How to tell screws apart?

[Laerlingur]

Yes, I know...very basic question, and probably been asked here before. I'm an IKEA veteran and I can somewhat tell, when assembling IKEA furniture, if I've seen this screw before or not. However, while assembling watches, this get's somewhat confusing, and I have no clue why this never seems to be an issue, or a special topic in the Watch Repair Channel, or other watch assembling videos I've watched...or maybe it has and I've missed the point? So my question is, how do you do it?

Thanks for reading,

Magnus

[Michael1962]

I’m with you Magnus. I have asked myself the very same question. 

[Tudor]

When I tear down a movement, I keep parts segregated for this reason. Plus lots of pictures. 
 

Here’s one all apart for example:

each “layer” is in its own cell, with its screws. 

[KOwatch]

I've always been impressed by Mark, when he disassembles the movement and lines all the screws up together by size for his decorative parts photos, mixing up their respective "layers" in the process.

With attention to detail and experience I think it's possible to recognize each one, and they only go back together one way. I'm not there yet, keep 'em seperated with their respective parts.

[Tudor]

The thing that bites you in the butt is the length. Two screws may be identical other than length and mixing them up can sometimes cause problems elsewhere. 

I clean manually for the most part. But even when using ultrasonic I just do several small batches. I could probably figure it out at this point but it’s just how I do it. I’m comfortable that way. 

[mikepilk]

I do as @Tudor does - put different assemblies and their screws in to different trays (e.g. auto mechanism, gear train, keyless work). When removing a component with several screws, I lay them out in relative position to check that they are all the same length, and if not, take a picture (always take lots of pics!)

 

[Rafael]

In my opinion there's no real need to clean the screws (unless really dirty) so you can organise the parts with the applicable screws for each part, take a photo, remove the parts for cleaning, and upon reassembly look at the photo to see where are the applicable screws for such parts.

[watchweasol]

Hi Tudor and mikepilk are right segregate the assemblies and take pictures. The Likes of Mark who is a professional watchmakers who has done probably thousands of watches it becomes second nature. I repaired and overhauled Mechanical accounting machines with many hundreds of parts and springs and never had a problem I got to know the bits and springs and where they went because I did a lot of them.