My first true project watch. Really nice condition vintage Seiko 7006a. Non running.

[Neverenoughwatches]

6 hours ago, Birbdad said:

 

Awesome. Appreciate ya guys. 
What about the bottom one? Does it look used up enough that i shouldn't even use it at all? i need a sacraficial lamb to practice using my winder on and if that bottom one is toast i might as well practice with it.

Interesting. Since i'm trying to get serious with it i went ahead and bought the bergeon. Everybody says this particular one i got is expensive but worth every penny and probably will last forever. Cousins package arrives tomorrow most likely!

 Awaiting a cousins delivery myself, it sounds like you have found your vocation,  good luck .

Edited March 15 by Neverenoughwatches

[Birbdad]

5 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

 Awaiting a cousins delivery myself, it sounds like you have found your vocation,  good luck .

Maybe...with my sleep disorder everything is an extra challenge.

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, Birbdad said:

Maybe...with my sleep disorder everything is an extra challenge.

I'm  sure it must be Col, dont push yourself so hard mate. You can only do so much so you need to find a way to live and enjoy life as well. I imagine watchmakers schools dont come cheap either i would have loved to do it but too old now .

 

[Birbdad]

13 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I'm  sure it must be Col, dont push yourself so hard mate. You can only do so much so you need to find a way to live and enjoy life as well. I imagine watchmakers schools dont come cheap either i would have loved to do it but too old now .

 

Well i gotta do something and this is something i enjoy doing. I've been getting some good encouraging testimonials from other pro watchmakers in a discord i just joined who all seem to agree if i'm willing to relocate the odds of finding any number of service centers or jewelers who would be ok with accomodating my strange waking hours is pretty high. 

Also always nice when that cousinsUK package finally arrives! Top right is the strap i'm gonna put on this project.

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, Birbdad said:

Well i gotta do something and this is something i enjoy doing. I've been getting some good encouraging testimonials from other pro watchmakers in a discord i just joined who all seem to agree if i'm willing to relocate the odds of finding any number of service centers or jewelers who would be ok with accomodating my strange waking hours is pretty high. 

Also always nice when that cousinsUK package finally arrives! Top right is the strap i'm gonna put on this project.

This sounds like a good way to help earn a living to fit your needs, i hope it goes well for you Col. Hmmm some nice bergeon tools to play with, enjoy the mainspring winder

[Birbdad]

Had a few minutes to tinker with my mainspring winder. I can see why peopl ehave trouble with it but now that i know what to do and what the hazards are it's not that hard. 3rd try i got my test spring in. Really neat little gizmo!

 

Edited March 17 by Birbdad

[Waggy]

Fingers crossed for the real thing! 

[Birbdad]

8 minutes ago, Waggy said:

Fingers crossed for the real thing! 

Yeah. I think i got it. It seems like the main points of contention are getting the arbor hook into the spring which seems to just be a guessing game and then removing the arbor. I mostly have hte latter down, the former i'm still not entirely sure what best practice is since you can't even see the arbor hole to know when it's hooked in because a coil is blocking it.

[Birbdad]

I had 2 mainsprings. the one that came with the watch and a brand new one i pulled from an nh35. Decided to go with the new one so just to do one more dry run i decided to insert the old one into a spare barrel for my parts drawer. Screwed it up twice and broke the damn spring.  Decided to yolo and just go with the new spring and thank god i nailed it first try. This is definitely a skill you have to acquire...

[Birbdad]

Ok i'm SUPER proud of this. I DESTROYED the hairspring putting it on the damn balance cock because the stud screw is so tight and hard to turn that my screwdriver slipped and jammed into the hairspring bending the crap out of the terminal curve, a 90 degree kink. 
I had two balance completes brand new for it just in case but decided since it's toast anyways, i can try and do my first hairspring work. 

This is the result. 

For comparison this is a brand new one.


I won't know till i get it back on the balance cock and mainplate but i'm pretty sure i will get to keep the pretty gold wheel this thing came with.

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 3/17/2023 at 2:37 PM, Birbdad said:

you can't even see the arbor hole to know when it's hooked in because a coil is blocking it.

Thats a case of feel Col. The arbor will catch and you will feel resistance and the mainspring will start to pull in. If it misses the first time the arbor should snatch second time around.  As you say the issue can be more unhooking, just make sure that the spring has fully released its tension and hopefully there is enough room and only the initial coil wrapped around the arbor. 

[Birbdad]

19 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Thats a case of feel Col. The arbor will catch and you will feel resistance and the mainspring will start to pull in. If it misses the first time the arbor should snatch second time around.  As you say the issue can be more unhooking, just make sure that the spring has fully released its tension and hopefully there is enough room and only the initial coil wrapped around the arbor. 

Hmm, so do you sorta just put the arbor hole over the general vicinity of the hoook and just put it in the winder and start cranking?  Didn't occur to me.

 

[Birbdad]

Whelp i got the balance on the watch and it was messed up in ways i did not expect. I shaped it for another like 4 hours and when it was about 95% my tweezers slipped again and i ruined it AGAIN. Anotehr 4 hours later and it's done haha.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tjNnx2sjzNssuYjZ6 Look at that balance sing. Big learning experience.

[Birbdad]

And in normal me fashion everything is going south. My amplitude after running for a day is around the 220 to 230 mark 2 hours from a full wind. At full wind it's about 250ish. Not ideal. I re-oiled the balance and it didn't do much. I"m gonna double check some things and see if i can get that amplitude up unless people think that's acceptable for a 55 year old watch/balance. If i can't get it up and that's not acceptable i might just put the new balance i got on it but i'd REALLY like to keep the gold balance wheel.

