Some Basic Balance Installation Questions

[Macavity]

Apologies for the very basic question, but this is something I've been trying to do for months and I still can't seem to get it so I'm thinking there must be something wrong with my technique/process. My first project is to disassemble and reassemble a 6497 clone that I got from eBay. After a lot of trial and error, I got the watch about 95% of the way reassembled, but I've been struggling with the balance. Here is my understanding of how to install the balance:

 

- Keep the pallet fork in the upright position

- Position the balance so that the impulse jewel is at a 90-100 degree angle relative to the crown

- Seat the balance staff in the jewel bearing and gently lower the balance wheel

- Hold the balance plate stationary while you twist the movement underneath, with the goal of swinging the balance wheel and catching the impulse jewel between the two pallet fork horns, which is when the balance wheel starts turning and the watch starts running

- Lower the balance plate onto the mainplate and secure with screw

 

No matter what I seem to do, I can't get the balance to start. I've confirmed that mainspring power is traveling through the wheel train to the escapement by manually moving the mainspring barrel, and the pallet fork is cleanly moving from left to right with no looseness or up/down motion. I've gotten the whole balance assembly cleanly seated into the jewel bearing many times, but I can't seem to catch the impulse jewel between the pallet horns. Does anything look obviously broken or out of place from the included pictures or is my understanding of the process somewhat flawed?

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

 

[LittleWatchShop]

Just do it the way Mark shows us.

Once you get it oriented and lower the balance cock. Put the screw in but don't tighten it.  Using pegwood in one hand and your tweezers in the other, gently apply pressure to the cock as you move the balance to get the pivots aligned.  With power on the train wheels, the balance will generally start oscillating and right itself.  Once that happens, continue to hold the cock with the pegwood while you tighten the screw.

I am an amateur, but that is how I do it.

------------------------------

If, as you say, the balance is properly seated in the bearings yet does not run due to the roller jewel not being inside the pallet horns, you can loosen the screw so that you can lift the end of the cock.  Once lifted, you can lift the balance wheel while rotating into the horns and drop the roller jewel in to place.  This adjustment may vary with the design of the watch...dunno...it has always worked for me.

[Macavity]

11 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Just do it the way Mark shows us.

Once you get it oriented and lower the balance cock. Put the screw in but don't tighten it.  Using pegwood in one hand and your tweezers in the other, gently apply pressure to the cock as you move the balance to get the pivots aligned.  With power on the train wheels, the balance will generally start oscillating and right itself.  Once that happens, continue to hold the cock with the pegwood while you tighten the screw.

I am an amateur, but that is how I do it.

------------------------------

If, as you say, the balance is properly seated in the bearings yet does not run due to the roller jewel not being inside the pallet horns, you can loosen the screw so that you can lift the end of the cock.  Once lifted, you can lift the balance wheel while rotating into the horns and drop the roller jewel in to place.  This adjustment may vary with the design of the watch...dunno...it has always worked for me.

 

Thanks for your quick reply. Most of the videos I've seen show the balance wheel spinning effortlessly as soon as the movement is turned underneath it without much fuss, but I'm guessing that's because we're watching experienced people do it. I'll try tightening the screw and lifting the wheel to help the impulse jewel drop into the pallet fork horns.

 

When I do have the balance seated in the mainplate and I try to manually move the mainspring barrel, the pallet fork slightly nudges left and right - can I assume this means that the impulse jewel is on the outside of the pallet fork horns which is preventing motion? If you were to have a properly installed balance and you applied motion to the mainspring barrel with tweezers, the balance would start oscillating and the watch would run, correct? Just making sure I'm conceptualizing this in my head correctly.

[LittleWatchShop]

If the roller jewel is outside the horns, you will get the following behavior. 

Gently! try to rotate the balance wheel one way or the other.  In one direction, you will get a HARD stop, and the other way will be free for the balance to rotate.  You need to lift the cock while lifting the balance and rotate toward the direction where you experienced the hard stop.

I assume from your comments that you do have power on the train wheels (confused by your "mainspring barrel" comment).  Before dropping in the balance, you should have done the pallet fork test where you push it back and forth across the critical point and see that it powers itself to the banking pins.

Edited February 11, 2023 by LittleWatchShop

[Macavity]

5 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

If the roller jewel is outside the horns, you will get the following behavior. 

