Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

y4m3ZTcmV_-52Tm5-1ptetDHA6ycToDHNFhUrtdo

y4mIGKnhNCgH2m2swpo-wWcHxMvSIRUni-Eej8Mz

The dial screws on this Unitas 6325, that I just started to take apart for a service, just won’t budge! I dressed my 1mm screwdriver as well as I possibly could and checked, under strong magnification, how it fits in the screw slot, but getting it to grip the screw slot good enough just seems impossible. The screws are probably too damaged. I do get a grip, but no matter how much force I apply the screws won’t move one bit. Looking at the screw under strong magnification while trying to unscrew it I can see how it begins to deteriorate even more.

During the 2½ years I’ve been doing this I’ve never experienced this before. What’s going on? Has some idiot (pardon my French) glued the dial screws before screwing them in? Why? I’m puzzled! :huh:
I reckon this movement is doomed never to be serviced again. I just bought it on eBay and was really looking forward to servicing it and wearing it, so I feel pretty disappointed. Actually, I feel a bit sad too. How can anyone abuse such a, in my opinion, beautiful watch/movement?

I really don’t think there’s a reasonable way to salvage this movement so I’m returning it to the seller, but I thought I’d check with you guys first. What do you think?
 

Posted

It looks like they are already undone. I presume you have tried to lift the dial. The only other thought is they are cross threaded. 

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, oldhippy said:

Are you sure there not dummy screws. Just there for show. 

Never heard of the concept. This is a Unitas 6325 movement. Not a Chinese toy, which is the kind of thing I associate with something "dummy".

Posted
2 hours ago, clockboy said:

It looks like they are already undone. I presume you have tried to lift the dial. The only other thought is they are cross threaded. 

How can you tell that the screws look undone? :huh: The screws are buried in the movement by approx. 0.5mm.

Yes, but not too hard as I felt a distinct resistance where the dial screws are located.

Cross threaded, you mean like most screws for the crown wheel? I've tried to unscrew them clockwise as well but no, they won't budge in either direction.

Perhaps the dial sits with dial dots... Then again if not, and I try to pry the dial I might damage it. :(

Watch repairing can be so very frustrating at times. This is such a time...

Posted (edited)

This may be a bad thing in some eyes, but in the past I've heated a paper clip or an old screw driver until red hot. Then hold it to screw head. This causes the screw to expand. when it cools it may break loose.

Edited by DavidMasters
misspelling
  • Thanks 1
Posted

Here are two photos of the movement. I have marked where the dial feet fit in. The dial is held in place by dial screws and there is nothing out of the ordinary. They should be like number 23 and screw in the side of the movement.

Unitas_6325.jpg

Unitas_6325_Zifferblattseite.jpg

S37268_Group1_cmyk_m400.jpg

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Posted

previous owner may have glued the dial down.most likely culprit crazy glue.Try a bit of acetone or nail polish remover on screw heads.Don't become impatient.

  • Like 1
Posted
17 hours ago, VWatchie said:

y4m3ZTcmV_-52Tm5-1ptetDHA6ycToDHNFhUrtdo

y4mIGKnhNCgH2m2swpo-wWcHxMvSIRUni-Eej8Mz

The dial screws on this Unitas 6325, that I just started to take apart for a service, just won’t budge! I dressed my 1mm screwdriver as well as I possibly could and checked, under strong magnification, how it fits in the screw slot, but getting it to grip the screw slot good enough just seems impossible. The screws are probably too damaged. I do get a grip, but no matter how much force I apply the screws won’t move one bit. Looking at the screw under strong magnification while trying to unscrew it I can see how it begins to deteriorate even more.

During the 2½ years I’ve been doing this I’ve never experienced this before. What’s going on? Has some idiot (pardon my French) glued the dial screws before screwing them in? Why? I’m puzzled! :huh:
I reckon this movement is doomed never to be serviced again. I just bought it on eBay and was really looking forward to servicing it and wearing it, so I feel pretty disappointed. Actually, I feel a bit sad too. How can anyone abuse such a, in my opinion, beautiful watch/movement?

