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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/04/22 in all areas

  1. It's been a helluva journey of learning and frustration but my first watch is done. Scratched the dial on my first day of learning but that's ok. I bought this...rather ugly and cheap watch as the sacrificial lamb for this but I'm definitely gonna cherish it forever as the first watch i ever worked on. Very pleased with how it came out. I even treated her to a sapphire crystal. Thanks for all the help everybody. I super appreciate everybody who helped me out. Gonna do a service on my Orange Monster next then onto my first true project watch.
    7 points
  2. Hello again to all at the forum. It has been almost 12 months since I started. Never having looked at a watch apart from telling the time on my wrist. Where am I? Well, I now consider myself a fully fledge watch hobbyist. I now partially emulate many of those illustrious YouTube personalities who restore watches. I can remove a movement form a case, disassemble a movement. Clean the components using peg wood and liquid, lighter fluid and IPA. I can even remove and clean jewels. Clean and replace mainsprings. Not yet able to repair balance hairsprings, But I am working on it. Microscope for Christmas from my bride. Can't wait for the 25th. All this I can do without leaving a scratch on the surface. Hardly a 'ping' in evidence either. Case repair. Unfortunately, not for me. Just a general clean using and ultrasonic machine. I've limited myself to a few movements. ETA 2789 and 2789-1. Seiko, 6309, 6319, 7009 and 7S26. Citizen Miyota 8200a and my favourite Sekonda 2428 and 2427. All of which I can disassemble and assemble with ease. Happy Bunny. I still have year to go before I attempt my own lifetime watch. A Breitling Top Time, with a Valjoux 7730. A special thank you to all you members who have encourage me during this time in our world's dark history. I have learned from you all. Perserverance and practice. YouTube has been a great help. Initially it was hard, not really understanding much. Mark's course was a great. Learned so much and still learning. Other's now help as much as I can assimilate to a higher degree. My bride has just called to coffee. So, tools way. Regards Ross
    4 points
  3. Anything with an ETA 2824 - they're still being made by the millions and you can actually buy parts for it. In fact, in some cases, parts for Sellita SW200's will also work in it, plus it's cheaper. They're actually simpler to work on than the 7S26's you've been messing with.
    3 points
  4. I've followed some of your exploits and i'm sure you've seen a few of mine. Watch servicing is like a minefield that's almost impossible to navigate till you find out the locations of the mines it seems haha. I've serviced two 7s26 movements now and at a bare minimum i ruined one perfectly good balance, one salvageable balance, scratched a dial, scratched a case trying to remove a bezel, ruined 2 expensive plastic gaskets, ruined a center wheel, lost 3 shock setting springs, ruined one balance shock jewel, and ruined the needle on a brand new auto oiler i hadn't even used once. That said I did all that on my first movement i serviced. It took me about 2 months, about half of that was spent waiting for replacement parts for stuff i broke or tools i was never told i'd need. The second service i did took about 6 hours and i didn't even need a service sheet or video on how to assemble and lubricate the thing and it came out better than the first. You got this! get that first movement serviced and working and a lot of things just click.
    2 points
  5. I wish I could go back in time and have my first "service" be on a purchased ST36 instead of the whole range of junk that I purchased on ebay. I still haven't gotten one running! My next attempt will be on yet another ST36 - one that I won't soak in IPA too long.
    2 points
  6. Since you've already volunteered to be the guinea pig... Let us know how they shape up. Very interested.
    2 points
  7. Yes, it's the size of the fork slot. You don't get to specify the height, or length, it's just a "standard" size Seitz determined is sort of universal. You also have to accept the angle on the jewel face, which is for most older watches noticeably different from entry to exit, but a replacement jewel might not have exactly the same angle as the original (there are many many geometrical variations of the lever escapement). But, most of the time a Seitz jewel works just fine.
    2 points
  8. A little known technique that works great is: With the cannon pinion installed on the watch, use a pair of fine cutting pliers and squeeze the cannon pinion right in the original dent that creates the friction. It actually counterintuitively reduces the friction. Just a little squeeze goes a long way. You can also broach it, as Klassiker says, but this becomes difficult to next to impossible on closed cannon pinions (most watches without center seconds).
    2 points
  9. If you look at your crystal carefully, one edge has a larger bevel than the other. Logically, one would assume that the larger bevel is there to assist you in getting the crystal in. But the correct way is to fit the smaller beveled edge in and the larger bevel facing up. The large bevel is just for cosmetic purposes only. If you fitted the crystal with the large bevel down, the crystal would pop up the moment you release pressure from the crystal press.
