Tutorials by Alex Hamilton

[Neverenoughwatches]

  On 6/23/2022 at 11:41 PM, gbyleveldt said:

Thank you Rich! Those were my first ones so feeling my way in the dark then. I’m still sitting with a dilemma as to format. Do I talk and try and be informative (boring you to tears in the process). Or do I just keep my trap shut and get on with it? Looking at the analytics, it suggest people prefer me quiet. Which is fine as it’s less work. But then it’s no longer informative and only entertaining. Hmmmm

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Jo  Nekkid watchmaker must have had similar thoughts as he sometimes makes a silent one alongside the walkthrough.  Personally i much prefer the talking, we need to understand what is happening and why you do things the way you do. Any mistakes that might be made are relevant and are so helpful to beginners, your reactions to them are important and they give you the opportunity to introduce your humor. Your a funny guy and that needs to show through just as much as your knowledge and skill. I like to see a friendly approach not so rigid and formal like some youtubers are. Jo is a real card, takes the pee out of himself and occasionally his missus ( the accountant) takes the brunt. And is a caring sort of bloke as well. His subscriptions topped 200k not so long back, so doing something right. I think you could do well with a similar approach, but in your own style, we're all different. Thinking outside of the box always makes watching interesting, i know you're capable of this, your'e an intelligent guy as well. If i have any random good ideas that folk might like to see ( it sometimes happens ) I'll send them your way to see what you make of them.  Keep doing the vids they're good.

  On 6/23/2022 at 6:08 PM, grsnovi said:

ordered a rolling screwdriver jig yesterday.

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These are good when starting out G and when the drivers need pulling back to shape. But still work towards touching them up by hand, its good practice and quicker. Try to get one that tightens the driver with a screw from the side wheel like this. The type with the screw on top prevents you from spinning the tool over and sharpening the opposite side of the driver as the screw ends up grinding on the stone. Even when you cut the screw down it touches the stone. You have to undo the driver and then reset it 180' to get the sides parallel.  Looks at these, the good one came from china actually with a scintered artificial ruby stone.

[gbyleveldt]

  On 6/24/2022 at 7:19 AM, Neverenoughwatches said:

 If i have any random good ideas that folk might like to see ( it sometimes happens ) I'll send them your way to see what you make of them.  Keep doing the vids they're good.

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Heh thank you and please, I'm always open to ideas!!

In other news, Alex has a new video up around cleaning without a machine. He also shows his DIY modded basket with a thin shaft so you can use a drill - similar idea as to what you had a while back Rich. Go check it out

[Neverenoughwatches]

  On 6/24/2022 at 9:04 AM, gbyleveldt said:

Heh thank you and please, I'm always open to ideas!!

In other news, Alex has a new video up around cleaning without a machine. He also shows his DIY modded basket with a thin shaft so you can use a drill - similar idea as to what you had a while back Rich. Go check it out

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Haha, i just watched it two hours ago,  i did think  "oy that was my idea"

  On 6/24/2022 at 9:04 AM, gbyleveldt said:

Heh thank you and please, I'm always open to ideas!!

 

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At some point a plating vid would be great and should bring you more attention I repair mostly swiss vintage, i enjoy the variety. They can be good for beginners to learn service on, but as you say parts not always easy to come by. They're fairly cheap to buy for beginners but because of the age the plating can often be worn making the watch pretty  much unwearable. Its something i will be looking into. Seikos are a good choice to promote your channel but Mike at retro watches has covered a lot of them already as hes a big fan. I’ve always attracted a lot of business in my trade because i diversed and can do many things. Same thing appies, appeal to a larger audience, i would think a good mix of watchrelated topics will work well for you rather than stick to the same thing as many do. Depends how far you want to take your channel  and how much time you want to devote to it. Retro watches has 40k subscribers, but I've stopped watching him now though as its become a bit same o same. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Neverenoughwatches

[gbyleveldt]

  On 6/24/2022 at 10:59 AM, Neverenoughwatches said:

Haha, i just watched it two hours ago,  i did think  "oy that was my idea"

