WWW Eterna sucked me in.

[luiazazrambo]

21 hours ago, dadistic said:

That is a very nice cabinet. 

Where the heck are you putting all of this fantastic stuff?

Your house must be huge! (Or very crowded  )

Cheers!

Not big enough. The last longcase clock has officially made the house full.  (i am using the attic and the garage (if not delicate) as storage. I constantly monitor the auction sites for watchmakers tools in the UK and Germany. I have to stop myself now though.. my financial balance looks very bad at the moment... need to do some work and make some money if i am about to acquire new stuff...

[luiazazrambo]

Frontier Staking Set - Made in Japan - always wanted one with transparent lid.

[rehajm]

What’s with the Dymo punch tape correcting the number of punches and stakes? I hope that’s a disclosure from a previous owner and not a manufacturer hack…

[luiazazrambo]

I frequently visit auctions and this Saturday I found a book which seems to be some sort of a ledger hand written by probably a jeweler/watchmaker, not sure as I have difficulties with reading it. The same person James Hare - if I am correct - has written it between 1843 and 1895, that's 52 years. He probably worked at the same place in his entire life. Since 1853 he also put revenue 1 penny stamps here and there. The book was sold in Birmingham it seems. I additionally got a tons of regular stamps with it and books about stamps collection. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by luiazazrambo

[luiazazrambo]

Scanned the pages if someone is interested:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kcCEI4deXVNW2cBIhlhK5ECPiBjSBR4m/view?usp=share_link

[luiazazrambo]

The link above does not seem to lead us to the directory with all of the pages but the first page, let me try again:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-r9sxCJiu6eR_5jeoDC3f4NBimWY0jj_?usp=share_link

 

[luiazazrambo]

My first french polish attempt, I bought the shellac about 2 years ago and it was just sitting on one of my shelf waiting for me to find some time. The shellac is lemon. Less than 30ml solution was used for this tiny box which originally had a leatherette cover which was damaged/worn out beyond repair so I sanded down the box and applied the shellac. Made a few mistakes again, the original box is just big enough to accommodate the tools or actually they made it just a bit too small, the hinges did not like it but I realized it later when I added some extra padding to the top.. well i broke the box with it when I tried to close it thinking that the padding is flexible enough and only would hold the tools tight... well no... i had to remove the padding and glue the box together again. You can even see on the original purple texture that the sharpening stone? punctured it as the box was too small.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by luiazazrambo

[AndyHull]

Nice job. Shellac and a bit of French polishing produces a great finish.

[luiazazrambo]

 

"The essentials for success are scrupulous cleanliness, a clear bench and good light. A clear bench is contrary, perhaps, to the ideas of the majority of watch repairers, who seem to accumulate on the bench many tools, some in use, and others of no immediate use, together with a confused collection of litter consisting of old material, work in hand, oil pots and a host of other things. The result is that tools get damaged or lost, and the time taken in rectification and search mounts up to many costly hours in the course of the year."

Donald de Carle

Watchmaking is only a hobby to me so here we dont talk about a commercial workshop environment, but having a chaotic desk just upsets me, and I cannot be in a mental state where I actually could work on a watch, especially if it is not mine. Almost an entire year spent with a chaotic desk and room full with watchmaker related books, parts, tools, movements, clocks, boxes, litter, dust, etc... i barely worked on watches.. sorry Stephen...  

However while I sailed other parts of the adventurous see of watchmaking I made my own attempt to convert an old timing machine microphone to work with my PC and the different timing software installed on it. It has a one stage amplification built into it and it sort of works, but not sensitive enough so does not really work with all of the watches only above a certain noise level. I have a number of these mics and while I was thinking what to do with them i contacted Steve Lunn from https://www.etimer.net/ . It turned out that he is another internet fairy I met on the world wide web and with his help now I possess one of the best timing software you could possibly have. The same one our common mentor @Mark has.

The mic I prepared:

The reading:

 The clip and USB sound adapter I received from Steve:

The reading:

All together:

Contact and the USB sound adapter:

3.5 mm plugs:

EB8420

 

Note the difference that I had to boost my mic with 42dB, the max i could set to make it work while it is on 0dB using the clip. Also note that the the clip has a different 3.5mm jack plug compared it to my own, therefore the clip has to be used with the USB sound adapter. Make it sure that you have it in your basket if you order the clip from eTimer. The watch has an EB8420 movement, ignore the hands found them in a bag only contained parts marked as scrap and I only have these, also ignore the beat error, I made an experiment with interchangeable parts and the complete balance comes from a different EB movement. The complete balance is nice because it has the option to set the beat error easily, I could not bring this down to 0 just using this option without further adjustment though. Maybe I just put the original back into its place. 

In summary: I am very happy, the clip is incredibly sensitive with very good amplification. I also can listen to the noise of the watch using my headphones or the built in internal speakers however i was advised not to use the speakers so they would not interfere with the sensitive clip. I am at the beginning of my experiment with the software though, received the pack many months ago, but tried it with a watch last night at the first time only. I only tried a few features it has, looks very promising, I probably try the long run diagnosis next.

