My first service, still a lot to learn and chasing low amplitude

[GPrideaux]

If you look around the 6 o'clock position in you 'after' photo you should be able to see that the two outer coils are touching. That is bad and will make your watch run fast. The good news is that the NH35 (which I think is what you said this was from) has a ferrous alloy hairspring so there's a fair chance that it has just picked up some stray magnetism. Demagnetise it before you do anything else. If your tweezers are steel, demagnetise them, too. If the coils still touch after demagnetising them, you'll need to address that.

The next step is to lay the spring onto the cock to see whether the stud sits in the right position. (I find that easier to check with the spring removed from the balance but you won't want to do that unless you have a staking set to reinstall it afterwards.)

Please note that I have probably 0.1% of the experience with hairsprings that others in this forum have. If one of the gurus here tells you something different, ignore me and listen to them.

[neevo]

I hadn’t even noticed those coils touching, just goes to show how much I need to learn in terms of inspection process.

Let me have another go at teasing out the coils so they’re all looking correct. I don’t think it’s magnetism but won’t hurt to put the balance on there again.

Movement is an NH35 as you correctly pointed out.

Edited January 10 by neevo

[neevo]

Whilst I’m getting ready for playing with the NH35 I also have a Standard 96-4 on the bench that was not working originally. I’ve managed to clean it and I’m using it to also hone my skills taking movements apart.

Today I put it through another cleaning cycle and set about checking the movement before I put it back together. It was losing a bit of amplitude so I thought I’d check the parts in the movement dry, plus also check the teeth and end shake and see if there was any damaged pivots or holes.

All checked out really well. I put the train of wheels in dry and whilst I wasn’t getting any backlash, puffing some air on the escapement wheel would easily turn the whole train.

Here’s where things went wrong!

I was oiling the end stones for the balance and launched the small one in to the ether. I spent a good 40 mins looking for it and was getting really annoyed with myself. When relief! I found it.

Oiled it, put the chaton on top and then proceeded to ping that assembly in to the ether! Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar out!!!!!!

Very annoyed with myself. But I suppose that’s the process I’ll have to go through before I let rip on some things that I value.

It leads me to think about my workspace. I do it on my workbench in my garage. On my welding plate with a towel on it. The towel was hiding the end stone the first time, god knows where the chaton is! I could have gone anywhere around this area, underneath the 3D printer or off the sides or off the back.

I’m thinking I should make a space where things can ping, but I have a better chance of finding them. What do people think?

I was going to make a shield from white PVC sheet that covers the 3 sides and base of my bench. At least that way if I ping them backwards, the shield should hopefully catch them or I know they have come towards me? Currently they can go anywhere and I have gaps behind the bench.

Also is it possible to find replacement chatons? I had a quick eBay search and whilst I can find spares. None of them were jewels.

 

Edited January 11 by neevo

[JohnR725]

7 minutes ago, neevo said:

I was going to make a shield from white PVC sheet that covers the 3 sides and base of my bench.

Based on your picture I think that would be a good idea. Unless whatever goes flying away actually flies away going upward.

Then something for the work surface might be better. I've always liked the green surfaces you can buy. At home the green thing I was using was from a well left over from a drafting table. They also use a vinyl type material for the drafting tables and it works fine at home. Then where I work my boss likes to work on a clean white sheet of paper and wood he gets dirty he just throws the paper away.

Then out of curiosity if you're sitting in front of your bench where exactly do your legs go? Because looking at the picture it looks like there's a lot of stuff under your bench.

10 minutes ago, neevo said:

replacement chatons

It depends upon for what watch. The Swiss used to make assortments for the shock jewel assemblies. The bestfit book lists like 1 trillion different styles okay not that many but there's actually quite a few different styles of springs and settings so one time they were available.

[neevo]

The bench has tubs under it, so I can’t really get my legs under.

 

But the hope was if I have 3 sides it might stop the loss of parts by 60%. Plus if I have a base then I can get rid of the towel which seems to be a parts black hole too.

I have a cutting mat I use generally for doing things on. So I’d use that on the base too:

Edited January 11 by neevo

[Kalanag]

Try finding the missing jewel with an UV torch in the darkened room. The jewel will shine bright in UV light.

Edited January 11 by Kalanag

[neevo]

12 minutes ago, Kalanag said:

Try finding the missing jewel with an UV torche in the darkened room. The jewel will shine bright in UV light.

That’s a great idea! Just ordered a torch.

Edit: just found a light from my daughter’s nail stuff. Weirdly the other chaton doesn’t glow at all under the light. The lume on the dial and hands however is going bananas.

Edited January 11 by neevo

[Kalanag]

14 minutes ago, neevo said:

…Weirdly the other chaton doesn’t glow at all under the light…

That‘s bad. The chaton should show a bright red under UV light.

Edited January 11 by Kalanag

[neevo]

17 minutes ago, Kalanag said:

That‘s bad. The chaton should show a bright red under UV light.

Let me check again. Maybe I was looking for a green glow.

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, neevo said:

leads me to think about my workspace. I do it on my workbench in my garage. On my welding plate with a towel on it. The towel was hiding the end stone the first time, god knows where the chaton is! I could have gone anywhere around this area, underneath the 3D printer or off the sides or off the back.

I’m thinking I should make a space where things can ping, but I have a better chance of finding them. What do people think?

