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Hello from a Newbie


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Thanks for the add.  I am a non-repentant watch collector who has done light maintenance for some time.  I have about 35 watches, Japanese, European and US, with a variety of movements. 

I've changed bands and batteries as needed for quite some time, and have done quite a bit of non-watch repair work over the years.  I'm a retired mechanical engineer and so am comfortable with equipment in general. 

I'm ready to move on to more advanced watch repair and will welcome input and guidance from the folks here as I learn!  I'd like to progress to a full teardown, clean and oil, and calibration of an automatic, but that's down the road...   Right now I want to build my tools and abilities in preparation.   Great being here!

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Hi BigSapphire, you have come to the right place! You will find many very knowledgeable people on this forum who are happy to help you carry out whatever project you are working on. There is a vast pool of knowledge here and these guys and girls are never stumped. Sadly, I am not one of the knowledgeable people! Probably one of the least knowledgeable. So welcome to " the happy factory " :)

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    • Latest project was a non-running ebay purchase with an FHF70 movement. I stripped and cleaned it, reassembled it, and got it running. So far so good, nothing damaged AFAIK.  I was oiling the top jewel on the balance (the one in the cock) which was a slightly unusual shock setting. I removed the spring (3 leaves) which was part of a chaton holding the cap jewel. This left the hole jewel behind which I retrieved with rodico and then lost it. I was taking it off the rodico, very gently as I thought, with tweezers, and then it just disappeared.  Fast forward a week, I got a donor movement, non-running, with the plan to just take the shock jewel that I’d lost. It was the same movement but had standard incabloc settings, and was steel rather than copper/brass.  I changed the cock and balance complete and it ran, not very well. I switched the lower jewel setting, cleaned and oiled both jewels and the replacement balance. Without the pallet fork the balance swings very nicely with a puff of air. With the fork in place, balance out, it flicks side to side nicely with power in the mainspring.  Put them together and it doesn’t run. The impulse jewel sits in the fork and it stops.      Any suggestions how I proceed? In case you didn’t follow that I have 2 FHF70 movements, nothing broken as far as I can tell, but mixing up the balance wheels and jewel settings results in a non runner. 
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    • 👍 Whats not to follow OH ?  You're every inch a pro and a true gent, i always enjoy reading your answers even some of the clock stuff that i dont have a clue about. 
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