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Posted

Hi everyone!

I am proceeding thr replacement of balance staff and saw this hairspring situation.

Clearly not in good shape, but anyone knows if this can be fixed? Or if I just continue using it, the balance is going to work ?

 

C14B109D-D1EA-4853-8E59-D1B124182D5C.jpeg

Posted

I don't recall what you're working on, so accept my comments knowing that there will be individuals here who absolutely could/would attempt to fix that hairspring.

I assume that when you say:

26 minutes ago, brunomartins said:

...replacement of balance staff...

...you are in fact removing/replacing a worn or broken balance staff with one that wasn't originally part of the balance of this particular watch. Depending on the movement, I would have opted to try to find a "balance complete" (cock, hairspring, balance) to replace the whole thing.

If this is your first service (and perhaps your only service) it seems that you're doing a rather deep dive for a beginner.

Did your watch work before you started? If so there is no reason to think that using the pictured hairspring won't continue to "work".

If your watch was having trouble before you began your service there are aspects of the pictured hairspring that would lead one to think replacement would be a good idea.

I'm not that far along so I would have tended towards trying to find an entire balance that would have a good staff and hairspring - I'm not yet comfortable with disassembly of a balance and replacement of parts and the subsequent adjustments needed to get it back in good poise and running order.

  • Like 1
Posted
23 minutes ago, grsnovi said:

I don't recall what you're working on, so accept my comments knowing that there will be individuals here who absolutely could/would attempt to fix that hairspring.

I assume that when you say:

...you are in fact removing/replacing a worn or broken balance staff with one that wasn't originally part of the balance of this particular watch. Depending on the movement, I would have opted to try to find a "balance complete" (cock, hairspring, balance) to replace the whole thing.

If this is your first service (and perhaps your only service) it seems that you're doing a rather deep dive for a beginner.

Did your watch work before you started? If so there is no reason to think that using the pictured hairspring won't continue to "work".

If your watch was having trouble before you began your service there are aspects of the pictured hairspring that would lead one to think replacement would be a good idea.

I'm not that far along so I would have tended towards trying to find an entire balance that would have a good staff and hairspring - I'm not yet comfortable with disassembly of a balance and replacement of parts and the subsequent adjustments needed to get it back in good poise and running order.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a balance complete. It’s an AS1203 (Ralco).

The staff is broken blocking the movement of the wheel. Confirmed after inspection on microsc.

 

Trying to work on it. It’s a very old movement. The project is a complete review of the lessons of Mark. The hairspring repair is by my own attempt 

78A163C8-9C7F-432A-AB12-9C937077E0E3.jpeg

Posted

Bravo on your initiative! I would be inclined to call it a "goner" as @Nucejoe suggested (before he supplied additional options).

Maybe you can find a donor movement from among those that Joe has identified by researching Dr. Ranfft's site.

Posted

your hairspring does look like it desperately needs help. If you believe the book I have on fixing hairsprings the cone shaped isn't that hard to fix the rest of it would be depends on how much practice you have somebody that's really good could probably fix all of this.

oh one of the problems with a book like this is the person who's doing all of this is extremely good as this means if you haven't been practicing on hairsprings and practicing means practicing learning how to fix them not practicing on how to destroy them then your success will vary by quite a bit

On 9/16/2022 at 11:47 AM, brunomartins said:

Or if I just continue using it, the balance is going to work ?

then no it is not going to work at all. The easy way to find that out is after replace the balance staff put it in the watch and see what happens it should become apparent really fast it is not going to work at all.

spiral hairspring page 2.JPG

spiral hairspring page 1.JPG

  • Like 2
Posted
On 9/16/2022 at 7:47 PM, brunomartins said:

Hi everyone!

I am proceeding thr replacement of balance staff and saw this hairspring situation.

Clearly not in good shape, but anyone knows if this can be fixed? Or if I just continue using it, the balance is going to work ?

 

C14B109D-D1EA-4853-8E59-D1B124182D5C.jpeg

Oh dear it looks like a miniature steel tornado, I'm expecting go see a very small pair of red glittery shoes to come flying out Dorothy 🙄. Have fun in the world of hairspring manipulation.  Good luck matey.

Posted
4 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

your hairspring does look like it desperately needs help. If you believe the book I have on fixing hairsprings the cone shaped isn't that hard to fix the rest of it would be depends on how much practice you have somebody that's really good could probably fix all of this.

oh one of the problems with a book like this is the person who's doing all of this is extremely good as this means if you haven't been practicing on hairsprings and practicing means practicing learning how to fix them not practicing on how to destroy them then your success will vary by quite a bit

then no it is not going to work at all. The easy way to find that out is after replace the balance staff put it in the watch and see what happens it should become apparent really fast it is not going to work at all.

spiral hairspring page 2.JPG

spiral hairspring page 1.JPG

Wow that’s ao specific 😃 but is good opportunity to see how this tiny piece behaves 

  • 1 month later...
Posted
On 9/18/2022 at 6:06 PM, JohnR725 said:

your hairspring does look like it desperately needs help. If you believe the book I have on fixing hairsprings the cone shaped isn't that hard to fix the rest of it would be depends on how much practice you have somebody that's really good could probably fix all of this.

oh one of the problems with a book like this is the person who's doing all of this is extremely good as this means if you haven't been practicing on hairsprings and practicing means practicing learning how to fix them not practicing on how to destroy them then your success will vary by quite a bit

then no it is not going to work at all. The easy way to find that out is after replace the balance staff put it in the watch and see what happens it should become apparent really fast it is not going to work at all.

spiral hairspring page 2.JPG

spiral hairspring page 1.JPG

Might I inquire which book this is taken from?

Posted

Thanks.  Itd be valuable to have some reference books (real books) suggested by people who have knowledge and have read and used them.  So many covers out there, sorta like buying wine.

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