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

[lexacat]

5 hours ago, Birbdad said:

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.

 

 

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!

Oh, trust me. Those dial spacers do really seem to do much of anything, you can still set the dial too tight or too loose. I've done both many, many times.

Too tight = watch stopping in certain positions, or date not changing. 

Too loose = not enough clearance so hands scrape the dial or hit the indices/window, and/or the oscillating weight touches the case back.

Getting the dial spacing right seems to be very finnicky for those models.

[Birbdad]

8 hours ago, lexacat said:

Oh, trust me. Those dial spacers do really seem to do much of anything, you can still set the dial too tight or too loose. I've done both many, many times.

Too tight = watch stopping in certain positions, or date not changing. 

Too loose = not enough clearance so hands scrape the dial or hit the indices/window, and/or the oscillating weight touches the case back.

Getting the dial spacing right seems to be very finnicky for those models.

Ok so i pulled off my cannon pinion and it was filled with gunk, cleaned it out that gunk was pressed and hard packed all around my center wheel. I greased up the center wheel and my amplitude jumped up a lot and there was way less resistance when i manually set the hands.

My amplitude went way up, then has gone down again. My timegrapher signal is getting snowier. I think iv'e opened it up so many times there's some debris in it haha. Sigh. I'm gonna open it up and tear it down again this weekend and pour over it with a fine tooth comb for carpet fibers or something.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Birbdad

[Birbdad]

Was super busy and had to take a break from this. I opened the thing up, found a long carpet fiber wrapped around the seconds wheel, found like 2 or 3 more in the escapement. Also added a tad bit more oil to the two pivots on the mainplate for the 4th wheel and the other one that needs oil from that side and things are looking much better.
 

That was dial down right after i got it all put back together Amplitude dropped a bit dial up, about 15 degrees which i'm hoping evens out as it settles in overnight. I'm so confident in my oiling at this point if it doesn't i'm pretty damn sure it's just cuz the movement is beat up and might have a bit of excessive endshake here and there. 

If dial up and dial down are at least 255 and 270 and the delta is ok i'm gonna get it back on the wrist and call it done.

[rehajm]

25 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

Was super busy and had to take a break from this. I opened the thing up, found a long carpet fiber wrapped around the seconds wheel, found like 2 or 3 more in the escapement.

Sounds familiar- I try to obsess over being clean and tidy- how do those buggers sneak in there?

That's a very nice looking Seiko and an interesting movement- kind of beefy. Compared to the Swiss I see different solutions to the same challenges. I've been avoiding the Japanese but may have to look in to something from that era...

[Birbdad]

10 hours ago, rehajm said:

Sounds familiar- I try to obsess over being clean and tidy- how do those buggers sneak in there?

That's a very nice looking Seiko and an interesting movement- kind of beefy. Compared to the Swiss I see different solutions to the same challenges. I've been avoiding the Japanese but may have to look in to something from that era...

I would suggest chekcing out some of the newer stuff. They really are so easy and a joy to work on. This one, probably cuz it's old and beat up has really become a never ending project.

And yeah as for the flotsam. I try real hard to maintain a clean workplace but texas is a dustbowl i swear. I rent an apt and the ducts probably really need a cleaning too.

Edited April 3, 2023 by Birbdad

[Birbdad]

Ok...did a final timing. I have no idea if these are acceptable numbers for a 55 year old pretty beat up movement a really inept watchmaker was clanking around in (Before me lol.). 
Any input is of course appreciated. 

 

 

 

 

[Birbdad]

Ok my pro watchmaker friends from another group gave me the go ahead to finally....finally close this thing up. They said the only thing they could think of i could still do is tweak teh regulator pins to fix the crown down deviation but taht it's so risky with these old type pins that they told me not to do it. 2 days on the wrist and it's gained 15 seconds and i haven't even done my final regulation so i'm confident it's finally done. Today the sun finally came out so i could get some proper beauty shots of it. I'm just in love with this dial. The blue is just stunning.

 

[Birbdad]

 Oh yeah and cuz i forgot to do so. Thanks to everybody here who helped me out on this one. this was a real learning experience. I appreciate all of ya!

Since i posted my timing i've checked it a few more times. ALL the numbers and signal have improved a lot since it's been running for a few days. Still got that deviation in crown down rate but all my lines are straight with no fuzz or missed ticks. This thing is running SO amazingly well now. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Birbdad

[Birbdad]

This is gonna be my last update. The final timing numbers after running it for a few days and things have improved across the board. God i could not be more happy with that amplitude. Delta could be better but i'm not even gonna try and mess with these old timey regulator pins. THe weirdness in crown right though...i dunno what that is. It seems to come and go though. Right now i'm doing my final on the wrist timing then i'll regulate the rate. 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Birbdad