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WWW Eterna sucked me in.


luiazazrambo

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Hi *,

Originally I did not introduce myself thinking noone is really interested who I am but after a few months and after receiving so many friendly advice and comments I felt i must do it.

The story is started with this one: WWW Eterna

I knew absolutely nothing about clocks and watches apart from the fact that they do show the time and you can overwound them. :) Now i am on level 3 with the course and I have already serviced a few watches and clocks. I seem to like clocks more than watches but time will decide. I want to live a 1000 years to see all type of clocks and watches and to try all the food we have on this globe. 

Id like to learn more about clocks and watches and I would love to have the experience with them but I have a very limited time I can spend with them, anyway I am going to be the new Tompion. ;)

If you find a WWW watch in the dirt let me know I am interested in buying it. :)

I am Hungarian but living in UK, Cambridgeshire so I am not just breaking the pivots, but English too time to time. ;)

Good luck and my best regards,

lui

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi *,

Inspired by Andy I decided to record the things I do with clocks and watches here, for the unforeseen future it will mean that I am going to describe the mistakes i make and complain a lot, and cry, and cry a like a baby a little bit more. Mark put a Valjoux (ETA) 7750 movement together using spare parts from the scrap heap, now i am planning to do something similar, if I can spend enough time with watches I am going to try to put a movement together using parts coming from my carpet only.

Tonight there is no mistake or complaints i made a few wrist watch display holders still made out of my neighbor cut-down tree. I am planning to make another set where the middle section will be wider.

lui

 

 

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I love the sound of these ingersoll/smith/services watches which seem to share the same movement. Tonight I resurrected this small SMITHS watch. It was so overwound that I could not turn the crown, not even a bit. I had to remove the click spring and i was pushing the ratchet wheel with my thumb finger to slow it down when i released the power. I don't know if it was me trying to turn the crown with too much force or the previous owner did that, but two teeth were missing from the mainspring barell. I sourced a bag of these watches from ebay so now I am going to try to bring some of then into life again. The rest will be donor. 

Listen to that MUSIC! :) It has to stay in my room, cannot go on the bedside table Mrs would question me about the "noise"! :D

I have to figure out how to use that timegrapher SW and practicing the regulation because i am pretty much useless with that.

Too late again and tomorrow is metal detecting day! Hopefully another watch will turn up.:D

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Edited by luiazazrambo
correcting english
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This morning i went to bed at 3 again with a lot of frustration. Decided to put another as far as I can see it CAL400 movement again. This one only said that A160 on its plate. Had bent banking pins and a broken balance pivot. I was not worried because now i have a bag of these however when i replaced the whole balance assembly it did not move the pallet. Realized that the pallets are actually not the same. So I replaced the pallets too. Still did not want to go, only a few ticks and stopped. Something dodgy went on with the hairspring too, that boot or curb pin sheered off some of the hairspring like a pair of scissors??? Then used another balance assembly and this one did the same thing, wanted to start with some hesitation went of for 4 - 5 ticks then stopped. The trainwheels were flying with the smallest amount of force so i thought it must be the balance jewels even though i cleaned and oiled them. Replaced the top balance jewel and voila it started to tick. Only if i dont touch it but it goes now, if i start to move the movement it still stops. Again this is a worthless watch and I just want to know why it does not go. I am going to take it apart once more. I got myself a used stereo microscope, a very cheap one i inspected the jewel i suspected broken but to be honest I cannot see what would be wrong with it. Looks like the replacement what I put in instead of the original one.

if you forget to put the part what you supposed to put in first you will be a bit angry and your smile melts quickly away

i start to realize that cleanness is  utmost important, little bit or rust dirt here and there and your are done

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This one is a Smiths Empire 5 jewels CAL400. Actually it says on the plate that A463 CAL400.

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Could not go very far as I ruined the mainspring barell when I tried to put the mainspring back into its place. I must admit that I put the mainspring back with my fingers. I know that it is a bad habit and I just want to add a few more hints as why. I did not mention in my first CAL400 post, but i managed to put the mainspring into the barell the other way around when i put that together. Did not understand whats going on for a while, and with this one I pushed the lower wheel of the barell out of its place and I just cannot put it back, must source another one.

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I wanted to make this one work as I like its dial. I have a Mainspring Winder actually, but i don't know how to use it or if I can use it at all for this kind of a job.

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If you put only the half of your little basket into your cleaner and your face turns pale that you flushed your parts check your desk first.

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I go to bed now cannot keep doing this for long. 

