ST36 hairspring attachment to stud weird

[Flubber]

Hi all, me again.

I've taken Mark's course and bought two ST36 ( ETA 6497 clones) that I use for practice and experimenting. Today when I was assembling the movement and checking if the impulse pin was in the correct location the hairspring detached from the stud. I checked on the other movement to see how the hairspring is attached to the stud and the balance cock. It looks as if the hairspring is glued to the stud with some sort of paste that is quite hard. It is not attached with a tapered pin that is inserted into a hole with the hairspring.

My question is what I'm looking at. Is the hairspring glued or actually welded somehow and how may I fix it ?

Edited August 28, 2020 by Flubber
Clarification and spelling.

[nickelsilver]

I don't know that movement, but most modern movements have the hairspring glued at the stud. When they de-glue from cleaning I usually use 2 part epoxy (Araldite for most continentals), 5 minute, to reglue. Last one I tried UV glue as I know the guy and if it doesn't work longterm it's not an issue.

They aren't supposed[/] to unglue from normal cleaning but it happens.

[les13]

I have two Seagull brand 6498 movements for the same purpose. Both of mine are pressed on. One of them is now running.

[Flubber]

@nickelsilver I didn't know that they were glued. I have to buy some epoxy then. Well. the watch has been the victim of my service experiments so it has been serviced a lot (or atleast washed in various solutions) so that is maybe why it come loose.

[Flubber]

I bought some LocTite epoxy and it was very annoying since using glue so close to the hairspring sure is scary but it seems I was succeeded. I used the smallest size of a used oiler to apply the glue.

[JohnR725]

Gluing hairsprings is not a new practice. The Elgin watch company pioneered this it was done to avoid stressing the hairspring. Traditionally a pin is used and that can distort. Modern methods Use various forms of laser welding or other welding.

Unfortunately the Chinese were not as thoughtful as Elgin and their glue has a habit of disintegrating if you attempt to clean the watch more than a couple of times. Epoxy should work fine probably best if you could do it in the watch because the stud will be in perfect alignment with the hairspring. Unfortunately there's not a lot of room to work.