    2 points
  10. Normally my experience would agree with yours until I found this tool and so far it's worked quite nice for pivots. It also looks like Bergeron has revised it in some way. I have the PDF attached for describing how the tool works which as I said actually works quite nicely. But there is a limit of what you can do with a bit pivot and because somebody didn't put the staff in right the first place it might be better just to start over. 7135 7136 tool for straightening bent pivots.pdf
    2 points
  11. 2 points
  12. I was preparing to fix a Seiko for a friend, but before that, I discovered that I had one in my box-o-watches, so I started with that first. My dad did not like Seiko for some reason, so I was apprehensive. Then I had a phone call with @thor447and he put me at ease. So, I jumped in with both feet. You see the MS barrel had more than its fair share of grease, so I decided to pre-clean it in some one-dip. I put it in the jar and using my tweasers, I was swishing it around and all of a sudden it exploded in my face. Yeah, I was wearing glasses with an eye loupe but the one-dip found its way to my right eye. It burned as you would imagine. I ran to get an eye cup to wash it out. All is well but the barrel could not be found. By mere happenstance, I had an identical barrel that I had fetched out of the bone pile for @Drewto practice on (he spent a half a day with me yesterday sharing techniques). So I used that barrel to complete the assembly. The only difficulty (though minor) was aligning the train wheels under the main plate. A little hard to see and manipulate. The crystal was in pretty bad shape, but starting with 350 grit sandpaper and working up to 2000 grit and then polywatch...it turned out nicely.
    1 point
  13. Great job @LittleWatchShop. I do enjoy those old Seikos. That barrel may be the dirtiest one I've ever seen! Congrats on your first Seiko service. I just recently finished up one as well. A cheap 7009-5019 I picked up on eBay for pennies. After a service, some cleanup on the case with a slight buff on the sides and brushing on the face, and finally a polish to the crystal I think it turned out really well. The only thing is that it has 19mm lugs, and I did not have a 19mm strap available. I took a cheap Cousins 20mm strap, and just snipped the edges off to make it fit. I'm really liking this watch so I'll order a proper 19mm strap, but in the meantime I'll wear it like it is.
    1 point
  14. Some cheaper old watches have garnet pallet jewels. Garnet sits between 6.5 and 7.5 on the Mohs scale, where ruby is 9 (diamond is 10). I wonder if that's what you have there? Ruby pallet stones can wear, but you don't see it that often. Garnet is way more "crumbly" too. When pushing in pallet stones brass or nickel tweezers are good, and I usually do the final pushing with pegwood. It's very easy to chip them. When adjusting, to come out I use a broken oiler with the tip stoned to a screwdriver shape, get in the back of the slot and twist (on a heater). To go in it's pegwood.
    1 point
  15. 1 point
  16. As206 series 2060, 2061, 2062 etc. Have a skeg at Movado and Zenith can be a bit pricey but lovely to work on. Accurate reliable simple and solid. I picked up a beat up Movado for 30 quid, dial took a lot of sorting and still not great and rusty inside. The main parts withstood a lot of cleaning up and the setting lever was built like popeye's right forearm, I would've had to take a lump hammer to it to cause it damage. Also look at Meyer and Studeli (MST) essentially Roamer, uk branch Medana were also Meda. Nice quality movements.
    1 point
  17. Thanks for the info I guess I haven't much choice regarding the angle. The old pallet jewels, with the escapement wheel running on the low side of the jewels, were badly worn and when trying to manipulate them, they just seemed to crumble apart (?) Entry-jewel with worn edges and scores over the impulse face; Exit-jewel; We have to see how the movement runs on new stones ....
    1 point
  18. A canon pinion that can be installed on the watch is likely not to be overly tight or it wouldn't have got on the center arbour. I add a bit of oil ( not grease) and turn the minute wheel with the crown, it often turns which indicates its not overly tight , keep turning to reduce friction. you then remove clean the parts involved, grease and instal. Try it, you have more success than you think. I haven't tried this on watches with chrono complication, too sensative to extra friction I imagine. Rgds Though I haven' 't studied Arabic, I think I understand some of OP's words. کیف how یمکن possible المدفع tube لتقلیل reduce الاحتکاک friction Not bad ha.
    1 point
  19. I don't know the answer to your question but my guess is that the width, as stated on Cousins' site, is the width between "the part which friction-fits in the fork-slot". That is, in your case 0.3 mm. Hopefully, you'll get a more precise answer but if not and you need to take a chance, I'd say go for 0.3 mm.
    1 point
  20. I'm trying to reason why this works? Intuitively you would squeeze at right angles to the dent. I try pushing it down a smoothing broach to try to push the dent out, rather than a cutting broach which would remove metal.
    1 point
  21. Have to agree with Gert. I've been busy with a few AS206x movements lately and they're very finicky compared to the 2824 plus the parts are not as easy to come by. Just built a project watch using a 2824 from an old Rotary and it was a very straightforward build with lots of case, hand and dial options available. Just one thing to bear in mind. Whilst most of the parts are interchangeable across the 2824 revisions, the keyless works is completely different on the original 2824. Best looking for the 2824-2. As an example, the winding stem for the 2824 is around 3 times the price of the 2824-2 and other parts of the keyless works are just not available.
    1 point
  22. Aye col avoid the Mumbais, pretty easy to spot. Maybe not popular and low import volume in the US. Plenty here in the UK. Longines were heavily imported though. Depends what you want to spend.
