Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/10/23 in all areas

  1. Just thought I'd toss my "review" in there about cheap Ama/Bay crystal lifts. Just FYI I got one a week ago and tried it out. It simply will NOT grip a crystal enough to do the trick. The crystal I used it on seemed perfect, i.e. nearly 1/8" straight sides before it bent over to the face. Should be perfect for a crystal lift, but the chinese one just slipped off this crystal and was almost totally ineffective. I eventually pushed down very firmly and cranked the grip enough to just barely get the crystal off the case. Would be impossible to lift a crystal with any taper to it. I subsequently found a used Vigor a couple days later for just a few dollars more. It was in fine condition and it gripped the same crystal with nearly zero effort enough to function very well. Night & day. I would think a guy could dress the chinese gripper ends to better grab crystals but don't know for sure. I'm positive you could improve them some amount. But seems like good "real" ones are fairly commonly available on eBay for similar money, at worst just a few bucks more. Cicom: $16.50 tmd vs. Classic Vigor: $21+ $7 shipping For what it's worth
    3 points
  2. I'd never purchased anything from Ali Express before. I decided to give it a try and I purchased one of their Horia tool clones. Well I must say I knew what I was buying when I did it, but I am quite surprised with what I received. This thing has some weight to it. The threads feel smooth. I even took a micrometer and measured some of the pushers and anvils and everything was pretty much where it needed to be, +/- .001 or so. I used the tool tonight to remove the upper mainspring barrel arbor bushing in a Seiko 6138 and replaced it with a jewel. It worked like a charm.
    2 points
  3. We live in a radioactive world. It is all around you. Holding a dial against your skin will not give you a radiation burn. It won’t send you into the hospital. A single CT scan will give you a dose of 10-30 mSV. Just eating a banana will expose you to 0.1 uSV. The typical US resident receives 3 mSv a year from natural background radiation. In places like Kerala in India, they receive a natural background dose of 30 mSV a year (half from Radon and half from gamma emissions). There are no observed health effects in the population. One study estimated a dose from wearing a wristwatch with a 1 uCi radium dial worn 16 hours a day as 14 mSv a year. Smoking 20 cigarettes a day gives you a dose of 53 mSV.
    2 points
  4. It's normal to see some wear marks where the ratchet wheel contacts the bridge. As it is just floating there it does make contact- I put a little grease there but it's often dry. You'll need to get a good look at the barrel pivot hole in the bridge and plate, look from the inside with some backlight, the pivot usually doesn't make it all the way through, so it can look round and nice from the outside, but egg shaped from the inside.
    2 points
  5. Interesting wording you have up there? So you have a boss in watch repair? Then unfortunately in watch repair we have to order lots of parts just depends upon the particular watch. Then typically winders for specific calibers only exist if they're extremely popular. And found some information which indicates maybe there were variations for this watch? Plus I have a tech sheet attached down below. https://17jewels.info/movements/o/orient/orient-46943/ Orient-46943.pdf
    2 points
  6. I think i'll have to draw up a little diagram, i've been looking for a way to film a movement close enough so that i could just take a video of it but so far nothing i've tried works very well so i think i'll draw a little step by step diagram. I too always would fashion a pegwood tool and sometimes the pegwood would disintegrate and i'd find there's sawdust under the jewel or it would just take up to an hour. I always dreaded that part of assembly but now I enjoy it. I've not actually seen anybody do it the way i do it exactly and christ does it make it easier. I'm still suggesting you set them dry and then oil them with a 1a auto oiler, screw setting them wet without disturbing that oil drop. I'll see if i can doodle up a step by step tonight and i'll post it. Kinda kicking myself for not saving a bit more and getting a microscope that can also shoot video.
    2 points
  7. me being a machinist, given only those two choices, I would prefer the fingers be made from Al instead of brass anyway. brass is soft too but is slippery while un-anodized aluminum tends to be grippy. So the problem isn't that they faked the brass look, but rather that the 'brass" color is obviously the dye applied after anodizing, a process that hardens the surface only, but also erases the "sticky" property of unprocessed aluminum. So the problem is twofold with a third negative added: 1) Anodizing the fingers just makes them slippery in direct conflict with what you want it to do 2) The shape of the tips of the fingers is flawed enough that it exacerbates the lack of grippyness and on top of this, the choice of aluminum fingers guarantees lower robustness. Should have just made them from steel in my opinion - it's even less expensive than aluminum!
