nice to meet you! Hi oldhippy, Thank you for the friendly welcome! Sure, I'll show you some things I've been tinkering with. I wouldn't exactly say achievements, but it's always a good day when the house is still standing at the end of it The first pic is a SKX that I swapped out the 7s26 with a 4r36, SARB crown and a double domed sapphire with a bevelled edge to keep that Seiko look to the crystal edge. It's on a veg tan strap that I made for it. A piece of rotting fence paling completes the look. I know it's a dive watch on a leather strap, which is a major faux pas to some. The second is kind of a 62MAS homage made from mostly Seiko parts-dial, 4r36, case back, SARB crown, click spring, and gaskets. The rest is all aftermarket mod parts-case, hands, top hat crystal, bezel, oyster bracelet, and bezel insert. The forum post about making end pieces that brought me here will allow me to link the oyster bracelet to some flat end pieces I found at Cousins that fit the case. What brought you here in the first place Mate? I'd love to see what you get up to also! Cheers, Steve

Ludwig and Fries was a wholesaler in Frankfurt/M. like Flume, Jacob etc. Frank

Some sellers on ebay call a clock that is only 10 years old an antique. It alway used to be over 100 years old, 49 to me is still modern its just a term I use. If the hole doesn't have a nice round shape you need to look into it and the pivots. If the escape wheel holes are worn this will affect the depth of the pallets which will also affect the swing, if it is too shallow the clock will stop this applies to any clock that has a escape wheel and a pendulum.

Levin will sell me the screw for $125 plus shipping.