THen there's these f'ing things.

 

How on EARTH do you get them in? I double chekced and it's the exact same dimensions of the one that came with it. I can press that one in with my thumbs. I already broke on eof the two i got trying to get it in with a press. I can't find anything other than they go in easily with a normal crystal press.  

I have one more shot to get it right. I've been trying to round over the edges and sand it down a bit to get it in there. Any tips would be greately appreciated.

[RichardHarris123]

Most of the videos I've watched use one of these.  Google it. 

[Birbdad]

2 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Most of the videos I've watched use one of these.  Google it. 

I have a BB press. it's really nice. Someday i might get a robur. THey do look nice. THere's no reason this press shouldn't be able to put a plastic crystal in. 

[Waggy]

I sometimes cheat a little and run the outside edge of the crystal in the same o-ring silicon I use for my o-ringsto help them in.... 

 

[Birbdad]

27 minutes ago, Waggy said:

I sometimes cheat a little and run the outside edge of the crystal in the same o-ring silicon I use for my o-ringsto help them in.... 

 

Ok so i cheated too XD. What i did was took the bottom of the crystal to some sandpaper and just rounded off the edge so i could at least get the whole thing to sit flat on top of the case and once i did that i carefully pressed it in and it went right in. 
I'm doing the finishing touches right now and i'll have the final product soon! Excited!

[RichardHarris123]

7 hours ago, Birbdad said:

Ok so i cheated too XD. What i did was took the bottom of the crystal to some sandpaper and just rounded off the edge so i could at least get the whole thing to sit flat on top of the case and once i did that i carefully pressed it in and it went right in. 
I'm doing the finishing touches right now and i'll have the final product soon! Excited!

Looking forward to seeing it.

[Birbdad]

Well i really wanted to get some good shots of it in the sun to really see the depth of the incredibly gorgeous blue sunburst of the dial but texas had other plans for the sun this week haha. 
 

End result is about 255 amplitude 2 hours from full wind which is i think fine and probably hte most i can get with the tools i have. I'm pretty sure the barrel/arbor hole in the mainplate is worn causing too much sideshake and that's dragging down amplitude a bit. My first attattempt at hairspring shaping is probably also a factor haha. Currently to keep the rate at -3 crown up i have to have the rate arm almost entirely in the + position haha. Not ideal but i'm proud i shaped the hairspring on it and it runs and keeps time at all so i'm gonna call this one a success.

Either way i'm so happy with how this came out. I think it's gorgeous and it's keeping great time. The patina on the dial and hands is pretty attractive imo.

[Birbdad]

Something that struck me wearing it is just how rich a blue the dial is. It looks black in some light and that rich blue  in others. 

[Birbdad]

Aaand i spoke too soon. It's stopping when the date rolls over. I got a feeling the amplitude is a bit too low to drive the calendar works. I'll swap my repaired twice mangled balance out for a new one and see if that remedies it.

[Waggy]

The balance is just there to manage the timing of the release of power from the mainspring not to regulate the amount of power, so I would be surprised if this fixed your problem. Perhaps the cannon pinion is too tight and this combined with working the date change is too much for the power train? I faced a similar issue and removed the cannon pinion then cleaned and re-oiled it and things ran smoothly after that. Do you feel much resistance when using the crown to change the time, as this could add weight to the my cannon pinion theory.

[lexacat]

Seiko sure do make some of the best dials! 

Your amplitude is actually probably fine for a seiko of that age. It should flip everything over at lower amplitudes than what you're getting.

The date not turning over could be related to the dial being too low/tight. Can you manually set the time forward and get it to change date? Is there resistance when you do that? 

I'd take the dial off, give it a wind, set it to a couple of minutes before roll over and see if it works without a dial on. 

Dial height has been a constant issue for me with 7xxx series. 

Edited March 22 by lexacat

[Birbdad]

15 hours ago, Waggy said:

The balance is just there to manage the timing of the release of power from the mainspring not to regulate the amount of power, so I would be surprised if this fixed your problem. Perhaps the cannon pinion is too tight and this combined with working the date change is too much for the power train? I faced a similar issue and removed the cannon pinion then cleaned and re-oiled it and things ran smoothly after that. Do you feel much resistance when using the crown to change the time, as this could add weight to the my cannon pinion theory.

I do feel quite a bit of resistance when manually changing the time. I will double check the inside of the cannon pinion. I didn't ream it out with anything ow that i think about it and if you recall this watch was basically filled with glue the oil in it was in such a bad state. perhaps my cleaning didn't do good enough. There is also a LOT of resistance when rolling forward the hands but i figured that was just due to teh fact that i could not source or figure out how to match a proper stem gasket to this thing and the one i'm using is probably a good bit bigger than it should be but it still fits in the crown tube.

 

 

12 hours ago, lexacat said:

Seiko sure do make some of the best dials! 

Your amplitude is actually probably fine for a seiko of that age. It should flip everything over at lower amplitudes than what you're getting.

The date not turning over could be related to the dial being too low/tight. Can you manually set the time forward and get it to change date? Is there resistance when you do that? 

I'd take the dial off, give it a wind, set it to a couple of minutes before roll over and see if it works without a dial on. 

Dial height has been a constant issue for me with 7xxx series. 

Somebody suggested this too. Remember that movement ran for 2 days with only watchmakers side assembled without issue before i cased it so that's possible.  This movement does have a dial spacer ring between the back of the dial and the movement though so i'm unsure how the dial could be too tight but i will check it out this weekend. Appreciate ya!

Edited March 23 by Birbdad