    1 point
  8. Yup, I realized that. But because USB is coming to the sensor box, you get the five volts to build your audio amp/filter for free. My piezo amplifier/filter has a FET input. The rest is discrete BJTs. In retrospect, it is overkill but I was having fun when I designed it and laid out the board (also too big, but I did not want to mess with SMDs for a prototype). When mine arrives, I will probably put it in the same place you put yours!!
    1 point
  9. I suppose, my advice would be to get rid of it if it causes so much stress. There are so many things, alar, glyphosate, high-fructose corn syrup, mold, black mold, asbestos, FR4 dust, scorpions, COVID, Zika, vaccines, lead, tobacco, BPH, everything known to cause cancer in California, falling airplane parts...on and on. Worry about all these, and then some dude T-bones you at a signal light and you are done. My anecdotal evidence not to worry (which I have repeated around here multiple times), my Dad got to work at 7am, worked until 5pm in the Little Watch shop from 1947 to 1980. A small building perhaps 600 sq ft. He made it to 93. My Mom worked there at least once a week. She made it to 98. Both smoked. Neither died from cancer. Finally, stay the hell out of California because everything is known to cause cancer in that state. Must be the faults.
    1 point
  10. They are for fitting what is known as rubbed in jewels. Modern watches no longer use this method to fit jewels. ps enjoy the forum.
    1 point
  11. This damage was made deliberately most times to fit a wrong stem Repair as nickelsilver said.
    1 point
  12. You don't have to do without glowing. I use non-radiating lume (color: nature) and mix to required color with color powder from the artists shop. l use special laquer, but you can use e.g. clear model paint and mix with above. Frank
    1 point
  13. Just for kicks this morning, I put the Ranfft database into an excel spreadsheet with hyperlinks to the text files and image files. Not all that clever, I suppose, but at least I have a usable search with the internet is down.
    1 point
  14. I remember reading someone using coffee powder to give a nice vintage brownish colour !
    1 point
  15. A stem with a longer pivot risks fouling the minute counter shaft, which passes through just a short distance away. It is possible to remove the remains of the tube and open up the hole and press fit a new tube, but it's very tricky work preferably done in a jig boring machine.
    1 point
  16. I don't know if you are aware of this, so just in case. In these kind of movements to unwind the MS down you first need to uninstall the second reduction wheel, it won't unwind with it installed.
    1 point
  17. Saga continues. I ordered a bag of random American watch screws from CasKer and they arrived yesterday. Hope against hope, I sorted through them. Actually found several with the correct threads and diameter. That was encouraging. HOWEVER, this Waltham ratchet wheel screw has a very large head...which is necessary. That is gonna be hard to source. Noooooooo!!! Damn Waltham. The display did not use a screw. It used an non-threaded post with a screw head.
