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Santa brought me a tourbillon made from plywood and toothpicks

ManSkirtBrew
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ManSkirtBrew Super WRT Addict

ManSkirtBrew

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5 hours ago, markr said:

I don't think I can afford the 9010 for that.

Luckily it comes with a tiny candle to wax the relevant parts. I'm not sure if it's made of solid 9010 or what 😉

 

2 hours ago, spectre6000 said:

OK. You've piqued my interest. Tell us about the quality of the kit, please.

I have to say, overall I'm very impressed. The instructions were very good and easy to follow. Having a knowledge of how a Swiss lever escapement works definitely helped when putting together and tuning the tourbillon though.

Getting the mainspring in and wound properly took several tries, and was probably the most frustrating part.

Once it's all together, the parts do need to be lapped in. The instructions say to turn the tourbillon for 10 minutes by hand, but I found mine needed a lot more running time once it was assembled. You just have to wind it and keep giving the balance a nudge when it gets stuck on the pallet fork.

The real issue I had was with part of the tourbillon coming apart while running. I'm still not sure if it damaged anything, but I did use a little superglue on some of the more important parts when I rebuilt it.

It's far from a Swiss timepiece, but it does have beat and rate adjustments, and it really looks cool spinning around on my desk.

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spectre6000

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I found it on Amazon, and looked over the reviews. Clearly not a watchmakery crowd. One person said it would run for a few hours after it's been run in for a while, but most were stuck around 2 minutes or less (user error from the sound of it). How long does it run under competent hands?

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ManSkirtBrew Super WRT Addict

ManSkirtBrew

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3 hours ago, spectre6000 said:

How long does it run under competent hands?

I wish I knew, but under my hands it seems like a few hours is about right. There is a lot of friction in the system, and it doesn't seem like the mainspring has a ton of reserve.

But then I've never timed it, and it may change as it wears in.

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ManSkirtBrew Super WRT Addict

ManSkirtBrew

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90 minutes since winding so far, and it's still going strong. One thing I do notice is it runs very fast, even with the balance spring as long as I can make it. It's gained 10 minutes since winding it.

But again, I don't feel like it's meant to be a chronometer. It's a super cool desk toy.

Edit: stopped just over two hours. A nudge of the balance wheel got it going again, but it seems like the mainspring is running out of power.

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spectre6000 Distinguished Member

spectre6000

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So it's not a clock so much as a cool contraption.... Bummer... Seems like a lot of finessing could make it work well enough for what it is, but if it can't run for at least a day and change, it can't really be a clock per se.

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