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I was hesitating if I should buy this as it looked a clean and new example of a wristwatch but I liked the look of it and I had the impression that rotary is not too bad when it comes to quality. I thought it will be a win in 10 mins job but it turned into 3:10 am bed time instead. It was advertised as not working second hand fallen out. Yes it seems the watch was dropped, the escape wheel left its pivot, the second hand came off and the power released, as a result the train wheels and the main spring ate the second hand and bent it in a 90 degree angle. The shorter part of the second hand (forgot to take a picture) was stuck, I was very puzzled as how to get it out as the power remained in the mainspring locked the second hand in its hiding place, and despite to my 30-60 mins effort I could not pull it (that time i did not know that there is a part bent in 90 degree there), however after realizing that the escape wheel is not in place I managed to turn the train wheels in the other direction so the second hand was released. The plate screws were all kind of loose no wonder the escape wheel could come out like this, maybe they were worried about the screws as I managed to brake off one half of the screwhead of one of them with not much force. This movement seems like a Chinese low grade movement to me and has never seen the Swiss alps?  To be fair it is not mentioned that "Swiss Made", was it sold? Maybe its time to google it.

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Edited by luiazazrambo
correcting it so it would make sense hopefully
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I think I entirely failed to bid on that very watch. It does look good, but I too am in two minds about what it is.


It doesn't look like the very inexpensive Chinese skeletons, but it does look similar, which may be a mixed blessing, since if it is an auto version of the  "Chinese Standard movement", you can swap parts from almost any other one, including the non skeletonized versions, with a pretty high level of confidence that they will fit.

On the other hand, the quality of these movements varies from extremely good to extremely poor, so your mileage may vary. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/001Classic-Automatic-Auto-Mechanical-Wristwatch-Black-Belt-Silver-Shell-wX/202771370401?hash=item2f361d91a1:g:m-YAAOSwRmNdVVvS

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A quick study of "the cheapest new skeleton Chinese mechanical watch on ebay" (at a mere £5.99 new, shipped from China it is unfortunately £1.95 too expensive to get in to the 404 club), shows some obvious similarities and also some differences.

I do have one of those "Winners", a manual wind. These are pretty similar to the automatics. I picked it up used, so it did fall within the rules,  but I'm not at home, so I can't provide better pictures for you to compare.

There are some not very detailed pictures of it here->

I wonder if it is a "Fake Rotary", a Fauxtary (groan...). Good to see you seem to have brought it back from the dead.

Does it have an exhibition case back?

Edited by AndyHull
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Yes it has. Everything looks rotary, the strap is rotary, the buckle is rotary, the model number is rotary. I believe you can get a new one around £100 mark. Maybe I am just un-experienced with watches younger than 50 years and maybe because it is skeleton and it gives me a different feeling. :D

I made a few pics, this is how I am going to sell some of the watches. I am afraid I have to do that if i am about to continue this nice hobby. 

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According to wikipedia:

"Rotary Watches' head office is now in the UK, and it is a wholly owned Chinese company. Rotary offers a range of timepieces manufactured in Switzerland, together with a range of less expensive pieces made elsewhere, usually with movements from Japan or China which are then assembled in Japan or China."

As mine is not "Swiss Made" it has to be the latter.

Rotary

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After a few nights including the last one which ended at 5 am this morning I kind of restored a watch "crystal" cutter. There are still two things I need to sort out. 1., I lost a hex nut. I remember when I cleaned it but it disappeared, have to find it or replace it. 2., I learnt that there is imperial system in the UK the hard way, did not measure even once and tried to refresh a tread with metric....ohh dear. Now I have to source an imperial tap and die set.

What I would like to ask:

- Does it need some kind of calibration? How to do that?

- Where to source the sheets so I could try to cut out a watch "crystal"? What is the material I have to get?

- I was told that the cut needs to be in an certain angle otherwise the crystal would not stay in its place, but I cannot see how could that be achieved with this tool.

- I was also told and read that I need a glass press set to make the "crystals" domed. Could anyone educate me?

To my horror there is no youtube video I could watch???!! How is that even possible?

I understand that now you can buy watch glasses for peanuts but again here I have this for my amusement. 

Before:

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After:

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May I ask the watchmaker community what are those extra numbers mean on these crystal glasses?

The top is obviously the size of them what but are the others? Last year I bought a box of these off eBay. Is that cloverleaf (had to find its name in dictionary so hopefully I named it correctly) a trademark?

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Edited by luiazazrambo
typos
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  • 1 month later...

I have been busy with this bench lamp, I think I spent at least about 30 hours with it and even if it is not perfect I am pleased with the end result. Would I do it again? My immediate answer would sound like: Not a chance! Second thought: Maybe I would be happy to set up the tools and processes for a kind of a mass production. It was worth it economically as I have not spent much money on it, and it was worth it because I enjoyed bulding it and learnt? some new skills like knurling. Question mark is there because I am not sure if I learnt it, the result is again acceptable, but I dont really know how should the end result for knurling look like, when it is kind of perfect. I made, as always many mistakes during the process, blood was also shed when I tried to use my hand as a machine vice, and that spring barell tried to slice me up when I failed to hold it, instead it only could get some of my skins of one finger. Luckily my company sends me to regular first aid trainings so I could quickly apply an oily rug lying in the dust around my bench to the wound and carry on with the drilling. It also gave me the opportunity to suck some blood when I was hungry/thirsty. They say money is time so if you dont want to spend about 30 hours with sawing/planing/drilling/polishing/gluing/sanding/swearing and soldering you just could go to cousins and buy that led lamp which is a lightweight bench lamp with dimmer and you can even position it better over your work piece compared it to mine. I think this lamp will be a usefull addition to my bench from now on anyway. I used pallet and crate wood and you can see nail holes here and there and i left them there on purpose. I am going to add a switch to the base and I am in the process to decide how to lead that cable in a nice looking way still to be able to move the upper arm in and out if needed with the cable in place.