    1 point
  18. It's just my home address. I deleted it, and all cookies but I get the same whatever I try. Very annoying I just downloaded the app to my phone - same problem !!! grrrr GOT IT ! When I registered with Ali Express, I let Google auto-fill the address. Seems it didn't like it. I deleted it, entered it all manually and it finally worked. Import tax to pay, but still only £27
    1 point
  19. After circling around and around it, I finally adjusted the pallet-jewels of my 1975 Omega Speedmaster Mark II. Inspired & guided by this article, and after having had a huge learning curve replacing "Garnet"-jewels for modern (too small, too low) jewels in a 120 years old pocket watch, I decided it was time to tackle the job. There are many valuable tips in this article and all I like to do is to share a few of my experiences. Like VWatchie, I also found that Acetone is a very effective way to remove the old shellac, more effective than industrial isopropanol. Acetone is widely available, no need to look further than your wife's nail-polish remover. In my case the Acetone turned to old shellac in a white transparent substance, which later, while cleaning the fork-slot, caught me out. I simply didn't see it and hence the fork-slot wasn't cleaned properly. As for applying the shellac; I tried the "pulling strands on peg-wood"-method and the "creating small balls"-method. To me, the "small balls"-method worked the best. If the size of the ball is too big, one can "nibble" it down with some fine tweezers. As for the ease of adjusting the depth of the jewels, again I came to the same conclusion as VWatchie. For me it worked far better, and far more relaxed to adjust the jewels without the Shellac applied. As VWatchie said, hopefully there is enough friction between the jewel and the fork-slot to keep the jewel in place for testing. When Shellac is applied, one has to melt it, do the adjustment above a hot plate and there is time-pressure. Plus, without the Shellac, it became for me far more easy to see if the jewel had moved or not. Adjusting the jewels became for me far less cumbersome when done without Shellac. As for melting the Shellac; initially I used a timer, to get an idea of how long it took for my alcohol burner / pallet-fork heater to get to the Shellac melting-temperature. That worked fine one day, not the other. The alcohol-burner I'm using is not producing a consistent heat and when heating 1 minute was fine on the day, it totally melted the Shellac to "water" on the next. The method I'm using now is to place the Shellac ball on the end of the fork-slot and heat the pallet heater above the flame, performing checks on very regular intervals. One sees the Shellac-balls slowly melting and continues until your are happy with the distribution. If the size of the Shellac ball is slightly too big, you stop before it flows out too far. If the ball is slightly too small, you just heat somewhat longer until it flows out far enough. As for adjusting the jewels; one can use brass tweezers to push the jewels, from the rear, further out of the fork-slot, but I used peg-wood to push the jewels back in. I did some adjustment testing on junk pallet-forks and when using steel tweezers, the chances that you chip the impulse-plane or the back of the jewel, are very high. With steel-tweezers I had a 100% chip-score with the jewels of both test forks. One very important "adjustment"-lesson I've learned from @nickelsilver; if you move one jewel, it affects the other: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/23176-1975-omega-861-amplitude-after-24hrs/#comment-196690 . It surely does !! Many thanks to VWatchie for penning this thread and thanks to @nickelsilver and @JohnR725
    1 point
  20. Physics. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. I just don't have the room for a PC in the LWS. I have an old Nuc that is small enough, but then keyboard, mouse, monitor, cables... Yeah, perhaps a dumb reason...
    1 point
  21. If you're hearing a clicking sound from your winder, the catch isn't engaged properly or you've got the mainspring backwards. You can risk the winder kinking/bending the mainspring particularly if you rotate the winder counter to the mainspring winding direction, as the catch can push the end of the mainspring and break it.
    1 point
  22. @NucejoeSorry, I have no idea if Grand Seiko keeps a ledger of their sales which they could share with you.
    1 point
  23. This is the one I purchased. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802886227821.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.19601802Ghdv9F&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa&_randl_shipto=US I'm pretty pleased with it. I have been out sick for a couple of days now, but I got a little energy to get to my bench when this thing arrived on my doorstep.
    1 point
  24. There is nothing to worry about. If you did all that cleaning there is probably no radium left. Even if some did fall off somewhere you didn't get to, the amount of radon gas it would produce would almost certainly be negligible. If it would put your mind at ease, you could get one of those radon gas test kits. However, with the small amounts of radium you were dealing with, I really don't think it is necessary.
    1 point
  25. I just now ordered one of those mic base things at $32. I previously bought some of these thinking I'd 3D print a case apparatus for it, which I'll probably still do at some point. If it worked (big "if"?), it would be a cheap way for folks to have a mic. But the pre-made one, even though it won't arrive probably until next Christmas, might still get to my bench before I build the DIY one
    1 point
  26. Your vintage winders were made for blued steel mainsprings. Any time you had blued steel mainspring is typically the hook must be much more aggressive than the modern style. Modern style the hook is almost is recessed so they're basically different blued Springs need an aggressive hook modern style a less aggressive look. Then if you're only going to do modern watches file it down but if you think you got work on old and new maybe find another set the modified because you can't have enough. Please often times one of the hoax won't work in you will have to try another or if you have several handles you might have to go through several of them to get them to work because that's just the way it seems to be. But if you're just doing modern file away but it might be a problem later on.
    1 point
  27. Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum. We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement.
