Tmuir

As wls1971 says I would avoid using citric acid in clocks. Get a scap bit of brass and drop it in some citric acid and leave it in there for 20 minutes and come back and it will be copper colour which then takes significant polishing to remove, it is essentially dezincing the brass, or causing dezincification which is damaging the brass. I used to restore toy and model steam engines and dezincification was our worst enemy, now don't get me started on the differences between using distilled water and de-ionised water in brass boilers as that is an even hotter topic for toy steam engin

Just my 2cents. I find this forum very useful, thanks Mark. This is the only Horology forum I regularly visit. I visit and read the forum most days, although I only post when I think I can add value so that's not every day. I also want to thanks the mods and yourself Mark, I helped moderate and did the behind the scenes PHP coding on a forum for 10 years before it burnt me out killed my enthusiasm for that hobby so I do understand want goes on behind the scenes and know how much hard work goes into keeping a forum run smoothly. Please keep the forum going.

Kapton tape is what you are thinking of. It is also used for insulation of electrical wiring in aircraft, insulation in space crafts and more importantly on the hot bed of my 3D printer to help the plastic stick to the bed.

It's amazing what you can find on the web. Maybe the Pigeon Clock Museum can help. http://www.pigeonclocks.com/ I'm pretty sure to stop it you put in a band on your pogeons leg, but not sure how you start them.

I cant afford another BSA motorcycle to restore, but want another project so I'm on the lookout for a BSA bicycle now, preferably 1940s to early 1950s and in particular I want one fitted with a 3 speed hub, but they are not that common where I live.

It never ceases to amaze me what you can stumble across whilst looking up something else on the web. I was looking for help on replacing the failed hydraulic disc breaks on my 15 year old mountain bike, but instead discovered a gem of a video on how bicycles were made in Britain back in 1945. Enjoy the video if you have nothing better to do for the next 17 minutes and 22 seconds.

If the key is turning and nothing is happening look closer at the very inner coils of the mainspring. If none of it is moving you either have a broken eye on the end of the mainspring, or a broken hook on the arbor of the winder so its not engaging the spring. If the last few cm of the spring is winding up but not the rest of the spring then the mainspring is broken and will need to be replaced. The only way to check is to dismantle but make sure you remove the power on the alarm side first. If you haven't already I suggest buying a book on clock repair. One that isn't too expen

Your braver than me. I would love to learn how to repair porcelain dials, but I think that is one skill I will have to admit defeat before I even start. If you repair any more make sure you post photos and let us know of your techniques. I have a book 'The Watchmakers' Hand-Book' by Claudius Saunier published in 1882 which goes into some detail on how to make a porcelain dial from scratch. At some point I will have to try and copy out that chapter and post it on the forum. It talks about hand painting all the numbers and markings in black enamel and then firing them to set them into

The real Omegas in the pictures above are things of beauty!

Let us know how you get on as I'm guessing NOS parts for that would be non existant

Yes John hit gold with his ebay links. Good luck with your bidding Nora.

The gauges that John shows in his picture do turn up on ebay US fairly regularly and aren't too expensive. Vigor is one brand of them that turns up regulary. Here is one on ebay now, but you should be able to find one for less than this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vigor-Jewel-Gauge-28-60-in-boxWatchmaking-tool-Watchmakers-tool/124008727918?hash=item1cdf7f056e:g:n7sAAOSwX5hd8puq Get the gauges and then look for NOS roller jewels, don't get the loose ones, looks for ones in little vials with the sizes marked.

That is why I'm still using Windows 7. I hated windows 8 and 8.1, windows 10 I've set up on both my sons new computers and could liver with as well as using it at work. Before the end of the year I hope to upgrade my computer and will then go to Windows 10, but will have to go to great lengths to shut down all the snooping, the torrent server it installs as I don't want my bandwidth used up delivering updates to everyone else near me and of course cripple Windows Cortana

I am still using windows 7, with Firefox, but to enlarge the text on that I just need to hold down control (CTRL) on the keyboard and spin the thumb wheel on my mouse. It also works for most other things, PDF , word docs, excel spreadsheets etc.

Early typewriters like that are just magic, good luck with the restoration. My main other 'time stealer' is my 1970s Chicago Coin Hollywood Pinball machine. When I bought it most people would of considered it just a parts machine, now many many many hours later it is now playable though it still has some twitches that need to be ironed out. I was lucky I placed an order for NOS parts out of Canada for it in March just before all international postage went crazy. It only arrived a week late and I've since discovered I could do with replacing a couple of more coils but they will need t