Skills what were used:
- some woodworking
- some soldering
- skip diving
- time finding

Tools what were used:
- different kind of woodworking tools (planer and thicknesser/ chisels / sanding paper/ router / table saw / mitre saw)
- angle grinder
- pillar drill (used it for drilling and polishing)
- laser printer
- unimat 3
- cordless drill
- and other tools like screwdivers / pencil / ruler / caliper / etc..

Materials what were used:
- threaded stainless steel rods from the skip
- copper bolts and nuts and washers from the skip
- 2 core speaker cable (i had from previous project)
- spring barells (i had a box of them / bought them from eBay earlier without knowing what to do with them)
- a BT hub from the skip for the 12V power supply and the connector
- I bought 5 led strips ($10.78) but only used 3 of them as the power supply was rated to 1.5A and one strip is using about 400 mAmps.
- used pallet (collected earlier for other projects and firewood)
- used building materials crate (collected earlier for other projects and firewood)
- wood glue (had it, its like bread and butter you need it every day ;-)
- gel medium for the photo transfer (had it from earlier project)
- polishing material (had it)
- some wood screws (had them)
- bought a switch for £3.64

If you ever thought about what skip diving is, I can teach that to you, but be prepared that you have to give up some of your dignity. I am a professional skip diver and I can stay there longer than 10 minutes! Years of practice! ;)

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Edited by luiazazrambo
one too many
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Hi  thats quite a job and an execellent result well done, A man after my own heart  if you cant find it make it    I was lucky when I was made redundant a lot of the stuff was being binned and i managed to salvage a two tube version in metal.    The one you have made is a cracker and does the same job brilliant:Bravo: 

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My next project is to clean up this incomplete screw head polisher. Actually I have already removed some dust and rust, but that was just some initial cleanup. What I don't know is that whats missing? Am I supposed to have those disks which actually do the polishing job with some paste? And what are those tiny bits in the red square? I watched a few youtube videos but I could not answer these questions.

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Edited by luiazazrambo
correcting english
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On 3/8/2020 at 6:15 AM, luiazazrambo said:

My next project is to clean up this incomplete screw head polisher. Actually I have already removed some dust and rust, but that was just some initial cleanup. What I don't know is that whats missing? Am I supposed to have those disks which actually do the polishing job with some paste? And what are those tiny bits in the red square? I watched a few youtube videos but I could not answer these questions.

 

No this screw polisher does not have the wood, brass and steel polishing wheel, that is a more complex polisher.

Yours is made for using a file to clean the screw-heads, so not for getting a perfect mirror finish, but it can still acheive pretty good results.

As you rotate back and forwards the part holding the screw with one hand you run a file on the roller with the other hand to clean up the screw heads.

All that it is missing is a few more sized collets for clamping the screws.

The items in the red square are lantern chucks for screws.

The head goes inside the 'lantern' part with the threaded end poking outthrough the hole in the end. This lets you clean up the threaded end of the screw, very useful if you need to shorten a screw.

It is also useful to regrind / sharpen the balance wheel pivots on the cheap alarm clocks that just have conical pivots  that sit in cupped screws. You can do this on a watch makers lathe too, but the benefit of using this tool to do it is you can turn it backwards and forwards like a jacot tool to allow you to burnish / harden the pivots which you cant do on a lathe.

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I have recently posted in "which-watch-have-you-got-coming-in-the-mail-show-us" about the clocks I was expecting. Two of them turned out to be car clocks, when I bought them I believed they were travel clocks without their case. I like both of them however both of them have issues with the keyless work and with the luming. When I pull the crown into hand set position the whole stem comes out in case of the brevet, and when I wind the octava it has a very annoying and disturbing grinding sound. The brevet one also has a hairline crack on the dial between 10 and 5. Otherwise they are ticking nicely. How could we possibly match the color of the dial when we re-lumen the hands considering that the aging has changed the original color? And the octava case back does seem to have a color, was that on purpose? Is that a layer of (colored?) lacquer? What shall I do with it? Remove (polish)/replace?

black dial - BREVET 33236

white dial - OCTAVA WATCH Co SWITZERLAND / 15 FIFTEEN JEWELS / 3 ADJUSTMENTS / U.S.A.P. 816321

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Edited by luiazazrambo
+ info + pic
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