Hairsprings-Again!!

[fjseal]

Dear all,

 

I fitted a replacement hairspring into a Felsa 1560. On the bench the spring is nice and flat and looks good. When fitted into the watch, it was angled down away from the stud, so ran poorly. Moving the stud did not improve things enough, so I tried sliding the collet away from the balance wheel so that it is halfway up the balance staff. Now the hairspring is flat, and is running nicely. So, in the same way that you would adjust the height of the stud, is it acceptable practice to reposition the collet...or shall I "get me coat?"   I am attaching the best picture that I could get which shows what I mean. You can just make out what I mean at the top of the photo.

I have repositioned the stud since the pic was taken, and it looks better than it does here.

 

Regards,

Frank.

 

 

[clockboy]

George Daniels would probably turn in his grave but if it works & don't slip down or move then it's Ok with me but expect to be severely reprimanded by the purists.

I think I have seen a vid on youtube where the guy adjusts this fault. In the past I have put the hairspring on a tack & gently pressed the inner coils with the flat of tweezers in the way I want them to go and as it worked I will continue do it this way

[fjseal]

Thanks for your comments Clockboy. I have seen  the video you mention, but was struggling to get it right. I might just reassemble the watch and see how it goes.

[SSTEEL]

Let us know how you get on Frank.

[bobm12]

Yes, please, I'm interested in your results!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[fjseal]

Scandalous watch behaviour - update.

 

So far I have a reasonable result. The watch is gaining a little, (this is with the regulator in the centre). I did this to avoid damaging the hairspring, and the intention is to let the watch run while I move on to the next one I want to work on, then come back to this one and try to get it better. 

I have an old watch that I used for spares, now I want to repair that one and customise the dial. I hope to show you that one soon, and will be interested to see if it looks ok, or if I am ceremonially drummed out of the forum!

 

Will let you know how the Felsa performs over the next few days.

 

Frank.

[Ado213]

Looking at the HS the fault is not at the stud but at the collet. As the HS exits the collet there is a upwards kink in the spring. Using a very fine set of tweezers and with the HS free of the stud kink the bracket (knee) down every so slightly, it is only a tad! Then relocate the stud and check for flatness again.

Never adjust more than 1/8 of the inner coil of the HS, you'll just completely ruin its shape. Just work on the bracket area.

It's best to do this with the HS off the balance but if this is not possible do whilst on the balance. Before you replace the HS to the cock check the collet is visually centred and evenly spaced about the HS and then the pivot jewel, this is a priority to positional time keeping, if it's not centred correctly your rates will be off.

Always demag the HS after working it.

Best of luck

[fjseal]

Thanks Ado213. The watch is running ok, but gains about a minute a day and does not really respond to the regulator, so when I have finished my next project I will go back to it and follow your advice. This does prove that my 'wheeze' was not a good idea, which I hope is helpful to others.