WWW Eterna sucked me in.

[luiazazrambo]

I have thousands and thousands of unsorted watch crystals. Started to measure the first 100 of them but its a slow process. Not sure if this tool will help as it is just arrived and I am about to leave for holidays... (no watchmaking for more than a month...), will try to use it. Even if it is not going to be practical I still love it.

Edited July 24, 2021 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

Let me introduce my new light box: Behemoth No 1.

I got the idea from youtube where someone was converting broken LED TVs to provide realistic artificial daylight. I thought that it could work with photography - you actually can buy different sort of light boxes - so I could take pictures of watches and if it is a bit bigger then clocks too. So I went for a hunt for broken LED TVs on FB marketplace. After countless hours of work I ended up with this monster now I struggle to find a place for. The size was determined by one of the LED TV where I cut the screen layers into half providing light from the two sides and there is another LED TV screen on the top.  Power supply came from the skip, just like the plywood and the pallet wood. I had to buy the LED strips and the background. Considering the number of working hours, the trips you have to make to collect the TVs and to dispose the parts you don't want, the money I spent on the strips and the background probably you would be better of if you just would buy one of the ready made ones from ebay you can put into your backpack.   Of course you would not have the fun I had and the glory now.  Here you can see the details of my Behemoth, I bought black, white and red backgrounds (45 cm wide 1,5 m long felt). I can separately switch on and off the two sides and the top. For demonstration I actually used a galvanometer and a cat called Smudge.

Edited September 26, 2021 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

It seems that one of my new 404 toy has an issue or two. Balance pivots bent, one slightly the other one badly. One of the pivot was a busy bee and dug a trench both in the jewel and the cap jewel:

[luiazazrambo]

My last order from Southern just came in. 

[luiazazrambo]

I love these boxes and their content, got them today:

[dadistic]

Those boxes are really nice, especially the one with the felt liner. I have some similar wood boxes that I use for watch stuff, but they don't have dividers and neat little tops with handles. Maybe I'll have to make some!

Cheers

[luiazazrambo]

5 hours ago, dadistic said:

Those boxes are really nice, especially the one with the felt liner. I have some similar wood boxes that I use for watch stuff, but they don't have dividers and neat little tops with handles. Maybe I'll have to make some!

Cheers

Yeah I thought about that too but it would take a lot of time and I am not sure if my woodworking tools are precise enough or if have the right tools and the knowledge to make them. Should I have the time, knowledge and the tools I would also make countertop display cases and a wood engineering toolbox. 

[luiazazrambo]

Failure, I cracked it, i was pretty close though. The internal voice was there but I didnt listen, I should have heated up some tools as it is advised, with that i would have had better chance.

Never replaced a balance staff, it is beyond me...

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

Milestone: full service first time for a paying customer. Thank you Stephen.

Made in Dumbarton, Scotland.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

Ready for cleaning, already removed a good bit of rust. A Star staking tool from Switzerland with an unusual anvil, or at least unknown to me.

Depose 45595, 74203 and 45449

[luiazazrambo]

Cleaned.

 

[luiazazrambo]

I got this one from my friend, from Herr Rudolf Karl Wilhelm Flume. I had to clean it a bit because postman was a bit late.

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by luiazazrambo

[jdm]

7 hours ago, luiazazrambo said:

I got this one from my friend, from Herr Rudolf Karl Wilhelm Flume.

What are these for?

[luiazazrambo]

1 hour ago, jdm said:

What are these for?

I don't really have a clue. I hoped that someone or myself would figure it out sooner or later. I got a box of old tools, I am going to clean them and post the pics slowly here.

https://second.wiki/wiki/rudolf_flume_technik

[luiazazrambo]

One step closer to become the "Crystal man".  These are also from Germany. Acrylic watch "crystals" made for Kienzle, Laco, Speidel etc. I kind of see burn marks on the tools. Does that mean that the tool was heated up to ease the forming?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kienzle_Uhren

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speidel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laco_Uhrenmanufaktur

Edited January 21, 2022 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

Another tool from Germany. It only says Germany nothing else.

