Endeavor

Hence my posting, to "visually" support what you said and to give VW a hold-on-to "handle"

This little escapement information could be of some help? (hope it's readable)

Maybe I go nuts like the rest of the world, but since when has a Vostok 2416b movement 21,600 BPH ?????

First; 80 degrees can't be right. Second; 209 is very low as well ...... are you sure you did set the lifting angle to 42 degrees?

It's very normal; nearly every Vostok movement does that...... it's called the "poor-mans"-hack. Nothing to worry about and certainly not a reason to send it back or "fix"-it. These are great watches and unbeatable with regards to Value/price ratio. In fact they beat nearly all, if not all Swiss watches as for sophistication & design for the price. Just have a look at this link; what a fantastic piece of engineering for slightly over $40 !! ; https://forums.watchuseek.com/f54/vostok-2415-2416-self-winding-function-reversing-wheels-revised-5134701.html

Those sweet spot diameters and tolerances have been determined by the movement designers. Hard to find out unless you get hold of the design blue-prints. Since you are in the experimental phase anyhow, you could try with very fine diamond paste #6000 or higher ( #10.000 grit). Problem with diamond paste is that you have to clean it very thoroughly as you don't want to leave fine diamond dust behind which will keep on grinding = wear & friction. It is hard to judge from a distance, not feeling how things feel, to say whether you are on the right path. Regardless, lessons can always be learned and experiences gained ........ that's were the do's and the don'ts come from

No, I don't have experience enough to say whether a barrel should spin freely around the arbor when just puffing some air. In the end of the day it's of course a friction-bearing and even a very bad one too; metal-to-metal. Next to that, even if it would rotate freely (as it also may do when there is too much play), it's hard to tell how the bearing would behave under load, i.e. with a spring under tension in the barrel. Given the fact that it is a (used) friction bearing, to stay within reason all you can do, IMHO, is to ensure that there is enough play such that the arbor can rotate (which it seems to have), that the bearing surfaces are as clean & smooth as possible (you pegged the heck out of them) and to ensure proper lubrication to reduce friction between the bearing surfaces. With to stay within reason I mean to see how far you get working with the materials you currently have and the way the watch was designed. Next is of course to ensure, or try to achieve a as smooth as possible power release by the main-spring. Since it is an old movement, again to stay within reason, there are many things over which you have no control or can't alter. You can work your way from the arbor down to the escapement and do your best in checks, cleaning and lubrication. Than the escapement itself which is (at least to me) a complicated matter and lots can go/be wrong or misaligned (even ever so slightly) reducing the amplitude. It takes a very deep understanding on how the escapement exactly works, interconnects and should be aligned; something which I try to grasp (too?). Once you get down to that, it would get very interesting & educational if a forum member has that deep understanding and is willing to spend the time & energy to guide not only you, but hopefully lots of others here, through that process. Only than we will find out whether something can be / could be done to increase the amplitude ..... (?) I follow with interest your proceedings / progress

You have to think very, very deeply before you start doing things like that. In fine-mechanics all is done to reduce tolerances. That you can't feel it doesn't mean it isn't there. In fact, if all else stays the same, a few thousands of a millimeter play is enough; play=play. Increasing the hole sizes, as I understood of the barrel, and the barrel will tilt (even more), meaning altering the arbor/barrel contact area which could lead to more wear or in the very worse case gouging of the materials. Next to that, probably through the years, the current contact surfaces have worn smooth. I doubt if you can achieve the same smoothness again and if not, more friction & wear.

Hmmm ........ The bend balance pivot causes so much wobble that the balance wheel touches and gets stuck on top of the escape-wheel bridge. Next to that, the end-shake is excessive (worn-pivots & jewels). Most-likely the watch has been dropped causing the bend pivot and poor maintenance/age caused a lot of wear-& tear. Also the escape-wheel is not 100% true either and shows a wobble. Dial-Up it "runs"-ish, Dial-Down it grinds directly to a hold on top of the escape-wheel bridge. Since my tricks-toolbox is getting empty, I will inform the owner that this beaten-up PW is beyond my capabilities .... The good news; it's always fun to work on such a piece of history and new lessons are learned. There is no harm in gaining more experience I'll let it up to the owner to decide how to proceed. For now, thanks all for your help in this rescue attempt !! With kind regards ......

Thanks Oldhippy ...... you are as always very helpful and knowledgeable; For many years already a bacon on WRT ! I managed to reduce the ID of the hairspring collet, perhaps not an award winning job, but it does works. At least the slot is open and the collet position can be adjusted again. The with the cap-stones cleaned & lubricated, I lined up the balance wheel, pretty much center escape-wheel .... depends a bit on the position of the regulator, but it should be enough to see if the movement runs ... or not. I may just do the bending of the regulator pin against the boot ..... I guess with this watch we are not talking about chronometer-"accuracy" . If the movement runs, we see later about some fine-tuning and perhaps sorting the hair-spring out. Edit; while looking at the picture, I notice 3x dots on the right-hand side of the balance wheel. I seem to be spot on with the center-dot ....

And now we know the reason why the hair-spring was "free-floating", instead of being behind the regulator pin. The tip of the regulator-key (boot) is missing as well ....... Any idea's ?

I'm not sure whether it is going to be used or as a nice mantle-piece which preferably runs? I guess the only option left is to see if & how it runs and ask the owner on how to proceed and what the idea is ........ Indeed, bending it back is very high risk and than the question remains how much is there to gain? For sure, by bending there is a lot to loose !

I think you are about to open a can of worms. The base material is unknown and there may be layers of a kind of "filler" between the base material and the chrome layer. As said, High-Gloss chrome is not a DIY. Nickel plating is doable but you have to be prepared for any outcome. See this thread for further information / study; https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/3831-design-watch-plating-project/ Suc6

I started polishing an edge and that went fine. I continued on the rest of the case with Silver-polish and the case & bezels appear to be silver I haven't gone "full on", not until the movement is a runner.