First pocket watch repair - Roamer

[Rexxus]

An old pocket watch from my uncle. Here’s what I know. The dial is damaged and appears to be made of a thick material, maybe enamel? Is it repairable? The movement has no serial number on the outside or any company inscriptions. It says Swiss made. It doesn’t run. Seems like there’s a broken, very thin spring under the balance wheel.

 

I haven’t started on taking it apart, this will be my first one. Anyone know where I can find the technical sheet? Any advice? My plan is to film taking it apart and keep the pieces separated and in order. I haven’t bought my watch oils yet or the machine cleaning solutions so I won’t reassemble until I have those and can hopefully spot what’s broken.

 

 

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[Rexxus]

Oh ya and if you’re interested, please follow this thread. I’m sure I’ll have questions and instead of posting in a number of topics maybe I can centralize? It’ll also help new comers follow a thread for a pocket watch repair from a noob

 

 

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[Rexxus]

Alrighty, I think things went pretty well for the disassembly. I’m stuck on 2 parts. I can’t remove the center piece. Could someone tell me what it’s called so I can YouTube it. It’s connected on the bottom and too so how do I remove it? The other screw is a larger one but I can’t seem to loosen it. Any ideas?

Lastly, the wheel I can’t get off seems to be warped. Maybe that’s why it didn’t work? Maybe I did it? Any way to fix it?




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[oldhippy]

I have answered you question in your message. If you need more help just ask. 

[vinn3]

check out a book or video on watch repair. it will help you a lot. vin

[watchweasol]

Hi Rexxus  The parts you refer to are the center wheel and the canon pinion, One has to remove the canon pinion the remove the center wheel., To do this you will need a removal tool (available on EBAY) to remove the pinion and the center wheel will drop out. I have attached the TZ glossary so as you can identify the various parts by name.  The same tool also is billed as a watch hand remover and provides a parallel upward pull so as not to bend the pinion or indeed watch hands,  happy days

TZIllustratedGlossary.pdf

[Nucejoe]

I remove canon pinions with a stem vice, tighten the vice on the pinion,  pull STRAIGHT out.

Works to remove rollers as well, tighten the vice prongs over the roller, gently hold the balance wheel , turn the vice clock/anticlock as you gently pull out.

 

[Nucejoe]

[Nucejoe]

[Nucejoe]

[Rexxus]

Kingly!!!!! Thanks dude.


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[Nucejoe]

On 8/22/2019 at 10:06 AM, Rexxus said:

Alrighty, I think things went pretty well for the disassembly. I’m stuck on 2 parts. I can’t remove the center piece. Could someone tell me what it’s called so I can YouTube it. It’s connected on the bottom and too so how do I remove it? The other screw is a larger one but I can’t seem to loosen it. Any ideas?

Lastly, the wheel I can’t get off seems to be warped. Maybe that’s why it didn’t work? Maybe I did it? Any way to fix it?




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Dosn,t look hopelessly distorted, as long as you don,t see a dagmage.

Just instal back on the plate tighten the bridge screws take the wobbe out, gently  push up or down to get the wheel leveled. As long as it dosn,t rub on anything it should work fine.

[Rexxus]

I have answered you question in your message. If you need more help just ask. 

I was able to get the cannon pinion off no problem!


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[Rexxus]

MAN!! I was able to take the movement apart completely except for one screw that’s stripped. Now the real work begins, I don’t have to tell you!

I don’t know if it’s a roamer or watches in general but this one seems really really tough to put back together. There’s a few pieces that go together so finely I can’t even see how to put them together. I’ll post pictures of the stuff I can’t figure out.

Mad respect for watch makers!


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[jdm]

1 hour ago, Rexxus said:

There’s a few pieces that go together so finely I can’t even see how to put them together.

You need to have the piece at least at neck's height with the elbows resting on the bench while you work. And use a good loupe with the support wire. Doing without that means wasting time, getting aggravated and breaking or losing parts. 

[Nucejoe]

I agree with jdm, further, As long as flying parts don,t get permanently lost, you can always come back, clean and retry. If you see the task is aggrevating you, have some orange juice, come back when you are relaxed. Shouldn,t  expect your eyes/ hand at your absolute command straight for three hours.

I stronly recommend devicing some sort of confined work space, glove box..or the like, to keep from loosing the parts. Good magnification proper lighting and quality tools.

Post pix, ask questions, ask questions ....  

Regards joe.