At some point a plating vid would be great and should bring you more attention I repair mostly swiss vintage, i enjoy the variety. They can be good for beginners to learn service on, but as you say parts not always easy to come by. They're fairly cheap to buy for beginners but because of the age the plating can often be worn making the watch pretty  much unwearable. Its something i will be looking into. Seikos are a good choice to promote your channel but Mike at retro watches has covered a lot of them already as hes a big fan. I’ve always attracted a lot of business in my trade because i diversed and can do many things. Same thing appies, appeal to a larger audience, i would think a good mix of watchrelated topics will work well for you rather than stick to the same thing as many do. Depends how far you want to take your channel  and how much time you want to devote to it. Retro watches has 40k subscribers, but I've stopped watching him now though as its become a bit same o same. 

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Heh, I thought you might like his washer idea haha.

It's interesting you bring up plating. There's a reason I asked about removing plating in another thread. You might guess that I want to then plate something again and you wouldn't be far off. Only, it won't be nickel. Or even plating per se. But let me not ruin the surprise hahahahahaa.

But yeah, you right. If I'm gonna be playing the same tune as the other guys it's not going to be any more interesting. I have some more thinking to do...

Edited June 24, 2022 by gbyleveldt

[Kalanag]

  On 6/24/2022 at 9:04 AM, gbyleveldt said:

…Alex has a new video up around cleaning without a machine. He also shows his DIY modded basket with a thin shaft so you can use a drill - similar idea as to what you had a while back Rich. Go check it out

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I found a lot of (as he called it) „inexpensive“ mesh baskets searching for „spice basket stainless steel“. I‘ll order one.

[grsnovi]

  On 6/24/2022 at 7:19 AM, Neverenoughwatches said:

Try to get one that tightens the driver with a screw from the side

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That's what I got. Haven't given it a go yet. I did dress my tweezers the other day.

[MechanicMike]

  On 6/21/2022 at 3:20 PM, Kalanag said:

Hey! Now I learned who „The Bearded Watchmaker“ is whom I‘ve been following on Youtube for a while 

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I subbed and also have been watching the bearded one for some time also. hi guys!

[Kalanag]

  On 6/23/2022 at 6:14 PM, gbyleveldt said:

I suspect he will be dedicating a video solely to lubrication…

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The video about lubrication is online 

[gbyleveldt]

  On 6/28/2022 at 10:01 AM, Kalanag said:

The video about lubrication is online 

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Just finished watching it thank you. Nice tip about polishing the oilers. I never thought of that.

[Kalanag]

Another excellent walkthrough/tutorial by Alex Hamilton:

https://youtu.be/pDv8KDzfWlo?si=EXOfxcuFh1V_ERmD

[mikepilk]

  On 9/11/2023 at 10:15 AM, Kalanag said:

Another excellent walkthrough/tutorial by Alex Hamilton:

https://youtu.be/pDv8KDzfWlo?si=EXOfxcuFh1V_ERmD

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Hamilton 4992b, very interesting. A lovely movement (derived from the Hamilton 992b). One of the most accurate to come out of America. I want one 

An interesting point at 10 mins - the pallet pivot jewels have caps top and bottom, and ARE OILED 

I only knew of Seiko suggesting oiling the pallet pivots. You never mentioned the 4992b as well as Seiko for oiling pallet pivots @JohnR725 - I'm guessing you must have serviced these movements and been aware of this?

[rehajm]

  On 9/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, mikepilk said:

An interesting point at 10 mins - the pallet pivot jewels have caps top and bottom, and ARE OILED 

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In my short experience I've had a high percentage of non-runners where I've had to pry out the pallet fork from dried up lubrication. Clearly there was a time when the practice was not verboten. 

The French Watch Collector still does it...

[mikepilk]

  On 9/11/2023 at 1:12 PM, rehajm said:

In my short experience I've had a high percentage of non-runners where I've had to pry out the pallet fork from dried up lubrication. Clearly there was a time when the practice was not verboten. 

The French Watch Collector still does it...

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I've just had a look at the oiling instructions in "The Chicago School of Watchmaking" and it does say to oil the upper and lower pallet jewels. I wonder if this is more common on pocket watches? 