Gently! try to rotate the balance wheel one way or the other.  In one direction, you will get a HARD stop, and the other way will be free for the balance to rotate.  You need to lift the cock while lifting the balance and rotate toward the direction where you experienced the hard stop.

I assume from your comments that you do have power on the train wheels (confused by your "mainspring barrel" comment).  Before dropping in the balance, you should have done the pallet fork test where you push it back and forth across the critical point and see that it powers itself to the banking pins.

 

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, when I manually move the mainspring barrel, I get motion through the train wheel and through the escapement. The pallet fork also moves cleanly from left to right on the banking pins when I manually move it with my tweezers - is this what you mean?

[LittleWatchShop]

Just now, Macavity said:

is this what you mean?

Almost.  What you describe all sounds good.  But before you drop the balance in, are you winding the watch so that there is power on the train?

[Macavity]

6 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Almost.  What you describe all sounds good.  But before you drop the balance in, are you winding the watch so that there is power on the train?

 

Yes, I give it a few winds before I drop the balance in.

 

Quote

 

If the roller jewel is outside the horns, you will get the following behavior. 

Gently! try to rotate the balance wheel one way or the other.  In one direction, you will get a HARD stop, and the other way will be free for the balance to rotate.  You need to lift the cock while lifting the balance and rotate toward the direction where you experienced the hard stop.

 

In response to this point...I just dropped the balance in again and it feels cleanly seated in the jewel bearing. I screwed the cock in about halfway so there's tension. Here's the strange part however: the balance is freely spinning in either direction, I'm not getting a hard stop in one direction or the other. However, I can visually see that the pallet fork is not moving when I spin the balance wheel left and right. It almost seems as if the impulse jewel is completely clear of the pallet fork horns. What do you make of this?

[LittleWatchShop]

Please confirm that you have done this.

The behavior you describe is indeed strange.

Check the end and side shake of the fork.  Is it possible you have a broken pivot?  That would allow the pallet fork to angle down toward the plate and miss the jewel.  But this would be evident if you did the pallet "click" test shown in the video.

Edited February 11, 2023 by LittleWatchShop

[Macavity]

13 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Please confirm that you have done this.

The behavior you describe is indeed strange.

 

Yes, that is how my pallet fork behaves when I manually move it with my tweezers - clean motion from left to right, the pallet fork jewels cleanly engage the escape wheel. Also, the pallet fork freely spins from left to right when I disengage the click and let the mainspring unwind without my finger on the crown guiding it (I know this isn't the proper way of releasing mainspring power, but my finger slipped off the crown a few times and the mainspring unwound before I could grab it again).

 

Also, when I nudge the balance either left or right, I get a couple clean oscillations and see the hairspring expand and contract a few times before the balance centers again. It's very bizarre, everything looks and acts exactly as it's supposed to.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Macavity

[LittleWatchShop]

Did you remove the dial-side shockproof jewel and then reinstall?  Did you put it in upside down, perhaps?

[Macavity]

1 minute ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Did you remove the dial-side shockproof jewel and then reinstall?  Did you put it in upside down, perhaps?

 

I have not removed either of the jewels. I don't have the proper lubricants for a full service yet, so I was just trying to disassemble and reassemble in this go.

 

Also another thing to note, when I manually move the balance left or right with my tweezers, I get a few clean oscillations and see the hairspring expand and contract before the balance centers again. This makes me think it's properly seated in the jewel bearing, but as I said before, it seems as if the impulse jewel is completely missing the pallet fork horns.

[LittleWatchShop]

When you got it from ebay, did it work at all, in any fashion?  Do you recall? 

Can you take a picture of the balance with a side view so that we can see the roller table and jewel in the plane of the wheel?

[Macavity]

6 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

When you got it from ebay, did it work at all, in any fashion?  Do you recall? 

Can you take a picture of the balance with a side view so that we can see the roller table and jewel in the plane of the wheel?

 

Yes, I should have specified: the watch was in perfect working order when it arrived.

 

Is this what you mean when you say "in the plane of the wheel?" I can take more pictures if necessary. Thanks again for your help and for walking me through the troubleshooting steps.

 

[LittleWatchShop]

Looks legit to me.  If someone else worked on it in the past, maybe they put the dial-side cap jewel upside down.  Never worked on one of these...so not sure that is possible.  Take a look.  You should see the light reflecting off the jewel to indicate a curved surface.

