Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hi people. Just joined the forum after watching Mark's video on YouTube.

Have been collecting watches for the past 2 years and have amassed quite a few good pieces.

Ordered a couple of spare watches from eBay to practice repairing watches and my.....I've yet to assemble a single piece.

Mark's video made it look so simple. But in reality its a very tough exercise.

After dissembling the movement, I tried to put back together and each and every time, I can't seem to put the cover for the wheel train. I tried alighning the sheets to the jewel but some how can get it to fit right.

I have been at the process for the past 2 weekends and getting very demoralized.

Would be helpful if you guys share your experience on the 1st time you tried diy on your watch. How many tries it took.

Posted (edited)

Stryker,  

Welcome to the forum.  We have all been there, problems with line up,s, flyers from the tweezers, lost bits etc, etc , but if you keep calm with practice it's amazing how your brain & fingers start to coordinate.

Alignment of the train wheel bridge or any bridge is about making sure the wheel/wheels are all seated in their jewels correctly and straight. Then align the bridge (I find best to hold with tweezers through one of the holes for the retaining screw) as exactly as possible before lowering it & with very gentle pressure as Mark would say worry them in just never force because the pivots are delicate.

As Gary Player once said "The harder you practice, the luckier you get"

Enjoy the forum & let know how you progress

Edited by clockboy
Posted

Welcome to the forum,Stryker.

I've only worked on a few moments, but I can tell you it gets easier. Yesterday I had to remove the train wheel bridge on a movement I'd already assembled. The first time it took me 8-10 attempts to locate the pivots. The second time I did it in two.

You’ve got to look under the bridge at eye level and very gently manipulate the wheels. I use a broken oiler for the escape wheel and brass tweezers for the other wheels. Probably the most important thing is to step away when it's not going well. I copied a quote from a watchmaking video and always keep it in mind. "Often...you're too hasty or too irritated, you do stupid things."

Don't give up. It'll come. Every failure pays with experience.

Posted

Welcome to the forum, Stryker. All has been said and it is good advise. Just make sure you take plenty of pictures and most important, the last thing you assemble is the balance wheel and hopefully the rotor!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

Posted

A warm welcome to the forum Stryker. :)

That is excellent advice from Clockboy and Don, persevere and it will become easier. It's all to do with acquiring a feel for it, never force anything or tighten screws before to know everything is running very freely. When tightening screws, do it a little at a time and checking that everything is still free, until they are fully tightened.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Thank you guys. After several attempts I manage to assemble the train assembly. This watch I was working on had the crown stem loose. Though it winds and keeps good time, the crown stem can be easily removed from the movement. Any idea why?

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Don't get discouraged!  I'm still in the beginning phase myself.  When I first tried to put on a train bridge it took me forever--now it only takes me forever minus 1.  But I'm improving.  I use an old oiler to move the pivots into their jewels while applying a very slight pressure with my forefinger.  One has to be careful not to bend the pivots in the process--which I've also done.  But that gives me a chance to use my staking tool!  For me, the most difficult one to set is the escape wheel (unless it has its own bridge which I've encountered a couple of times).

 

Awhile back I had lunch with a very experienced watchmaker of 25+ years who works on very high-end watches.  At an early point in his career he started to work at Breitling.  He told me that there, he broke watches for two years before he started to get things right.  He said he appeared regularly at the Breitling parts supply room and it was the virtually inexhaustible supply of parts available for "do overs" that allowed him to develop.  I found this very heartening and it has propelled me ever since.  I'm no longer afraid to break things!  (I try not to, of course.)  But for me the greatest psychological block I've had to overcome is the fear of breaking something.  When I break a watch I'd really like to keep I make up a set of notes to remind me of what went wrong and put it away until my skills improve or I get the necessary tool or part to try again to fix it.

 

One thing I've been doing is getting cheap but fixable watches and movements from eBay, flea markets, pawnshops, etc.  Not only does it give me a chance at fixing them but I've encountered a large variety of movements--most of which I've never heard of.  It allows me to see commonalities and differences and it's my equivalent of Brietling's supply room.

  • Like 1
Posted

Thank you guys. After several attempts I manage to assemble the train assembly. This watch I was working on had the crown stem loose. Though it winds and keeps good time, the crown stem can be easily removed from the movement. Any idea why?

Did you push the stem in far enough ?

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Hi All, I’m having a hard time finding a balance assembly or even a working donor movement for a Gruen 330.  Any leads appreciated.   Gruen doesn’t stamp the caliber number of the movement but lust in the case back.   
    • Why do you think this is Fontainemelon ?  The balance staff you will need to source separately.  But first it's important to accurately identify what you have there. Research Ebauches Sa, see who was in group, to find the brand that made this movement. 
    • Hi Watchrepairtalk, I have some questions about part sourcing I was hoping someone here might be able to help with. I'm working on an FHF 180 movement with a broken balance staff, broken regulator pins, and damaged cap jewels (both top and bottom). Some Googling says that this is similar to other FHF calibers like 150s, 160s, 180s and so on but I can't figure out what the functional difference is between these movements.  Is there any reason I wouldn't be able to acquire a donor FHF 150 or similar (with no shock protection) and use parts from that or would it be smarter to source replacements individually? Also are there any sources someone could recommend to get bulk cap jewels like this? Thank you for the help!
    • Hello and welcome to the WRT forum.
    • interesting video nice to see the machine what it can do now I wonder what it costs and I'm sure it's not in my budget. Plus the video brought up questions but the website below answers the questions? What was bothering me was the size of his machine 4 mm because I thought it was bigger than that? But then it occurred to me that maybe they had variations it looks like four, seven and 10. With the seven and 10 being the best because way more tool positions in way more rotating tools. Although I bet you all the rotating tools are probably separate cost https://www.tornos.com/en/content/swissnano   Then as we been talking about Sherline. Just so that everyone's aware of this they have another division their industrial division where you can buy bits and pieces. I have a link below that shows that just in case you don't want to have the entire machine you just need bits and pieces. https://www.sherline.com/product-category/industrial-products-division/   Let's see what we can do with the concept I explained up above and bits and pieces. For one thing you can make a really tiny gear very tiny like perhaps you're going to make a watch. Then another version the center part is not separate it is all machined from one piece. Then fills gear cutting machines have gone through multiple of evolutions. A lot of it based on what he wanted to make like he was going to make a watch unfortunately eyesight issues have prevented that. Another reason why you should start projects like this much sooner when your eyesight is really good or perhaps start on watches first and then move the clocks then local we have from the industrial division? Looks like two separate motors and heads. Then it's hard to see but this entire thing is built on top of a much larger milling machine as a larger milling machine gave a very solid platform to build everything.   Then like everything else that had multiple generations are versions the indexing went through of course variations like above is one version and the one below was the last version. Now the version below I mentioned that previously and somewhere in the beginning to discussion and somebody else had one in their picture. As it is a really nice precision indexing. Then I wasn't sure if I had a the watch photos here is his unfinished watch. No he wasn't going to make a simple watch like none of his clocks were simply either what would be the challenge and that.    
×
×
  • Create New...