Mixed feeling about the towel....it will trap flying parts when they land a white towel or short pile carpet would make them easier to find....Bad thing is the fibres from it and the surrounding area would need constantly controlling . They find their way into the movement for sure.

[neevo]

9 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Mixed feeling about the towel....it will trap flying parts when they land a white towel or short pile carpet would make them easier to find....Bad thing is the fibres from it and the surrounding area would need constantly controlling . They find their way into the movement for sure.

100% my thoughts were it would trap flying parts but in retrospect it actually swallows them. I’m going to try making an enclosure from board and 3D printed brackets. Will have a go at that in the next week.

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 minutes ago, neevo said:

100% my thoughts were it would trap flying parts but in retrospect it actually swallows them. I’m going to try making an enclosure from board and 3D printed brackets. Will have a go at that in the next week.

Whatever material you use, it would need to have a short pile, so the parts dont get too buried, besides a magnet would free them up. The main idea is to keep the parts in the immediate vicinity, I'm sure the fibres would make the idea too much hassle to bother with.

[neevo]

17 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Whatever material you use, it would need to have a short pile, so the parts dont get too buried, besides a magnet would free them up. The main idea is to keep the parts in the immediate vicinity, I'm sure the fibres would make the idea too much hassle to bother with.

I was going to go for a harder material. Would that work or just bounce them around too much?

I was thinking Coreflute for the sides. Maybe I could find a felt or something very short pile for the bottom.

[RichardHarris123]

Without being able to put your legs under the bench, you are going to have back and neck problems in the future. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, neevo said:

I was going to go for a harder material. Would that work or just bounce them around too much?

I was thinking Coreflute for the sides. Maybe I could find a felt or something very short pile for the bottom.

I guess we need to consider how much fibre the material will hold and collect. It would need shaking out regularly. I dont know anyone else that works on any type of cloth. Usually just a plastic mat or vinyl flooring. Test your idea to see how far you get with it , if you find yourself picking out lots of fibres from a movement then that probably why.

[LittleWatchShop]

Regarding the towel...for four years, my shop has been in a room with berber carpet.  While this may not be ideal, I can say that, at most, I have lost one part.  Many parts have taken flight.  My success is due to several things: 1) sweeper magnet, 2) super bright flashlight, 3) diligence (never give up), and 4) a wife with an eagle eye.  Searching for a jewel, or cap jewel has been the most challenging.  While brass is not magnetic, it does shine under bright light.

[nevenbekriev]

To the point:

We first need to be sure the touching coils are not just stuck. If they are, then if separated, they will stay separated until something forces them to touch. If not, the spring is bent and then will show how and where to manipulate it.

[neevo]

I’ve taken all the feedback on board and been very busy with a few things.

1. A massive garage cleanup so I can make a better work bench for watch repair

2. a better workspace that hopefully stops me losing so many parts

Once I have that all done I will share some images and get back to checking the hairspring.

[neevo]

Updates. Here is my cleaned up work space. Trying to make some room for my feet so it’s a bit more comfortable. I may even move some items to down there at the back like my US cleaner.

 

The base is faux leather. I thought this was best as it wouldn’t snag any parts. I really wanted green but they didn’t have any. As you can see the sides are coreflute and held together with 3D printed clips. The corners have magnets to hold them to the metal welding plate.

The gaps in the corners are also going to be covered with these long connectors so that the only place an item can go is 700mm in the air over the top, or forwards.

 

 

The balance is also looking not too bad as far as my uneducated eye looks. I haven’t done anything to it, it’s just settled this way and it looks pretty even to me and the sticky coils don’t appear to be there anymore unless I am missing something obvious (again!).

Still begs the question why they were stuck together. Should I demagnetise or give it a swish in some IPA or Shellite?

Edited Saturday at 04:22 AM by neevo

[Neverenoughwatches]

The hairspring won't be magnetised but other steel parts like the staff can become. Won't hurt to run it through a demagnetizer . Put it in a small plastic container, something like one half of a contact lens case, lay it in tissue in the case and fold the tissue over the top of the hairspring, screw the lid back on. The tissue will stop the hairspring jumping around and wrapping the coils over one another..

 

[caseback]

You could also put it in a small jar with some type of one-dip and place that on the demagnetizer. The fluid dampens it's movement. Cleaning and demagnetizing in one go..

On 1/11/2025 at 2:33 PM, LittleWatchShop said:

Searching for a jewel, or cap jewel has been the most challenging.

An uv-light source will light those up nicely. Makes them much easier to find.

[neevo]

I put the balance wheel back on the cock quickly to see how it moved and quickly discovered that it didn’t. As soon as a pop the end of the hairspring stud in to its holder the balance wheel locks up. When the stud is loose it works fine.

So I’m going to install the replacement when it arrives and hopefully that fixes my issues. I’m not sure I’m ready for repairing hairsprings yet, clearly that’s a level way beyond what I was looking to start with (cleaning and lubricating).

[caseback]

If you have a new one ordered, you could risk wrecking the original one, right?

[neevo]

5 minutes ago, caseback said:

If you have a new one ordered, you could risk wrecking the original one, right?

Oh sure. I just have zero clue what to do.

[Neverenoughwatches]

Can we see the balance fitted to the cock and in the watch. If there is a twist or a bend just where the stud or the collet is, then this is when it will be most visible.