I really don’t think there’s a reasonable way to salvage this movement so I’m returning it to the seller, but I thought I’d check with you guys first. What do you think?
 

      how about a photo of the watch.   these don't look like dial screws.

Posted

I've only once come across a partially seized dial foot screw and that was badly corroded due to water ingress at some point. Can you see the dial feet protruding through from the back of the movement to confirm they definitely are?
They do look like they should be and if so the only other thing i could possibly think is that someone has used industrial stud lock rather than a weak threadlock, (neither of which should go near a watch internals).
If you're certain they are, and if you have a thin tipped soldering iron, try applying the tip to the screw head to transfer heat to see if you can break the bond on the screw threads, be very careful though.

  • Like 1
Posted

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement! :)

I'll take a good look again before I decide whether to send it back or not. However, right now I am on vacation so it will take a week or two before I get a chance to have a go at it again.

I'll begin by checking if I can see the dial feet protruding through from the back of the movement. If so, and depending on what I see, I’ll try with a smaller screwdriver (especially dressed for the occasion) before I try something more drastic such as acetone or a heated paper clip/soldering iron, if at all…

Again thanks, much appreciated!

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 7/27/2019 at 2:14 AM, DavidMasters said:

This may be a bad thing in some eyes, but in the past I've heated a paper clip or an old screw driver until red hot. Then hold it to screw head. This causes the screw to expand. when it cools it may break loose.

 

On 7/27/2019 at 12:49 PM, yankeedog said:

previous owner may have glued the dial down.most likely culprit crazy glue.Try a bit of acetone or nail polish remover on screw heads.Don't become impatient.

Never in a thousand years would I have come up with the idea to drive an “annealed iron” into a watch movement to solve my problem, but in desperation, I tried this idea, and lo and behold, it worked!

Sing Hallelujah! :woohoo-jumping-smiley-emoticon:

By removing the balance cock and the train wheel bridge I could get a good view of the dial feet and the dial screws. The dial screws had been screwed in so forcefully that they had deformed the dial feet into a concave shape. I’m surprised the slots of the dial screws could survive such extreme abuse, but of course, the slots were in very bad shape too. However, I could see zero traces of glue.

Using my stereomicroscope, I dressed up a screwdriver to fit one of the slots the best I possibly could. I then heated up a paper clip having approx. the same diameter as the dial screw hole under candlelight (not best heat source) until it was glowing red and then quickly shoved it into the dial screw hole and pressed it against the screw. After having cooled off for a few minutes I tried unscrewing but feeling how the remains of the slot were beginning to give in I paused, thinking this must surely be a hopeless case.

Anyway, at this point I thought it could possibly help, although I had very little hope at this point, to repeat the “paper clip trick” a few times but only try unscrewing after the last heating/cooling cycle. The idea was that this would repeatedly nudge the screw. So, the last attempt, thinking “all or nothing”, deep breath, and miracles of miracles the screw came loose! I repeated the process with the second dial screw and it too came loose.

At this point, I ran out to our living room, where my wife and daughter were watching some TV show, made a victory dance and explained what I had just managed. My wife and daughter rolled their eyes and continued watching the TV show.

So, I’m extremely grateful for your tips, and encouragement to be patient. Thank you! :thumbsu:

