First watch cleaning/oiling help

[brenguy]

This is the first watch I've "rebuilt" but I'm experiencing problems. Its running but its causing my timegrapher to phase in and out during beat auto detect. Any help or guidance would be super appreciated!!! I cleaned it in an ultrasonic bath (using cheap washer with lighter fluid and rubbing alcohol) and then I oiled all the jewel hole with burgeon oil. I made sure that the oil amount was oil enough to reside in the "cup" part of the jewels. The watch runs but it seems to lose its beat and it screws up my readings.... not sure what could be the issue. Anyone have ideas to what and check? Its a bulova 11alacd movement and its pretty clean. No broken pivots anywhere I could see and also all pivots seem to be residing in their respective jewels. i did kink a part of the mainspring towards the end.... not sure if that could cause a hiccup in its beat.... also not sure if perhaps what I am experiencing is banking or knocking.... although I don't hear the signature "gallop" ticking... anyone have any ideas? I also dont have any hands installed on it... not sure if that matters...

 

[nickelsilver]

Did you clean it assembled? When you say mainspring, do you mean hairspring? That could be it. Or 13 different other things... Did you oil the pallet stones? (you should, lightly) Did you oil the pallet pivots? (shouldn't, but that wouldn't cause your reading)

 

It just takes a piece of dust to cause what you're seeing, or any number of mechanical faults. Next to impossible to say from here.

[watchweasol]

Hi For the timegrapher to automaticaly record the watch beat it needs a constant frequency from the watch to lock on to the be able to calculate the BPH using its on board crystal oscillator (caliblated) whats happening is it cannot find that frequency or its not stable enough, Due to as NIcklesilver has mentioned to several possibilities he has outlined. difficult to remotely diagnose.  First check the timegrapher on another watch to make sure its working ok, then its down to the watch. 

[Nucejoe]

Oscillator can still function correctly if " the kink towards the end of hairspring " is in ,,,end curve,,, section.

Sounds to be running steady and strong. 

 

 

[VWatchie]

I sure hope you didn't use this stuff for your oiling!?  As @nickelsilver stated; it's basically impossible to tell what's causing the timegrapher readings, and like @watchweasol suggests, make sure the timegrapher is working properly with another watch first. Depending the gravity of the mainspring kink, I guess it could cause some real problems, but I've kinked the inner coil of a few mainsprings a bit while adjusting them (Generale Ressorts) to fit the arbor and haven't had any real problems so far

Servicing and repairing a watch is a delicate process, think brain surgery (without the risk of a patient dying) , and many things can go wrong. You mention the use of oiling the movement and I would assume some Bergeon oil (not Burgeon hair oil). However, use the wrong type of oil or the wrong amount of oil (which you more than likely have and we've all been there) it could have a very negative impact on the running of the watch. I'm in no way affiliated with @Markwho's running this site, but I would definitely recommend www.watchrepairlessons.com. Worth every single penny if you ask me!

Good luck and keeps us updated, We sure wish to help you if we can!

[saswatch88]

@brenguywow thats awkward i have never seen that. have you tried it in other positions? I just see it in the DU position in the video and in that position you cant see how the balance or escape is functioning. One trick i learned from DeCarle is you can take the movement and press it against your ear. start with your head at a 90 degree angle parallel to the floor (so its movement is in DU), then while holding the movement next to your head, move your head from side to up to other side then back then forward to mimic some of the positions you would use on the timegrapher, while slowly moving your head in all of these positions listen for any inconsistencies in the beat or ticking. This how they did it before timegraphers came out. And it is one of the best ways to detect a positional beat error when technology fails you.

Edited January 29, 2020 by saswatch88