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Hello from Maryland!


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Hello all.  My name is John and I live in Maryland, not too far outside Baltimore.  My obsession with this hobby started about three years ago, after watching Mark's video on how to make your own watch from parts.  I built the watch shown in the picture below, which is powered by a Sellita SW210 and is a great little timekeeper.  Despite my difficulty with fitting the seconds hand, I was bitten by the bug and then built a handful of watches for friends and family of varying designs.  I've recently signed up for Mark's online watch repair course and have just completed level two, servicing a Seagull ST36 in the process.

I'm looking forward to getting to know the community here!

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On 6/23/2021 at 8:22 AM, Michael1962 said:

Have you got any photos of the other watches that you built?

The second watch I built is a pilot's watch based on a Seagull ST36.  The lume on this dial is fantastic.

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The next watch I built is based on a skeletonized ST36.  This one was a real challenge but came out great.  The case is the smallest I've seen for a 6497 at 41mm.  It doesn't use a movement ring.  Instead, the movement is held in place by careful adjustment of the height of the case clamp screws, so that they just touch the caseback when it is screwed down.  I still have nightmares about this case.  I ended up 3D printing a spacer ring to fit between the caseback and those screws.

Guess how many times the winding pinion fell out when I removed the stem with the watch upside down on my casing cushion?  🙂

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I then built a few other watches using Otto Frei's 36mm 2824 case.  Here's one with an open heart dial that uses a reclaimed Hamilton movement:

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    • Hello everybody, sorry for the late reply. Thank you all so much for your help and your tips. I got lucky and found a replacement wheel bridge for cheap which actually ended up being in decent condition. I decided not to do anything about the mainspring barrel pivot since I didn't have the right tools and the barrel didn't have much endshake anyhow. I am happy to report that the watch now runs great, I have regulated it to about +-10/s day which is fine by my standards. The timegrapher result looks decent as well, although beat error is around 0.6ms which could be better I suppose. Amplitude reaches over 230 quite consistently which I'm happy with also. My lighter fluid has also been replaced by balance spring cleaning solution and now the springs don't stick to themselves anymore - who would have thought. I'm super happy with this watch, it might not be worth a whole lot but it's awesome that I could restore it and it makes me wear it with pride. To me it's a genuinely good lucking watch, it'll be my daily driver for a while. Thanks again to everybody for their input! I couldn't have done the repair without your help.   Here are some images for those interested, the bracelet isn't original but I don't really mind:    
    • Balance-hairspring system is oscillator with big Q-factor. When all in the movement is OK, the rate (frequency) is verry close to the own resonant frequency of the balance-hairspring. But in some cases, the movement (with foult) will force the resonator to work on pritty different frequency, sometimes faster, and sometimes slower. When this happens, the amplitude is always weak. So, the first thing to ask is what is the amplitude. If it is more than 180 and the hairspring doesn't touch itself and anything else, then for sure it is 'short'. If the amplitude is weak, then the first thing to do is to understand why and rectify the problem. At this time no point to check timekeeping. But, if one doubts that the hairspring is not correct, then He needs to calcullate the rate of the movement, then to 'vibrate' the balance-hairspring out of the movement and to measure the free oscillations frequency (period) with timer in order to ensure that they comply with the rate. If we have pictures, then it will be easier to tell something about that wheel.
    • So much work has gone into this! Thanks again @Jon. I will go back and check my adjustments from last weekend. A few questions for you, if you don't mind. In the reset position, I can understand the problem if the gap between the hammer and the minute counter heart is too big (slide 77) but what is bad about both hammers being in contact with the cams (slide 76)? I read somewhere that Landeron recommended grease on the runner cam, but the minute counter heart should be dry. Is that so, and why? How many tads in a ligne?
    • Could you glue two pieces together for rigidity and separate after forming? 
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