  • Like 3
  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • I was wondering because of the alum idea. 
    • just a reminder about this test is it's not a perfect test it's a quick test. In other words you can adjust the banking pins that are both the same and visually this test will pass everything looks the same but both banking pins can be in the wrong place. although the majority of time when people are playing with banking pins I don't put them in the same place. one of things have to be careful of is I believe some of the pallet fork measuring tools that actually give you the roller jewel size are actually size so that I get confused? What I mean by this is if you inserted a whatever size in and are always told to go a slightly smaller I thought that the gauge itself its number corresponded to give you the exact number. So a lot of it depends upon the gauge itself I think you do want the roller jewel slightly smaller because it does have to fit in the slot and it does have a little bit a play. But if it's too small you will lose energy so does have to be sized right. Oh other things to check is? I'm attaching an Elgin sheet on checking the escapement I've seen references in the past to making sure that the slot in the four corn is nice and smooth and apparently you can end up with a rough slot and then the recommendation is to polisher clean that up. Not sure how well that's really going to work even if it has been the recommendation of other reference materials. yes art full plate watches fun when they don't work. This is where it's nice to have another set of eyes sometimes as maybe they'll find something you didn't  although that can add other issues. The owner of the shop provides himself on his skills of so now two of my watches have relocated to his bench to solve problems both real and imaginary I'm sure that will get fixed eventually hopefully. But still sometimes another set of eyes might see something that you're not. yes this sort of thing can be quite frustrating. Also makes for an interesting problem unless of course you're the one trying to solve the problem that it's a Escapement Elgin setting up the escapement.PDF
    • I’m not to sure mate! I’ve sent a picture! The crown is off a Tissot 1853 automatic limited edition T115427 A GP19 moto go watch!   
    • For years and I'm still using it I've been using something called SeaMonkey? It's a Mozilla product Basically outscore its Firefox plus an integrated email program. But not the same problems here a lot of times when things are upgraded they tend to be now aimed at very specific browsers like Firefox so I've had to switch to Firefox to respond to any of the messages on the group. So yes they do seem to be getting more browser specific and that may be a reason for others having complications especially if whatever you using hasn't been updated. So yes the world is getting more browser specific perhaps for security reasons. Even though I use a product that is updated on a regular basis is still has problems. So whatever you using for browser should be up to date and if is not recognized it's going to be a problem.
    • I did remember to ask at work and minor complication? Well I suppose technically two separate complications. First off glass mineral glass versus Seiko's Hardlex Glass. Don't know if other companies have their own class or not and a basic class for crystals is probably not the same as window glass it would be more transparent. It becomes obvious if you're looking at a sheet of flat crystal glass versus window glass it's definitely more transparent you can see it when you look at the edges of it window glass looks green. No idea how that changes physical characteristics other than optical. Then we also have thickness like the Seiko five's there crystals are really sick compared to other things and I'm guessing that makes things different. In the first link it talks about Sapphire versus mineral glass. One other thing is bothering me though when I'm reading this is where is the source material? What I mean by this is could we end up with multiple generations of salespeople quoting the same sales tactic or information and we don't actually know because you don't have a source reference? Let me quote something off the website it's brittle oh dear I was sad? Except it's not immune to damage it can crack where shatter under extreme force or impact. So what is the definition of extreme force or impact? Then is that more or less extreme then mineral glass?  Then regarding the price difference while back I had asked the owner where the Sapphire came from and basically wherever he can get the cheapest. So typically ordered from a variety of online supply watch parts in the US and  aliexpress China.. Then yes it does make a difference because we go through a lot of glass crystals and sapphire https://thehorologylab.com/sapphire-crystal-vs-mineral-glass-which-is-best-for-your-watch#google_vignette Then I guess one is glass not glass when it goes by another name? Hardlex Looks like it's purely a Seiko product but now I wonder if other watch companies have their own special glass? I didn't remember from past experience my favorite was people exposed to welding you can find little blobs a metal stuck to the watch case the crystal still intact but there's little burnt holes were bits of metal had actually burnt into the crystal but it was still there. Okay website below starts off with Sapphire sounds good but Apparently it can shatter easier then Hardlex. https://theslenderwrist.com/hardlex-crystal/ One other thing is what I'm reading to websites would be back to I want to see the test results? Often times weren't looking for a subject will find websites where I basically called them these are better than that by the way but sometimes I'll find websites that I will call book review websites were basically the review other websites other material and don't really introduce anything new to the subject. As I said these websites look quite nice which is why I'm giving you a link but where's the test results the definition of extreme how extreme to break a sapphire versus a glass or Hardlex?  
×
×
  • Create New...