Was this sold on ebay as NEW, or used?

[Macavity]

6 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Looks legit to me.  If someone else worked on it in the past, maybe they put the dial-side cap jewel upside down.  Never worked on one of these...so not sure that is possible.  Take a look.  You should see the light reflecting off the jewel to indicate a curved surface.

Was this sold on ebay as NEW, or used?

 

It was a brand new watch, looked spotless when it first came in.

 

I believe the curved side of the jewel is facing outward, I can see the light reflecting off it like you said - see attached pics:

 

[LittleWatchShop]

Wow...this is truly a head-scratcher.  All of the experts are still snoozing I guess.

When @JohnR725gets out of bed, we will first get a little snark, and then the answer to this mystery.

Edited February 11, 2023 by LittleWatchShop

[Macavity]

10 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Wow...this is truly a head-scratcher.  All of the experts are still snoozing I guess.

When @JohnR725gets out of bed, we will first get a little snark, and then the answer to this mystery.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by this...seems like everything is theoretically in its right place and should be working. Thanks again for your help.

[JohnR725]

1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

When @JohnR725gets out of bed, we will first get a little snark, and then the answer to this mystery.

You're assuming that when I get out of bed my brain is functional.

4 hours ago, Macavity said:

My first project is to disassemble and reassemble a 6497 clone that I got from eBay. After a lot of trial and error, I got the watch about 95% of the way reassembled, but I've been struggling with the balance. Here is my understanding of how to install the balance:

You're doing something right which is this is the first choice I recommend for anybody starting watch repair. Because you know what was running or hopefully was running when you started it it's why also like if you had a timing machine initially. In other words you verify yes the watch is indeed running there is always the likelihood that the Chinese might've had a flaw and it wasn't running. But the big thing here is if it's not running after you put it together is a little harder to blame somebody not impossible. We had somebody who over the holidays left something rather valuable out and relatives came and he's not sure where half the part of the movement is. So I suppose we try hard enough to can blame somebody but if you start with something running and it's not running afterwards it does narrow down the suspects and you grasp that may be art doing things right versus starting with a broken watch and then it never do know

4 hours ago, Macavity said:

Keep the pallet fork in the upright position

- Position the balance so that the impulse jewel is at a 90-100 degree angle relative to the crown

- Seat the balance staff in the jewel bearing and gently lower the balance wheel

- Hold the balance plate stationary while you twist the movement underneath, with the goal of swinging the balance wheel and catching the impulse jewel between the two pallet fork horns, which is when the balance wheel starts turning and the watch starts running

- Lower the balance plate onto the mainplate and secure with screw

Casually but what we expect at this time of the morning whether my brain is functioning that looks right. Usually I have the pallet fork pointed towards the inside and then I come in with the roller jewel basically pointing towards the center wheel then you drop it in place and rotate the balance bridge in the place and also make sure the watches running before you tighten up the screws etc. you do have to be careful though because you can bump the pallet fork and then it's now on the wrong side but when it's in place you can use if you're careful just lift up the balance wheel and move it around to the other side after you look at whether that's the problem or not

4 hours ago, Macavity said:

No matter what I seem to do, I can't get the balance to start. I've confirmed that mainspring power is traveling through the wheel train to the escapement by manually moving the mainspring barrel, and the pallet fork is cleanly moving from left to right with no looseness or up/down motion. I've gotten the whole balance assembly cleanly seated into the jewel bearing many times, but I can't seem to catch the impulse jewel between the pallet horns. Does anything look obviously broken or out of place from the included pictures or is my understanding of the process somewhat flawed?

Okay I suppose we'll start with the basics looks good but when you're assembling the watch in other words you have the winding in place C of the barrel in place the gear train in place you do not have the pallet fork yet it's next to the last thing you put in this means you can turn the crown and start the wind the watch with the gear train in place and see if it takes off and starts to spin. There is actually a test for trained freedom called back spin. It doesn't always work 100% but it's usually a good indication that everything is free. And yes back spin can be really hard to see. As you gently winding the watch and everything is spinning. You stop winding and the train momentum will carry it past where it should stop it will actually wind the mainspring a little the wrong direction. And that will pull the enteric gear train back and the whole thing will ask you spin backwards for just a moment. So when you're looking at the escape wheel spin so initially you start the wind you'll see it's been in the right direction you should see it's starting to spin almost instantly in other words impute a binding issue or something wasn't right you might actually build up with a few turns on the ratchet wheel and nothing moves that's bad. So you should just start up relatively quickly it will spin quite fast if you wind a lot of winding which you don't really want to do and then you stop you won't actually see it stop at the end you will typically see it turning backwards as I said it's a hard thing to see but it's indication that the train is really free and it doesn't work on hundred percent of the time.