[Rexxus]

Good advice. Some I’m doing already which is encouraging. I have one of those visors with a lamp and magnifier in it so I use that. Good tool to. I work on top of cheese cloth so no lost parts. Today my neck is sore so taking a break once I started getting frustrated would have been a good idea. I’ll post pics of the areas I’m stuck Sunday.

 

Some things I’ve learned so far.

 

- just because it was taken apart in x order doesn’t mean it can go back the same way

 

- the technique for taking apart certain pieces and putting them back together isn’t always the same. The cannon pinion. How do I tighten the “bolt” onto the cannon pinion? Press it? Using what?

 

- good tweezers are a must. I bought a watch repair kit off amazon and you can tell the tools are cheap. They work fine though except for the tweezers. I bought a dope pair and it changes everything. I’ll post up some of my tools in another thread at some point but for now AA satin Dumont #5 tweezers. Thanks 90 year old watch maker. Thanks.

 

Areas I can’t figure out:

 

- how do you line up and ensure the tiny stud on the balance fits into the fork of the pallet? Crazy small! Once you do, how do you keep it in place while you put the bridge over top. Crazy hard!

 

- how do you tighten the center wheel and cannon pinion

 

 

 

 

[JohnR725]

2 hours ago, Rexxus said:

how do you tighten the center wheel and cannon pinion

I don't suppose we can have some close-up pictures the Canon pinion and center wheel because I'm curious about something? Then is there a problem you need to tighten them?

[ITProDad]

Good advice. Some I’m doing already which is encouraging. I have one of those visors with a lamp and magnifier in it so I use that. Good tool to. I work on top of cheese cloth so no lost parts. Today my neck is sore so taking a break once I started getting frustrated would have been a good idea. I’ll post pics of the areas I’m stuck Sunday.
 
Some things I’ve learned so far.
 
- just because it was taken apart in x order doesn’t mean it can go back the same way
 
- the technique for taking apart certain pieces and putting them back together isn’t always the same. The cannon pinion. How do I tighten the “bolt” onto the cannon pinion? Press it? Using what?
 
- good tweezers are a must. I bought a watch repair kit off amazon and you can tell the tools are cheap. They work fine though except for the tweezers. I bought a dope pair and it changes everything. I’ll post up some of my tools in another thread at some point but for now AA satin Dumont #5 tweezers. Thanks 90 year old watch maker. Thanks.
 
Areas I can’t figure out:
 
- how do you line up and ensure the tiny stud on the balance fits into the fork of the pallet? Crazy small! Once you do, how do you keep it in place while you put the bridge over top. Crazy hard!
 
- how do you tighten the center wheel and cannon pinion
 
 
 
 

Hello, Rex. Thanks for the “tapatalk” tip. Much easier to navigate on my iPad.
To line up the “stud” a.k.a. Roller jewel, make note of there the jewel rests in relation to the balance wheel. It’s easier to see a point on the balance wheel, some people actually mark the spot with a gentle scratch on the balance wheel, than it is to see that tiny jewel when the balance is mounted. The mark, the jewel position, she be perfectly centered in between the “banking pins”. Those are the pins that stop the motion of the pallet fork, back and forth.
You can adjust the relative position of the roller jewel by gently and minutely rotating the hairspring collet one way or the other, u til it rests in the center of the banking pins.

Sorry if the quotes are insulting. They are not meant to be. I know how difficult it was for me to learn terms and names, still learning. Simply wanted to denote terms vs. jargon.

I hope this helps.

ITPD


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[Nucejoe]

Press the canon tube with a nipper or a nail clipper.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by Nucejoe
Press on the outer premiter of the canon tube, to reduce it ID

[Nucejoe]

13 minutes ago, ITProDad said:

Hello, Rex. Thanks for the “tapatalk” tip. Much easier to navigate on my iPad.
To line up the “stud” a.k.a. Roller jewel, make note of there the jewel rests in relation to the balance wheel. It’s easier to see a point on the balance wheel, some people actually mark the spot with a gentle scratch on the balance wheel, than it is to see that tiny jewel when the balance is mounted. The mark, the jewel position, she be perfectly centered in between the “banking pins”. Those are the pins that stop the motion of the pallet fork, back and forth.
You can adjust the relative position of the roller jewel by gently and minutely rotating the hairspring collet one way or the other, u til it rests in the center of the banking pins.

Sorry if the quotes are insulting. They are not meant to be. I know how difficult it was for me to learn terms and names, still learning. Simply wanted to denote terms vs. jargon.

I hope this helps.

ITPD


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The tool set you bought may not be suitable for some tasks like fine HS manipulation, but not totaly useless, good for most tasks indeed.