    1 point
  28. a month of a panic attack you should get some professional help. It's not good for your health Depending upon where you live I have a website. The website has everything You need to know about radon in other words you get a test kit or seek out a professional to help you out. I'm guessing anything they have to detect radon would probably find the radium. https://www.epa.gov/radon Then what you really need to do is purchase yourself a really sensitive Geiger counter. This way can check all the places that you're worried about and for the future you can check any of the watches You might be considering purchasing conceivably if it's sensitive enough you might not even have to open up your eBay packaging could just send it back.
    1 point
  29. I don't know the exact figures Seiko publish on this movement, maybe something close to what you say, but for me that's not important, I wouldn't be happy with a +30 spd so that's not what I'm looking for. What I first look for is clean lines in the timegrapher (your movement looks quite clean and you'll get good results) and an amplitude of at least 210º or better right after the service. It will go up to 230-250º in the next few days.. Then I inspect the positional difference in amplitude, 6309 movements can be quite worn on the 3rd, 4th and barrel arbor bushings, and I personally have not the skills to correct that. Once the movement is running the best I can get, setting the B.E. to 0.0/0.1 is not usually a problem, and I like to set it to around +5/+8 spd on the TG, and then check it on the wrist, where it usually give slower rates. Of course these are just my priorities, others may look for different parameters.
    1 point
  30. It's why other than if you are clockmaker they a lot of times will make their solutions because that's been published quite a bit. Typically in watch repair it's easier to just buy a solution. Then typically a lot of watchmakers have an aversion to water-based cleaners because we don't like rust. Cleaning is a interesting process it's not really cleaning and then rinsing the whole process is cleaning. This is where to start shortchanging on the rinse for instance you're not doing a proper cleaning job. I snipped out an image on what Omega currently recommends.
    1 point
  31. No guarantee I'm correct there though, just to be safe. If he's put the mainspring into the winder the wrong way he's likely going to ruin it. What exactly went wrong? The direction and diamater of that winder should be correct for that particular mainspring (from what I've found). Video for demonstration purposes only.... I'm wondering if he's using a pin/arbor vice so he can wind in the opposite direction that the supplied winder runs in? Might be something to consider, perhaps the 2892 winder does run counter to the direction you need.
    1 point
  32. The Chinese microphones to be used with a timegrapher software or app get better and cheaper! Here is what I got today. I used the free tg timegrapher software (tg-timer 0.5.0)
    1 point
  33. I've found the whole "cheap ultrasonic at home easy peasy cleaning" conversation to be fairly divise and from all the research I've done I've only gotten more and more confused, haha. All I know is this seems to work for me using four easily obtainable ingredients; dish soap, distilled water, shellite (naptha, lighter fluid), and IPA (isopropyl alcohol). Pre-clean the heck out of your parts. Pegwood, soft brush or cotton bud and distilled water or IPA on stubborn gunk. Forget about rust, you can barely remove it let alone reverse it on parts this small. If you don't like the look of a rusty part replace it if you can or take a crack a the whole coke soak thing. If you want your parts to come out with no rust staining or marks you need to remember that you're using a cheap ultrasonic and off the shelf chemicals. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Pro Tip: no IPA near the pallet fork or balance. Warm water 60-70C and dish soap in the ultrasonic for all parts. In baskets in the tank, or baskets in jars, however you like. Like, 5 minutes tops. This is a mild degrease and clean. All parts in a warm distilled (or better yet demineralised) water in the ultrasonic. In jars or in the tank, either way. 5 minutes tops. This is an initial rinse to remove crap from the degrease/clean and remove the dish soap. Otherwise you'll risk making an emulsion from the chemical cleaners in the next step. Soak the balance and pallet fork in shellite/naptha/lighter fluid. I have shellite, so that's what I use. Don't put this in the ultrasonic, just a sealed jar or two. The point here is to displace the water and prevent rusting, and the shellite/naptha/lighter fluid will act to disintegrate any stubborn oils and grease. It doesn't need cavitation to do this, you can give it a swirl for light agitation if you feel like it. Keep a lid on it, awful stuff. Again, only needs to be a couple of minutes. Soak everything except the pallet fork and balance in IPA. Same reasons as above, only it's cheaper and less nasty than shellite. Get as close to 99% pure IPA as you can get so it dries off cleaner. If you're worried about any other jewels or parts unglueing in the IPA, you can leave them out. I'm not your dad, do what you feel like. I then like to quickly air dry those parts, then dunk them in shellite for good luck, then pull them out of there and air dry them. Because I feel like the shellite has less residue than IPA, but eh, I dunno, this is backyard science. Probably just the IPA is fine. Remove everything from everywhere and let it air dry for a second. Turn it all upside down and inside out to remove any and all moisture. You've either pulled it out of IPA or shellite, naptha, whatever, that stuff dries quick but not if there's a lake of it. Put some baking paper in a tray, sprinkle your parts in gently, and put in a fan forced oven on like 50C with the door open for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Or put into a food dehydrator if you have one, those apparently work great too. Do a final inspection with at least a loupe and reclean any parts that need it. If your ultrasonic cleaner lasts longer than 4 hours, consult your doctor.