[JohnR725]

  On 9/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, mikepilk said:

An interesting point at 10 mins - the pallet pivot jewels have caps top and bottom, and ARE OILED

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I wish you hadn't done this does this mean I have to look at his video because I'm not a big fan. Fortunately it looks like I only have to watch about not very long at all but I will point out a couple of things in the beginning.

The gray metal container is designed to hold the 16 size pocket watch it does not have to be Hamilton. You want to be careful if you have one as it holds the watch quite tightly and from memory I think I scratched the case of one of my pocket watches So he went to be careful when either removing or inserting the watch into the holder. 

Then the sweep wheel satisfaction of making your own tools versus purchasing them. They do make tools for removing sweep wheels they work just fine if you don't want to make your own tool.

Now we get the something interesting the pivot? Yes typically on vintage conical pivots you would see the recess to keep the oil from running down the pivot. So based on that his conclusion of logic is this is a pivot that would have oil and I guess from that point of view we can't really fault the logic now can we.

Then there is the other little problem of vintage service information for pocket watches for the most part doesn't exist. Some of the watch companies do have a little information on lubrication but I don't remember how specific it is. What we need is the service guide for a 992B as there is a separate service guide but I don't have. The closest I have would be the US Army training manual does cover several pocket watches and a quick look of lubrication does cover the escapement in a procedure which I would not follow it does not mentioned to lubricate the pivots though. On the other hand it doesn't say you shouldn't it just doesn't say you should.

In case you don't have a copy of the military training manual which is a really good book you can download the PDF from this link

https://archive.org/details/TM9-1575

I was trying to think of what else do I have from Hamilton that's pocket watch and well it's a really big pocket watch. Yes you could carry it in your pocket it would be rather noticeable and that is the Hamilton deck watch. This is really another very beautiful Hamilton watch one of my favorites and I do have a service guide for that. So let's see what it says about pivots not that I've ever oiled the pivots in this watch but let's see what it has to say. Oh and even though there is a considerable size difference between this and I nine to be it does share some parts in common like the escape wheel I believe is the same in both of them that's the wheel without the pinion. Because in the deck watch the pinion as much much taller. I believe then the pallet forks should be identical. Then there is several other parts that I know the interchange.

 

I'll can only highlighted the upper pivots as the lower pivots are identical as far as lubrication goes it looks like the pallet fork pivots are lubricated. But I still wouldn't lubricate the pivots even if they do say there supposed to be lubricated.

  On 9/11/2023 at 1:12 PM, rehajm said:

In my short experience I've had a high percentage of non-runners where I've had to pry out the pallet fork from dried up lubrication. Clearly there was a time when the practice was not verboten.

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Yes the fun of disassembling the watch when the parts come out with the upper bridge. Including the pallet fork from time to time what were people thinking. Oh and not just pocket watches the definition Of where I work of vintage can be interesting as it also includes vintage quartz watches if we cannot do a movement swap. I remember once removing the bridge of an early Seiko quartz watch and all the wheels were stuck to the upper bridge. Which is interesting because synthetic oils existed at the time the watch was made somebody must've used something else and it got really really really sticky.

  On 9/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, mikepilk said:

I only knew of Seiko suggesting oiling the pallet pivots. You never mentioned the 4992b as well as Seiko for oiling pallet pivots @JohnR725 - I'm guessing you must have serviced these movements and been aware of this?

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Basically the 4992B would be in the category of 992B and its variations. As there are other variations including a stopwatch based on this. But none of them include lubrication guides. So I think I covered the lubrication up above yes the service manual says to do it I don't care I don't do it.

  On 9/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, mikepilk said:

Hamilton 4992b, very interesting. A lovely movement (derived from the Hamilton 992b). One of the most accurate to come out of America. I want one 

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As nice as the sweep is just the regular ordinary 992B is still a beautiful watch. I'm attaching the technical guide and the timing specs.

Hamilton 992B technical data 127.pdfFetching info... Hamilton 992b 950 timing.pdfFetching info...