 

Well this was one of the many other reasons why my watchmaker carrier was not progressing enough:

Found a manual with circuit diagram for it but I only needed to replace its electric plug and to gently blow out the dust with my compressor.

Edited May 10, 2023 by luiazazrambo

[JohnR725]

45 minutes ago, luiazazrambo said:

However while I sailed other parts of the adventurous see of watchmaking I made my own attempt to convert an old timing machine microphone to work with my PC and the different timing software installed on it. It has a one stage amplification built into it and it sort of works, but not sensitive enough so does not really work with all of the watches only above a certain noise level. I have a number of these mics and while I was thinking what to do with them i contacted Steve Lunn from https://www.etimer.net/ . It turned out that he is another internet fairy I met on the world wide web and with his help now I possess one of the best timing software you could possibly have. The same one our common mentor @Mark has.

so just to be clear your microphone and the previous software really didn't work. Now the new software and the new microphone of course works much better and did not going to use your old microphone because it doesn't work?

45 minutes ago, luiazazrambo said:

clip has to be used with the USB sound adapter

I'm pretty sure that the USB device comes with the microphone standard now. Basically it's a package with the software

[rehajm]

51 minutes ago, luiazazrambo said:

Found a manual with circuit diagram for it but I only needed to replace its electric plug and to gently blow out the dust with my compressor.

...very nice. The US equivalent sat in my grandparents home when I was a kid. New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston...and...

...a reminder about leaving your radio on during the night: leave your radio on during the night.

 

[luiazazrambo]

25 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

so just to be clear your microphone and the previous software really didn't work. Now the new software and the new microphone of course works much better and did not going to use your old microphone because it doesn't work?

I'm pretty sure that the USB device comes with the microphone standard now. Basically it's a package with the software

They do work together (my mic and the SW), my other two SW I have is Tg and Watch-O-Scope full version. They both work, but my mic is not sensitive enough I have to improve it if I want to use it with the not so noisy watches. With eTimer I now have a professional timing SW though. We know that in order to have a good read we need a good mic. Both you and me were in probably more than one discussions which were about timing SW and the mics. I have not finished my experiments with the piezos I have, and the the two stage amp I could possibly build in, but as far as it goes I need the next 10 years to finish that... in contrary you sometime don't need a mic at all to start with... with most of the watches I have, old, low grade, noisy ones it is enough if I place them on top of the hole hiding the laptop built in mic, as far as I know @AndyHullalso does that and we have an acceptable result you can use. Of course it is difficult to handle the different positions like that but its good enough to start with.

The USB sound adapter might be the part of the package I have not checked it, the offer I received was not something I could refuse.

Edited May 10, 2023 by luiazazrambo

[AndyHull]

3 minutes ago, luiazazrambo said:

as far as I know @AndyHullalso do that and we have an acceptable result you can use.

My Thinkpad T460's built in microphone and tg-timer have managed to cope with pretty much any watch I throw at them.

I do occasionally need to mess around with the mic gain to get usable results, but by and large, it just works.

[JohnR725]

1 minute ago, luiazazrambo said:

eTimer I now have a professional timing SW though.

so the other software isn't professional?

Darn? I'm going to leave the question up above but you recognize me. which means I can't have fun by asking silly questions like the one above.

3 minutes ago, luiazazrambo said:

I have not finished my experiments

okay were both in the agreement here. I was running experiments with the eTimer software and haven't quite finished. I initially was having problems with one of the laptops when I was using it and I do use the software the previous version a long time ago. So I was curious of running experiments with two separate watches and four different either USB or a microphone combinations in other words as using my netbooks audio input. The USB adapter that Steve sent which is different than yours. A USB adapter I have that looks identical to yours. Then the Chinese USB microphone plus I also ran at the same time is doing all the test I also use the Watch-O-Scope full version just for comparison. so all I did was go through an capture all the data and that's as far as I got and yes it does seem to be some minor differences between the microphone and whether it's a direct input to the computer etc. Like the microphone refuses to work it or be acknowledged by the other laptop I was using which is considerably newer and faster than my netbook netbook actually works quite nicely for the software

11 minutes ago, luiazazrambo said:

need the next 10 years to finish that.

if it only takes 10 years your operating much faster than I am. the amplifier board that I was using with the Watch-O-Scope I believe is 12 years old and I was an upgrade from something previous. Which ultimately was supposed to go into a finished product or nicer board and I still haven't got there yet so 10 years is quite fast versus how fast I'm doing things.

[luiazazrambo]

Some "new" devices on display. After a small watchmaker library now I also have a tiny watchmaker museum.

[grsnovi]

19 hours ago, luiazazrambo said:

Some "new" devices on display.

That's a lot of cool stuff - do you use any of it??

[luiazazrambo]

16 hours ago, grsnovi said:

That's a lot of cool stuff - do you use any of it??

No, not really. I received them recently and even though I am no expert of them they all seem to be incomplete or need adjusting before any practical use. They are display pieces more or less at the moment.