[jdm]

3 hours ago, luiazazrambo said:

Acrylic watch "crystals" made for Kienzle, Laco, Speidel etc. I kind of see burn marks on the tools. Does that mean that the tool was heated up to ease the forming?

Nice, they gave you the tooling to make as many crystals you wanted. The iffy alignment of the lettering and occasional spelling errors remind me of my own work. They made precise dies but couldn't make punch guides?

 

[luiazazrambo]

The next is an uprighting tool. 

[luiazazrambo]

Steinfassmaschinchen No 1471 from my Uncle Herr Georg Jacob, Leipzig

Edited January 21, 2022 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

Well, if you tell me what it is I hit the "Thanks" button.

Edited January 21, 2022 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

5 hours ago, jdm said:

Nice, they gave you the tooling to make as many crystals you wanted. The iffy alignment of the lettering and occasional spelling errors remind me of my own work. They made precise dies but couldn't make punch guides?

Yes, it seems that they sometime not found the letter "I" for India and they used the letter "J" instead when they wrote KIENZLE, and they forgot the N once, but then they squeezed it in later.  It was probably not so important to make them pretty, thank you for the video though. I wonder if these dies wore out or not. There were many watch crystal makers in the UK in the past I don't know if there is any left, I would not think so.

[AndyHull]

23 hours ago, luiazazrambo said:

I kind of see burn marks on the tools. Does that mean that the tool was heated up to ease the forming?

Almost certainly. The most likely method of production was thermoforming, possibly assisted by vacuum (hence the holes in the dies) or blow mounding (positive pressure). 

Probably not on anything like the scale in the video below, but the process is similar. 

You can buy, or make your own small scale injection moulding and vacuum forming equipment.

 

Lots of other videos, but those will give you the basic ideas.

Edited January 22, 2022 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:57 PM, luiazazrambo said:

Edited 21 hours ago by luiazazrambo

Interesting construction. From the picture, it looks like there are possibly multiple parts to each half of the forming tools.

If I am correct then there may be a hardened collar, to keep the wear to a minimum, pressed into a blank holder made from cheaper mild steel.

Also the form would probably make a crystal with a large brim a bit like a bowler hat, which might then have the brim turned down to an exact size in a secondary process.  31.7mm  diameter with a 0.9mm wide brim in this case.

Perhaps the idea was that you produce 31.7mm +1.8mm result and machine these down to 33.4, 33.3, 33.2 etc (334, 333, 332  etc crystals)

My suspicion is that these were intended for production of reasonably large volumes of crystals. Perhaps runs of a few  thousand per tooling. 

If you only need a handful then you could have used a single part construction as wear would not be a factor.

I envisage an electrically  heated tool, with perhaps a vacuum hose or air hose to push or pull the material in to the mould, with pre-heated (with hot air perhaps)  square blanks cut from sheet being presented to the machine individually, and pressed between the tool halves with a small hydraulic press. A bit like a die stamper. The vacuum or pressure hose may not be required as the acrlic blanks would be small and relatively thin.

The pressure of the tool alone may be sufficient to get good results.

Not a very high volume production process perhaps, but good for one crystal every couple of seconds.

You could maybe replicate the stamping with a drill press and suitable tool holders as the pressure wont be very high when dealing with softened relatively thin, pre-heated acrylic sheet. 

Don't be tempted to simply roughly line them up and whack them with a hammer however as if they are hardened steel they may not survive the process.

Edited January 22, 2022 by AndyHull

[luiazazrambo]

Next is a restoration project, i have cut some pine pieces and ordered velvet fabric, I would like to know what is that leather like paper and how did they glue it on, the edges are very sharp.

[luiazazrambo]

Another topic. Ronda RL 1223 with alarm function. Got a few of these NOS movements in protective sponge cover.  Most of them are relatively clean and most of them even start in this state, of course all need a service. I need a case a dial and a set hands now, anyone want to swap these for a movement?

http://thewatchspotblog.com/?p=215