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Keep losing small springs


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Hi, I keep having an issue with small springs, setting lever spring, click spring etc. I put them in my brass basket and they sometimes disappear. This has happened even before the brass basket has gone in the cleaning fluid. Has anyone experienced similar? I'm thinking that they could be falling through the basket mesh somehow. Any solution? Thanks, Steve.

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2 hours ago, steve1811uk said:

Hi, I keep having an issue with small springs, setting lever spring, click spring etc. I put them in my brass basket and they sometimes disappear. This has happened even before the brass basket has gone in the cleaning fluid. Has anyone experienced similar? I'm thinking that they could be falling through the basket mesh somehow. Any solution? Thanks, Steve.

The cheaper baskets do have a larger mesh size than say bergeon baskets. Is it the screw apart brass baskets ? . Ive moved away from those, personally a think too heavy and the large amount of the chunky brass threaded section could cause some damage to delicate parts. The ones with lids on seem safer as long as the lids are a good fit. I have a tendency to clean the springs by hand, they dont take a lot of cleaning and then i always know where they are. Clean them and then i pop them in a contact lens case to keep safe, and the balance jewels and springs on the other side.

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2 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

The cheaper baskets do have a larger mesh size than say bergeon baskets. Is it the screw apart brass baskets ? . Ive moved away from those, personally a think too heavy and the large amount of the chunky brass threaded section could cause some damage to delicate parts. The ones with lids on seem safer as long as the lids are a good fit. I have a tendency to clean the springs by hand, they dont take a lot of cleaning and then i always know where they are. Clean them and then i pop them in a contact lens case to keep safe, and the balance jewels and springs on the other side.

Contact lens case sounds good. You are right, they are the chunky brass baskets. I spent an hour last night looking for the spring with good lighting and a magnet. I looked everywhere. I gave up and ordered a donor movement. I woke this morning and decided to have one last look for it and there it was right in front of my eyes on my green mat. I have no idea how it happened. I can only think it was the watchmaking elves.

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3 hours ago, steve1811uk said:

Contact lens case sounds good. You are right, they are the chunky brass baskets. I spent an hour last night looking for the spring with good lighting and a magnet. I looked everywhere. I gave up and ordered a donor movement. I woke this morning and decided to have one last look for it and there it was right in front of my eyes on my green mat. I have no idea how it happened. I can only think it was the watchmaking elves.

Haha that happens. I once lost the tiniest diashock spring known to mankind. I got fed up of looking after 20 mins, went downstairs for a pee, made a cuppa, took it upstairswith me. Sat down put my glasses back on, looked down and it was stuck on my jogging bottoms waving at me.  Contact lens cases are a great idea, it came to me by accident. Went on holiday and ended up with someone else's toiletry bag in my case, in the bag was a contact lens case. Now there's an idea i thought, so bought 10 pair of cases for 3.50. Really useful and super cheap. 👌 

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3 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Haha that happens. I once lost the tiniest diashock spring known to mankind. I got fed up of looking after 20 mins, went downstairs for a pee, made a cuppa, took it upstairswith me. Sat down put my glasses back on, looked down and it was stuck on my jogging bottoms waving at me.  Contact lens cases are a great idea, it came to me by accident. Went on holiday and ended up with someone else's toiletry bag in my case, in the bag was a contact lens case. Now there's an idea i thought, so bought 10 pair of cases for 3.50. Really useful and super cheap. 👌 

I was telling my wife how the spring mysteriously appeared and she said, "I forgot to tell you that I found the spring on the floor this morning and put it on your mat. I didn't know if it was just a scrap piece of wire but picked it up just in case". My belief in watchmaking elves has now been destroyed.

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20 minutes ago, steve1811uk said:

I was telling my wife how the spring mysteriously appeared and she said, "I forgot to tell you that I found the spring on the floor this morning and put it on your mat. I didn't know if it was just a scrap piece of wire but picked it up just in case". My belief in watchmaking elves has now been destroyed.

Lol. You have a good woman there, look after her and cherish her but more importantly make sure shes at home when you are repairing watches. 👍

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12 hours ago, steve1811uk said:

Hi, I keep having an issue with small springs, setting lever spring, click spring etc. I put them in my brass basket and they sometimes disappear. This has happened even before the brass basket has gone in the cleaning fluid. Has anyone experienced similar? I'm thinking that they could be falling through the basket mesh somehow. Any solution? Thanks, Steve.