Then of course once the pallet fork is in and of course lubricated you can gently push on it and make sure it snaps back and forth like it's supposed to.

4 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Just do it the way Mark shows us.

At about 16 1/2 minutes is where we get to the interesting stuff.

4 hours ago, Macavity said:

Position the balance so that the impulse jewel is at a 90-100 degree angle relative to the crown

Okay to help understand things you don't really want to use the crown is a reference because of course it could be anywhere either 12 o'clock or 3 o'clock and it also depends on the angle of when the fork was in her where it goes in. Looking at the video I snipped out an image for you notice one line is for the escapement and the other line is the way he's holding the balance wheel so he is not even at a 90° angle he's farther back and then once he gets it in place and hopefully thinks it's the right place and then rotates the balance bridge and drops it in place.

Then which you see him initially doing worries seems to be doing something is he's just making sure the lower pivot is going into the whole. A lot of times they don't they'll be off to the sidelines then once he's happy with that than he rotates the bridge and put That in place and leave a bit of a mystery now? Typically if you have power on the watch and you get the balance wheel in it will just take off and run even if the upper pivot isn't in place so I'm assuming Mark Weston taken the power off when he's putting the balance wheel in and if he did that and you have no power in the problem is the fork can effortlessly jump to the other side but that should be quite obvious that the balance wheel will rotate in one direction and the roller jewel hit the four cannot rotate all the way

4 hours ago, Macavity said:

hanks for your quick reply. Most of the videos I've seen show the balance wheel spinning effortlessly as soon as the movement is turned underneath it without much fuss, but I'm guessing that's because we're watching experienced people do it. I'll try tightening the screw and lifting the wheel to help the impulse jewel drop into the pallet fork horns.

 

When I do have the balance seated in the mainplate and I try to manually move the mainspring barrel, the pallet fork slightly nudges left and right - can I assume this means that the impulse jewel is on the outside of the pallet fork horns which is preventing motion? If you were to have a properly installed balance and you applied motion to the mainspring barrel with tweezers, the balance would start oscillating and the watch would run, correct? Just making sure I'm conceptualizing this in my head correctly.

You can probably going to repeat things but it's go back look at the video for a moment

I'm attaching a second image shows the pallet fork in the balance wheel not in and let's get a minor clarification here when you're putting the balance wheel in you are not trying to get it to go into the fork slot that is not what you're trying to do. We trying to get the balance wheel in with the roller jewel as far away from the fork is you can than a reasonable amount so that when the balance wheel rotates in place and it starts to rotate it will then engage the escapement the watch will run it would be basically impossible almost to get the balance wheel to exactly drop in place and go in the fork slot that would not be a new best interest to try to do that otherwise we will be here forever. Remember a sizable part of the balance wheel rotation has the roller jewel not engaged with the escapement

Of course this does bring up a minor puzzlement of if there is power on the watch in the balance wheel is in it should take off and try to run which marks is not? So he probably took the power off before he got around to Oiling of the balance jewels because of the balance is running when you're doing that it makes it harder to put the jewels back in place

Oh the other thing to look at in the picture of the balance wheel not in notice the hole? Specifically the hole that the lower balance feeling goes into the upper one will look the same notice there's a little ridge right next to the hole. This is where when you're inserting the balance wheel like Mark was doing you need to get the pivot actually into the hole you can't just scooted across because that little ridge you can know it gently lift up the balance wheel when it's in being careful to the bridge doesn't fall off and then left it up and drop it in place if you can see the hole itself.

