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mbwatch

By mbwatch
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mbwatch Super WRT Addict

mbwatch

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Posted

Hi all - I live in the north central USA. I've worn watches since my parents gave me a little manual wind Timex for my 7th birthday, but the pandemic turned me from "a guy with this or that quartz watch until it breaks" into "a watch guy." Occasionally browsing watch review videos led me to Mark's mesmerizing repair videos, which led me to watching probably 300 hours of his and other watch service videos. A few months back I finally took an 8 hour course with a local watchmaker to service a ST36/6497 clone movement and assemble a watch, in hopes of getting some hands-on practice before attempting to fix a broken HMT frankenwatch. (I succeeded! even replaced its crystal after ruining the original with isopropyl alcohol) And eventually to attempt service on my malfunctioning Vostok. I managed to disassemble the grinding automatic wind on a very cheap Tongji-based watch to lubricate it, and want to work on a couple more junk automatics before tackling the Vostok I actually care about.

Ultimately I'd like to be restoring pocket watches, but I've already discovered I'll need to learn to replace a balance staff to really open up that realm, with its requisite equipment investment. I already have a time consuming day job, time consuming chores, and already have somewhat time consuming practice & performance commitments as an amateur musician, but there's still a free hour in the week so I've gotta make some tiny machines tick tick tick. I look forward to participating here - I promise to research as much as I can before asking novice questions, but I am a novice and I've got a million questions. Cheers!

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grsnovi Distinguished Member

grsnovi

Posted
Posted

Great introduction! Welcome to the forum - I think you'll find the place to be pretty knowledgeable so, ask away!

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      By watchweasol · Posted

      A helpful way in aid of assembly is to place all the wheels in their respective places, place to plate on the top and fit a couple of the nuts onto the pillars. This stops all the wheels wobbling about as they are lightly held by the plate, you can manoeuvre the pivots into their holes, using a tool , usually home made or can be bought on eBay. I made my own. As the pivots align and fall into place screw the nuts down a bit to keep up the tension on the plate untill all wheels are in place then tighten down sufficiently to keep the plate in place whilst checking the end shake on ALL wheels and their location when all is good only then tighten down the plate.
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    • nevenbekriev
      Full plate watch, Suitable tool for adjusting & testing pallet stones?

      By nevenbekriev · Posted

      Yes, the specific old tools do exist, but may be having one is not needed as they are not cheap, and also You will be able to do without it well enough. My advice will be to use regular depthing tool and adjust it for the exact distance between pallet fork and escape wheel bearings from the watch. Then remove the shellac from the pallet that now doesn't pass the ew teeth and move this pallet in. Then put the pallet fork and ew on the depthing tool and check how they lock. They should not lock when the pallet is in, but You will little by little move the pallet out and locking will appear. Then move just an idea out for reliable work and apply shellac, then check if things are still the same. You have to observe where the teeth fall on the pallets - it must be just a little below the edge between impulse and rest planes. Then You must check how everything behaves in the movement This Potence tool is so ingenious, but actually, the traditional way to do the things is much more simple. Arrange the parts not on the pillar plate, but on the cover plate. Only the central wheel will remain on the pillar plate, secured by the cannon pinion.
    • Mercurial
      Full plate watch, Suitable tool for adjusting & testing pallet stones?

      By Mercurial · Posted

      There is a tool that was made for setting up and adjusting escapements of full plate watches.  There were two styles, the picture below shows both of them.  The lower tool held a movement plate and the vertical pointed rods were adjusted to hold the unsupported pivots of the lever and escape wheel.  There was also a version of this tool that had 3 adjustable safety centres so that the balance pivot could be supported by the tool :  The other version I’m aware of is the Boynton’s Escapement Matching and Examining Tool came as a set of two or three clamps that gripped the watch plate and held the safety centres for the pivots : These do turn up on eBay from time to time.  For some escapement work, you can set up the parts in a regular depthing tool, with the centres set according to the distance between the corresponding pivot holes on the movement.  I hope this helps, Mark
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