[luiazazrambo]

Unfortunately the Laco watch I serviced earlier stopped on the bench and it took me a very very long time to sort it out. The issue with the Laco was that the bearing of the center wheel was worn out and I have not realized that because I did not know this movement and I am not experienced enough. It was actually a bit suspicions when I put it together, but I was a bit tricked as I thought that the movement was a working one and indeed it was working until your luck ran out. The center wheel had too much side shake so depending the position of the watch and what sort of forces had an effect on it when it was moved on your wrist or otherwise it was ticking or not as my tests proved it. Because I thought it was a perfectly working movement when I received it and it was actually running I took it apart again and again thinking that I made a mistake somewhere. Better to say I took it apart completely two times and cleaned and lubricated two times and then when I realized that there is a problem with the power transmission I replaced the mainspring first, but did not help, then I took apart the train wheel a countless time... as I thought... thing is that the center wheel has its own bridge... can be taken out only if you remove the rest of the train wheels and also the barrel bridge, but it is still part of the train of wheel... so when I say I took apart the train of wheels it is only half true... the center wheel was not taken out... Then I asked the Hungarian watchmaker community for help at the same time I fired up my eTimer which is a beautiful piece of timing software came with an outstanding very sensitive microphone. The long term test showed an hourly fluctuation in performance... and what turns once every hour? Yes, the center wheel.... Luckily cousinsuk had brand new center wheel bridge. With the help of the community and eTimer the problem is sorted. I am very very happy about it, it was not just because this watch belongs to my best customer... it was a question over my head asking me constantly... why are you doing this if you cant even fix a simple watch?  

Before:

After:

Center wheel side shake:

Phew...

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, luiazazrambo said:

Unfortunately the Laco watch I serviced earlier stopped on the bench and it took me a very very long time to sort it out. The issue with the Laco was that the bearing of the center wheel was worn out and I have not realized that because I did not know this movement and I am not experienced enough. It was actually a bit suspicions when I put it together, but I was a bit tricked as I thought that the movement was a working one and indeed it was working until your luck ran out. The center wheel had too much side shake so depending the position of the watch and what sort of forces had an effect on it when it was moved on your wrist or otherwise it was ticking or not as my tests proved it. Because I thought it was a perfectly working movement when I received it and it was actually running I took it apart again and again thinking that I made a mistake somewhere. Better to say I took it apart completely two times and cleaned and lubricated two times and then when I realized that there is a problem with the power transmission I replaced the mainspring first, but did not help, then I took apart the train wheel a countless time... as I thought... thing is that the center wheel has its own bridge... can be taken out only if you remove the rest of the train wheels and also the barrel bridge, but it is still part of the train of wheel... so when I say I took apart the train of wheels it is only half true... the center wheel was not taken out... Then I asked the Hungarian watchmaker community for help at the same time I fired up my eTimer which is a beautiful piece of timing software came with an outstanding very sensitive microphone. The long term test showed an hourly fluctuation in performance... and what turns once every hour? Yes, the center wheel.... Luckily cousinsuk had brand new center wheel bridge. With the help of the community and eTimer the problem is sorted. I am very very happy about it, it was not just because this watch belongs to my best customer... it was a question over my head asking me constantly... why are you doing this if you cant even fix a simple watch?  

Before:

After:

Center wheel side shake:

Phew...

Thats a lot of movement in the center wheel,  but well done for finding it. Dont beat yourself up about not finding it straight away.  Problems even in simple watches can take hours sometimes days of diagnosing. Every watch you repair is more lessons learnt.

[Klassiker]

Well done. Good problem-solving skills and a lesson learned (i.e. sometimes, it isn't your fault!)

[luiazazrambo]

My 5 years long project finally finished... sort of... a few things still need to be sorted, but we did our test drive last night. The meter is a Smiths and there is a quartz watch built in.  Next thing is the horn (ordered but not received yet) and a Nokia N95 sound system.

[luiazazrambo]

Old oil cups. 

Politur experiment with Button, Lemon and Blonde shell lack. There is room for improvement both for the technique and the for end  result but not too bad. 

[nevenbekriev]

On 1/27/2022 at 1:25 AM, luiazazrambo said:

I'd like to know what movement it is, but not going to take it apart now. Not today. Too tired.

Meister Anker ladies 17 rubies watch.

https://17jewels.info/movements/z/zaria/zaria-1509/

[luiazazrambo]

And the most important news: Today the first time ever I used a watchmakers lathe which I actually own for something useful: pencil sharpening a balance staff. The setup is sort of temporary, but was good enough to do my first steps with the watchmakers lathe. It had to happen sooner or later. I have been working to put together a watchmaker lathe since at the beginning of September in my free time, but the first lathe after so much work/cleaning/thinking and head scratching seemed to be a dead end. This one works though, i will need a new pulley for the motor should I keep the current 1 phase AC motor or a new motor and I will need to make a new stand, but I am slowly progressing. I received invaluable help throughout the cleaning process and setting up the lathe for which I am thankful.

[luiazazrambo]

Daylight pictures, well a bit cloudy but some natural light.