Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hello, I'm Dan a new member, and a brand new watchmaker!  I'm an Electrical Engineer professionally and an electronics designer/tinkerer/hobbyist for even longer.  I've been obsessed with time and timekeeping forever.  I've even built both a 60 kHz WWVB receiver and transmitter (that's the "atomic clock" radio station near Fort Collins, Colorado).

Anyway, I inherited a couple of pocket watches: a Hamilton 992 railroad grade from my father about 10 years ago (it probably belonged to my great-grandfather) -- it had a broken crystal, wound tight, and wasn't running.  Under a magnifier, I tweezed away the lint and hairs that were binding the hands and miraculously it began running!  Ordered a couple of new-old-stock crystals and got it fitted. It's been sitting on the shelf since getting an occasional wind.

More recently, I found a 1908 Elgin 12s 7-jewel grade 301 in a box that I inherited from my brother. Again no crystal, a broken hand, rusted case, and not running reliably -- looks like the second hand is rubbing against the dial hole.  This prompted me to add on another hobby to my resume -- watchmaking, so I can properly service and repair this.

Santa brought a nice wooden tool chest and a multitude of tools (some still on the way) and I ordered this mess of a movement off of ebay for learning:

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/collection/editdetails/131416/overview

s-l1600.thumb.jpg.34c30a0ec531b57aa729852cc375589b.jpg

It was wound tight, rusted, and seized.  Disassembled it and found two major issues: escape wheel's staff had corroded so much that it fused itself into the bridge,  the balance had corroded too and "leaked" its rust onto the hairspring gluing it together. Good news is that the jewels are in good shape, and no broken staffs.  Repaired what I could, cleaned it and now it runs, but not very well.  I have another donor movement on its way.

800BE620-21CA-4B75-B9F9-AD0370017D45.thumb.jpg.c8fcf6058d88f2bcd711d2acb9be59ae.jpg

 

Thanks for reading this far and now to answer the question. Among the similarities are: require a strict attention to detail, working with small parts under magnification, share some common tools, and provide a great deal of mental stimulation.

Best regards,

Dan

  • Like 1
Posted

Hi its cleaned up very well , If you are looking for bits try daveswatchparts.com,  put the number onto the pocketwatchdatabase site and it will give you all the details of the watch. These you will need for finding/ordering parts.

Posted
7 hours ago, mooredan said:

Thanks for reading this far and now to answer the question. Among the similarities are: require a strict attention to detail, working with small parts under magnification, share some common tools, and provide a great deal of mental stimulation.

Are you sure that's the only things in common?

Posted

In any repair/service discipline it required just that discipline avoid bodging and do quality work. Having worked in the service industry for over 50yrs any substandard repairs always bit back repeat faults were not appreciated. and I hated having to do others slap happy repairs where a cobbled reair failed.

Posted (edited)

Are you saying you're located near Ft. Collins and worked on the transmitter, or just referencing the atomic clock at NIST in Boulder? My buddy works there (affiliated institute, but on timekeeping projects directly associated), and there's another member here whose brother works at the same affiliated institute and on the same project. It'd be pretty crazy to tie that small world knot twice in the same forum...

Edited by spectre6000
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

@spectre6000, sorry I didn't see your reply earlier.  I did live in Fort Collins for many years and visited the WWVB transmitter site (actually just north of Fort Collins, closer to the town of Wellington I think).  I didn't work on that transmitter but built my own 60 kHz low power transmitter to test a receiver that I was building.  Now in Oregon, the signal is sketchy during the day.  Quite a satisfying project as I could set the clocks in my house to any time and date that I wanted -- my very own "wayback" machine.

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

    • it would be nice to have the exact model of the watch the or a picture so we can see exactly what you're talking about. this is because the definition of Swiss watch could be a variety of things and it be helpful if we could see exactly the watch your dealing with then in professional watch repair at least some professionals they do pre-cleaned watches. In other words the hands and dial come off and the entire movement assembled goes through a cleaning machine sometimes I think a shorter bath perhaps so everything is nice and clean for disassembly makes it easier to look for problems. Then other professionals don't like pre-cleaning because it basically obliterates the scene of the crime. Especially when dealing with vintage watches where you're looking for metal filings and problems that may visually go away with cleaning. Then usually super sticky lubrication isn't really a problem for disassembly and typically shouldn't be a problem on a pallet fork bridge because there shouldn't be any lubrication on the bridge at all as you typically do not oil the pallet fork pivots.  
    • A few things you should find out before you can mske a decision of what to do. As Richard said, what is the crown and all of the crown components made of . Then also the stem .  The crown looks to have a steel washer that retains a gasket. So be careful with what chemicals you use to dissolve any stem adhesives or the use of heat. You might swell or melt the gasket unless you are prepared to change that also . The steel washer maybe reactive to alum. Something I've just used to dissolve a broken screw from a plate. First drilled out the centre of the screw with a 0.5mm carbide . Dipped only the section that held the broken screw in Rustins rust remover. This is 40 % phosphoric acid. 3 days and the screw remains were completely dissolved, no trace of steel in the brass threads. A black puddle left in the solution.
    • I suppose this will add to the confusion I have a roller jewel assortment. It lists out American pocket watches for Elgin 18 size and even 16 size it's a 50. But not all the various companies used 50-50 does seem to be common one company had a 51 and the smallest is 43. American parts are always interesting? Francis Elgin for mainsprings will tell you the thickness of the spring other companies will not even though the spring for the same number could come in a variety of thicknesses. But if we actually had the model number of your watch we would find it probably makes a reference that the roller jewel came in different dimensions. So overlook the parts book we find that? So it appears to be 18 and 16 size would be the same sort of the arson different catalog numbers and as I said we don't have your Mongol know which Log number were supposed to be using. Variety of materials garnered her sapphire single or double but zero mention about diameters. Then in a section of rollers in this case rollers with jewels we do get this down in the notes section Roller specifications but of course zero reference to the jewel size. I was really hoping the roller jewel assortment would give us sizes it doesn't really. But it does show a picture of how one particular roller jewel gauge is used  
    • Seems to still do it through my mobile data, I use an android phone almost exclusively, but I'll double check it. Thanks mark Strange, I'll try my laptop that utilities edge. I've been on site half hour since I got home, it hasn't done it yet. Thanks John
    • At work, I'm on MS Edge, not through chose, on my phone, chrome, no issues with either. 
×
×
  • Create New...