    1 point
  34. Well, after all that, I think the only actual issue was the worn pawl lever. I'm pretty sure there was nothing else wrong with the movement. I think I was just "looking" for problems, but we'll see how long it keeps running for. All back together now, I decided to use a $5 dial I got from Ali Express, completely the wrong movement name and jewel count but I actually like the look. I don't have any nice hands so have put on some beat up old gold ones that came on a non-running movement from speedtimerkollektion. I also gave the case and bracelet a bit of a bath in the ultrasonic, it was filthy. I haven't put in back on the timegrapher yet, it still needs to be regulated/checked again, but I'll likely see if it keeps running for 24 hours first. Definitely have much more of an idea of what I'm doing now.
    1 point
  35. Proper cleaning using ultrasonic and L and R ammoniated cleaner and rinse. Followed with hairspring cleaning and demagnetisation in Essence of Renata. I put a bit of that in the Renata screw cap with the balance and hold over the demagnetiser for 20 seconds or so that agitates the hairspring in the fluid. Seems to work well. I did initially have sticky hairspring outer coil that was causing ultra fast rate when the amplitude went over 310 degrees (which happens on wrist at full wind). That would cause sudden random shifts in time keeping. Remove wear from barrel arbor port (with staking set and smoothing broach). Chronoglide call this 'Hammer Time', I love that. Make hairspring true in the round and in the flat with proper shaped end curve. Narrow the space between the regulator curb pin and boot so that vertical position rate doesn't drop drastically due to the reduced amplitude. Then just regulate at around +2 SPD DU as a starting point and cross fingers. Fine regulation is difficult and I find the tiniest movement of the regulator arm can change the rate by about 7 seconds. Really though if you want to see how the Pros work then take a look at the Chronoglide channel, I promise you will be hooked.
    1 point
  36. Boy, did I ever get lucky! I went back to a local antique mall (more of a flea market, really) early this morning to buy something I'd seen several days ago. And it was still there! And this time, I had money! A Girard Perregaux Gyromatic. Not running, so they weren't asking much. I bought it and went straight home to my bench. Cleaned, inspected, oiled, regulated, and now it runs quite nicely. Fitted with a nice patent leather strap, and I've been wearing it this evening. I often turn about and sell many of the watches I rescue and repair, but not this one. Not this time. I took a liking to it rather quickly. Addendum: it has a 17j GP 21.19 plated with gold. It's a jem to look at. And a 14k gf case which took a nice polish. The original crystal is not too terrible at all, so I'm thinking of leaving it on.
    1 point
  37. Another way is to use just water in the cleaner tank and to place the watch parts in a small glass jar (some say that plastic is less transparent to ultrasonic waves). Then in the jar you can use ultrasonic cleaner fluid, lighter fluid, One Dip solution from Bergeon, dry cleaning fluid or even denture cleaner solution. These small amounts of fluid can be changed for every session, except the expensive One Dip that is best retained for cleaning balance items. I use the small jam jars that some hotels provide and put one or more into the bath as needed. There is the advantage that any small screws that have been left in the item to be cleaned, for example the dial screws in a main plate, are not lost since the ultrasonic will invariably throw out the screws. Incidentally, this can sometimes be the best way of removing screws with damaged heads or even broken-off pivots left in staking punches. Just rambling on.....
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...