    1 point
  23. I would remove the balance and put it to one side, no point in damaging it. Remove the Geneva stop-work. I expect you will need to put the movement back in its case for the winding to work. You will most likely need to loosen the screw that hols the click just a tiny bit, when you wind hold on to the button you need to let it slip a little when you move the click away from the wheel letting it down until all the power is off. What ever you do you must never twist the chain. If you need help in how to put it all back just ask these watches with a fusee can be little buggers if its your first one. No name listed in any of my books. I would say middle to late 1900
    1 point
  24. I had the exact same problem with an AS2066 movement. When the dial was installed, the day wheel would only partially move or not at all. The dial was just sitting on top of the day wheel. I thought I needed a clip or a dial washer of some sort to keep the back of the dial from resting on the day wheel. It ended up being my dial ring had a crack in it. It would open up when I seated the dial, thus allowing the dial to sit a little deeper and rub on the front of the day wheel. I just ended up using an epoxy to repair the plastic dial ring, and then all worked well. It may not be the same exact issue for your 1688, but something is causing the dial to sit too deep and rub the day wheel, thus causing your issue. Just try to temporarily loosen the dial screws, bring the dial up about 1mm and tighten it back down, giving it a little space between it and the day wheel. See if that (temporarily) fixes your wheel movement issue. If it does, there is something causing those two to touch. Either the dial is being seated too far down, or the day wheel isn't sitting down far enough (or possibly not perfectly flat - doesn't take much for one of those to rub the back side of the dial).
    1 point
  25. That certainly is unique. I wonder why the maker would couple stop works with a movement that already had a fusee? Isn't that a bit like wearing a belt and suspenders at the same time?
    1 point
  26. I don't recall an AS movement needing a clip, maybe the jumper spring isn't fully engaged? Also some 70s movements had metal strips spring fitted into grooves on the periphery of the movement to space the dial appropriately. Any chance of some pics?
    1 point
  27. Radon membranes and dpcs have been used in modern house building and extensions for quite a few years now. Similar to visqueen sheet barriers with added polymer layers. Areas known to have a certain percentage of house contamination of ground radon gas the building regs require these barriers to be installed. Traditional vented sub floors once used didnt require these measures ( my much prefered method of house building also ) Apparently around 1000 deaths a year are estimated due to lung cancer caused by radon gas. Next time you're passing a new building site, drop by and ask if they have some radon membrane going spare, used to be green , i assume it still is. Make a few small baggies for containing anything that has lume and seal with radon tape, when opening do it outside. Over the top ? , does it matter if it is ? I know that my health is worth a lot more than any small amount of effort to preserve it.
    1 point
  28. Wow, haven't seen that. I always thought how cool it was that a fusee piece didn't need stopworks (and also automatically you have power reserve indication) You'll need to see that the stop finger is oriented correctly with the fusee at the stop point, i.e that the chain is pulling at around a 90 angle to the line of centers with the barrel (more or less, a bit less maybe) at the stop point. Then, with the barrel wrapped with chain, you can set the pre-tension on the barrel with the square on the barrel ratchet, the blue one, generally speaking around 3/4 to 1 turn. It's easier said than done, as with many things regarding watchmaking. Keeping the chain from falling off the barrel is a real chore. When I do marine chronometers I usually wrap the chain on the fusee, then wind it up on the barrel with the click out, wind up on the barrel to the stop point, 3/4 more (winding up spring now), then engage click.. You'll have to consider the position of the hook on the barrel as well, though there's usually more leeway there. A quarter to half wrap is good. Intersting watch, agree with OH pics of other side and in general would be great.
    1 point
  29. Using the Claw type crystal Lift is not recommended on tension ring crystals As you've discovered the tension ring does not compress and the crystal will break their. Can't tell from your picture whether this is a watch that comes out the front or the back. Because of you can't take it out the back you will have to take what's left of the crystal out first. Look carefully at the metal ring there should be a crack someplace as it's usually not a solid ring. It almost looks like at the 12 o'clock position perhaps? So you can find with a crack is it's easier you can put something on the backside between the ring in the crystal and gently try to pry it out of the way. But it really would be preferred if you could remove the entire watch first. Then you also want to try to save the ring because the original Omega rings tend to fit better than the Some aftermarket rings
    1 point
  30. Can you post a photo of the top plate please.
    1 point
  31. ^^ It is a 3-pin GX16 aviation plug.
    1 point
  32. Yes it will be coming out the case for a full inspection and I’m not risking any heat exchange to other components such as the dial ( made that mistake once ) so I’ll post pictures as I go along
    1 point
  33. Hi Watchbangers! Since I have started on developing my own DIY 3D printed watch cleaning maschine a while ago I thought I would share you my first prototype for watch cleaning baskets and their holder! If you want access to the ipt. and stl. files, you can find them down here for free : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5670073 I also put up a video explaining the whole development process and build here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jCzbtGDWRM Now since this is just the first prototype there is of course of a lot room for improvements. If you are interested in developing this idea you can gladly use my designs or write me your ideas! I hope this helps you all and that you like the progress!
    1 point
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