Now since this is a training exercise of succeeding hopefully take the pallet fork out and put the balance wheel in then you don't have to worry about the pallet fork rotate the bridge make sure it looks like the pivots are in place through the bridge down and then gently give a puff of air to the balance wheel and make sure it oscillates effortlessly. One of the reasons I point this out is ours member in school when I was having an issue and I bring the balance wheel up to the instructor George and George would point out it's not a problem of the balance wheel being out of the watch the problem is occurring the problem is occurring in the watch and that's where you should take your pictures. Because often times they hairspring will look beautiful out of the watch but it in the watch if you bent the hairspring it could be touching the balance arms which is really hard to see well it's hard to see for all of us to do quite honest and very hard to see when you're beginning or it could be somewhere else and out of the watch that's not an issue. So let's try and just put the balance wheel in with no pallet fork and see if it Rotates when you give in a puff of air or just push gently with your finger.

 

3 hours ago, Macavity said:

Here's the strange part however: the balance is freely spinning in either direction, I'm not getting a hard stop in one direction or the other. However, I can visually see that the pallet fork is not moving when I spin the balance wheel left and right. It almost seems as if the impulse jewel is completely clear of the pallet fork horns. What do you make of this?

Yes what I'm doing is I'm giving you answers up above as I think about things and then I'm going back and reading and then you have to read the whole mess I have plus and trying to make sure my stupid dictation software is actually giving you the right word switch it occasionally is not. Okay this is definitely helpful and definitely as you know a problem.

Let's go back to my example above pallet fork out balance wheel in. You need to get used to looking at how the balance wheel looks in the watch now in the balance wheels in the watch and it appears to be of have lots of practice now look at the jewel bearings and see if you can see the pivot on each side. The other thing in do that might help to make sure you know you got the pivots in place is you can actually take the jeweled bearings out just remember to put the spring back in place with doesn't fallout typically when I'm cleaning a watch of this type of spring system for the balance protection I will remove the jewel assemblies. But the spring back in as I said to keep it from your breaking off for falling out the Chinese watches the typically fallout and their pain to put back in again. Yes they come out much easier than they go back in then I cleaned the jewel assembly when it runs to the same machine with the rest the watch typically I keep the upper jewel assembly in with the parts for the upper side of the watch and the lower in the lower side because there can be thickness differences in the jeweled bearings especially on the end stone typically on the top it's much thicker but not always which is why it's good to keep them separate but if the bearings are out the jeweled bearings that is you should easily see the balance pivots in those holes you may actually have your pivot resting on the plate in other words you didn't get it all the way and the whole if the balance is up too high then you will not engage the fork but I need to go back to look at the pictures make sure things look right. As I said I'm reading through and jumping back and forth

3 hours ago, Macavity said:

Yes, I should have specified: the watch was in perfect working order when it arrived.

Then yes that's definitely why you start with a running watch is that you know that it's running in any problems that have occurred is because of something that you did or did not do as opposed to as I said common people will start with a broken pocket watch thinking that they're going to fix this watch which is unlikely and I'll eat up a lot of time trying to fix the watch and not grasp the basics of just how to take apart and put it back together. Which by the way once we get this running you should taken apart and put it back together a few times watch repair is all about practice and that's what all of us are doing every time we take a watch apart put it back together or practicing to be better and avoid all those unpleasant things that occasionally happen.

Okay as I said your balance pictures look great out of the watch but that's not where the problem is they need to look great in the watch. Then yes it's really a pain to get decent pictures of it in the watch it's a even bigger pain to learn how to look to see that it's right so let's start with the example of pallet fork out put the balance wheel in look at the pictures of the angles of how you put it in to get it to engage the fork even though the forks going to be out then puff of air on the side or a little finger pressure or something make sure the balance wheel oscillates nicely look in make sure the hairspring looks straight in other words it's flat it should open a close in a really beautiful fashion that I can't describe in words at all. Typically because it's really easy to do you can bend a hairspring and it's no longer flat LB touching the balance arms or the bridge and it's amazing how much amplitude you lose.

Then everything looks fine it looks like the balance  pivots are in the jewels and yester little hard to see that. Also you want to check balance end shake actually want to do that with all your wheels is the gently. I usually use my smallest oiler for that you can gently raise and lower the wheels and make sure that they have a little bit a play and even the balance wheel he can gently lifted up and down you should see that it should Be able to move of very tiny bit.

Now follow that works you can put the pallet fork back in. Wind it a little bit just check to make sure that the pallet fork nicely snaps back and forth with just a little bit of pressure. As the video shows push the pallet fork towards the center wheel but the balance wheel instant the roller jewel as far away from the Fork as I said remember you not trying to get it into the slot initially initially want the roller jewel on that side where the fork is. If you get everything and write the balance wheel oscillate eventually into the fork or eventually move into the forks you not trying to put it into the slot.