I never put them in the cleaning machine!  If they are dirty, I clean them with one-dip.

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1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I never put them in the cleaning machine!  If they are dirty, I clean them with one-dip.

It's a shame this answer was here otherwise I was going to go with there's a black market on Springs and once they're out of the watch their fair game. Kinda like if you leave your house for more than a week or two someone will come in and scrap all the copper. I don't know how prevailing that is in the US but I watch videos of people exploring in the UK and copper thefts are really big and so our little tiny springs you leave them out of the watch somebody will come and steal them and sell them for scrap metal.

But as much as that would make an amusing story which it does the reality is is usually best not to clean certain things if you think they're going to escape from the basket you have them in. Then yes depending upon the cleaning machine baskets some of them are designed that they won't let Springs outlet. But not all of them and the little baskets it's usually the really expensive ones are good and the cheaper ones are not the good for everything else but they're not good for the Springs.

 

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3 hours ago, RickTock said:

I'm pretty sure the same dark force that steals socks from the dryer goes after theh extra delicate watch parts during the cleaning process.  It's like there's a tiny Bermuda Triangle skulking about the house... 👾

In my house i call it Alex (my son ). I put food in the fridge and the larder, and the next day it has all completely vanished.

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  • 2 months later...

I had a balance cock screw and a small cap jewel disappear in these damn things. What's obnoxious is that i basically can't fathom how anything could slip through the meshy and not end up in my jars of cleaning fluid where i do my cleaning cycles but they somehow slipped through the mesh at just the moment when i was switching from one jar to the next. 

I get the screw but is wear to god it does not look like a cap jewel can fit through the mesh of the cheap brass baskets.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Small springs

A tip from Chronglide which I made myself. I cut the outer edge of a mirror suction pad small enough to be placed on top of srprings in a basket. It stops them from floating around with the action of the ultrasonic. Note, the other plastic tops are from deodorants. Made a hole in the tops and they saved me the purchase of mainspring barrel press.

 

IMG_20221027_194241.jpg

Edited by rossjackson01
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One thing I've started doing is make a note of how many parts go in to each basket - count them in, and I count them out. I use the brass screw-together baskets, and tiny parts can get stuck in the ledge between the mesh and the brass, so I examine each under the microscope to spot escapees .

I too use contact lens cases for shock jewels. As there's two compartments, you can keep the upper and lower separate. 

For the tiniest of screws and springs, I'll hand clean with just a dip in some IPA and Rodico. 

Edited by mikepilk
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1 hour ago, mikepilk said:

One thing I've started doing is make a note of how many parts go in to each basket - count them in, and I count them out. I use the brass screw-together baskets, and tiny parts can get stuck in the ledge between the mesh and the brass, so I examine each under the microscope to spot escapees .

I too use contact lens cases for shock jewels. As there's two compartments, you can keep the upper and lower separate. 

For the tiniest of screws and springs, I'll hand clean with just a dip in some IPA and Rodico. 

Good idea about the count. You are too sensible. Not fair. 

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On 3/17/2023 at 5:56 AM, mikepilk said:

One thing I've started doing is make a note of how many parts go in to each basket - count them in, and I count them out. I use the brass screw-together baskets, and tiny parts can get stuck in the ledge between the mesh and the brass

 

I was counting in and out too, but wound up with screws in the jar. I had seen click springs slide through the basket into the jar but after some slim screws appeared there and I couldn't figure out how they made it through the mesh, I realized I need to tighten the dial feet screws into the mainplate or the ultrasonic will shake them out.

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I too had issues looking for dial feet screws, even after tightening them a few still managed to escape - I didn't want to crank down on them any harder than I had been in case I sheared off the head or stripped the thread so I now take them out of the main plate and store them under the dial along with the hands in one of those dial holders. If they need a clean I put them in a little jar (a small 'one-serving' ketchup jar snuck out of a restaurant) of naptha and give them a shake and some TLC with a cotton bud and rodico... but 90% of the time the are fine without it.

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