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Ricoh 61 is ticking at last


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Hi All, I managed to reshape the hairspring in my Ricoh 61 project tonight. I am absolutely elated that I didn't give up and was successful in the end.

 

I managed to make some mistakes on the way but in the end I corrected them all.

 

I used hand remove levers to remove the hairspring from the balance wheel. The tips were too thick and I slipped and twisted the hairspring at the collet. Job for another day before I attempt it again is to thin down the hand levers. To correct the above I placed the collet on a pin and used tweezers to press down on the inner coil opposite where it was twisted up (under a binocular microscope).

 

Tweezers got dirty and I managed to transfer that to the hairspring causing the coils to stick together. I solved that with a quick dip in IPA followed by a quick dry. Best to try and avoid that in the first place.

 

Outer coil had to be reshaped to follow the path of the regulator pin. That took me a while to sort out. I did review some Ricoh hairspring images on Google and eBay to give me an idea of how the outer coil should be and then followed the helpful videos on YouTube.

 

Hairspring fitted back on balance, managed to position it so the jewel was 180 degrees to how it should be. Corrected this with tweezer tip in the collet slot while gently turning.

 

What I would do better next time. Better lighting would be the most important improvement I could make. It would have been a lot easier I believe with good lighting.

 

It was very tricky but I am a beginner. It was my first success with a hairspring reshape. I am 52 years old so a late starter. Hope this write up can help someone in future.

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Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

 

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