Not sure if this is a be helpful or not but to give you an idea what's going on at least what it's supposed to working. Is a link to video add a little past one minute is a lever escapement the purpose the video is to demonstrate how wonderful their escapement is that none of us will ever see but does a beautiful job of explaining where showing the lever escapement sought about one minute and nine seconds you will see the roller jewel rotating towards the fork that's basically when you put the balance wheel in the roller jewel should be way off in that direction and then as the balance wheel with the hairspring rotates back in the place it will engage the fork as opposed to you trying to get the roller jewel in the fork where it's like a stay anyway because a large percentage of its time is out of the fork it just has to have the fork in the right place so it can engage its.

Now the video you can see how it all works if you have your balance wheel in and it looks like you still have a roller jewel in your picture and still look like you have a pivot all things that could go missing when you're learning and providing the  pivot is actually in the hole which I suspect in your case it's not then the roller jewel should engage the fork.

So I have the balance wheel out the other thing you want to look at is look very carefully at the plate next to the hole to see if you see indents from where you try to push the pivot through the plate. In other words you weren't where you're supposed to be your off to the side you think you're in the right place but you're not the balance wheels up too high the roller jewel won't engage the fork etc. so let's start with the basics of just getting the balance wheel in seeing how it oscillates do the other stuff that I recommended whatever that was as of now forgotten almost and report back. Take your time and enjoy what you're doing it's not a race.

 

https://youtu.be/g5c5RK4WFV8

[Nucejoe]

3 hours ago, Macavity said:

 

Impulse jewel is clearly out of beat in this pcture, aprox 120 degrees out, thats too much even when cock/ balance assembly is uninstallled.

So if balance- fork- escape pivot fall on a streight line. 

Was the watch galloping before.

[Macavity]

5 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

Impulse jewel is clearly out of beat in this pcture, aprox 120 degrees out, thats too much even when cock/ balance assembly is uninstallled.

So if balance- fork- escape pivot fall on a streight line. 

Was the watch galloping before.

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the watch was working without issue when I first got it.

So where should the impulse jewel be in relation to where it is currently? Here are some top-down pictures of the balance for reference:

 

 

 

[Nucejoe]

You should have the outer most coil in regulator slot. 

2 minutes ago, Macavity said:

So where should the impulse jewel be in relation to where it is currently? Here are some top-down pictures of the balance for reference:

When cock is installed, impulse jewel should come to rest in between the banking pins.

 

In case the coil next to the outer most get stuck behind the regulator slot, you would have a centered coil when you instal the cock.

correction , would have a centered coil.

correction would NOT  have a centerd coil.

[LittleWatchShop]

I don't know.  Looks like the impulse jewel is close.  These drawings are inaccurate because I am not looking orthogonal to the plane of the cock, but at least illustrate that everything is in the ball park.   The first image I snagged from the web

What am I missing?

[rossjackson01]

Hello Macavity.

You appear to be having the same problem I had a few months after I started. I could not get the balance to start, no matter what I did. So you are not alone in that feeling. I asked many of the members for help and received some generous advice. However, it all stems down to one thing stated by Mark in his tutorials, and by many others on YouTube. Keep practicing, and it will come. I'm at the stage where I can disassemble any movement, clean it well and reassemble with what appears to be a correct lubrication system.  Everything always works well now. Train of wheels, motion works, keyless works and calendar works when fitted. Not tried a Chronograph yet. I can now always get the palette fork to install, but I am very gentle and aware that it needs to be done gently. Tweezers and pegwood combined.  The balance I can now get it to oscillate, but is does still take time. It may take a reinstall many times. Gentle turning of the balance screw before final tightening.

I'm getting there, and so will you.

Regards

Ross

Edited February 12, 2023 by rossjackson01
grammar

[Macavity]

Thanks for the input, everyone - I'm back at it again today. As requested by @JohnR725, here are a few pictures of the balance screwed into plate without the pallet fork and pallet fork bridge.

 

[VWatchie]

1 hour ago, Macavity said:

here are a few pictures of the balance screwed into plate without the pallet fork and pallet fork bridge.

 

Is the balance oscillating freely? To test, you can simply rotate the movement holder a few degrees back and forth to get the balance started.

Edited February 12, 2023 by VWatchie