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I haven’t seen glue here before…

ColinC

By ColinC
in Your Watch Collection

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ColinC WRT Addict

ColinC

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I took this watch as part exchange for a Seiko 5 I restored and soldimage.thumb.jpg.bbf36ba9f421da13a71d85a169af8b2e.jpg

Looks like someone lost an incabloc spring and thought “I know what, I’ll use glue here!”

Surprisingly is nearly runs!IMG_5943.thumb.jpeg.24acc2dccba82d88b9e423c632074b39.jpeg

Edited by ColinC
typo
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ColinC WRT Addict

ColinC

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I swapped the incabloc setting with one I had from a donor that was missing the jewel.

IMG_5944.thumb.jpeg.e2183c4b611c3121c8a25d74bf07799b.jpegAnd here is the next interesting thing - never seen a mainspring SO broken!

This probably means I am not finishing this watch this weekend!

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Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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 I have seen more glued ones like this than I can't stand the sight of. 

 Good clean isn't easy on this and let's hope no glue has run down to the hole jewel chaton. 

 

Edited by Nucejoe
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ColinC WRT Addict

ColinC

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25 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

Good clean isn't easy on this and let's hope no glue has run down to the hole jewel chaton

There was glue in the chaton - I took apart the whole balance and soaked  everything except the balance wheel in acetone before washing it properly in IPA

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JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

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1 hour ago, ColinC said:

This probably means I am not finishing this watch this weekend!

A little bit of superglue and you'll be good to go Although maybe if you had a laser welder you can weld the spring back together.

Typically I've only seen it on blued steel Springs and on one occasion a modern spring? The modern watch was a Rolex watch that came and that was literally filled with rust including the barrel was filled with rust in the spring was in a whole bunch of little pieces. I have to wonder if that was an aftermarket mainspring .

Then I'm attaching a PDF the Elgin watch company as you can see instigated a study in the 30s find out why mainsprings were breaking. I do though wonder if perhaps there may be a flaw in their study? One other things I wonder about is the metallurgy of the early steel Springs versus the later generation of blued steel Springs whether the metallurgy as part of the problem but in a case they did a study and have attaching a PDF.

Because of the study any time I do anything with the blued steel spring when I actually cannot get something that's not blued. Once the spring is cleaned I'm very careful to not to touch the spring with my fingers because I don't want to have a problem with the chemicals on your fingers causing rust and I very carefully get lubrication back on the spring as fast as possible just to avoid these unpleasant situations.

Then yes it is interesting one minute you of functional spring and the next minute you have lots of little pieces of spring. For my own personal Elgin pocket watch I put a steel spring and in this happened I'm also guessing that when one layer breaks it sends a cascading shockwave through the spring and that's why it breaks all the way across because after all there is a lot of energy in the spring when it breaks.

Oh and my theory on the metallurgy is based on things have improved and for the most part I don't think I've seen a shattered spring in quite some time.

 

Elgin_Mainsprings.PDF

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Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

Posted
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1 hour ago, ColinC said:

There was glue in the chaton - I took apart the whole balance and soaked  everything except the balance wheel in acetone before washing it properly in IPA

 What type of glue you figure it was. I wonder if acetone dissolves super glue. 

rehajm Super WRT Addict

rehajm

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I put what I thought was a still springy replacement steel spring in one of those big Hamilton pocket watches and after a week when it came back to me the spring looked just like that…😞 The new steel alloy spring works great if the owner is feeling strong enough to wind it that morning. Like a clock spring it is…

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ColinC WRT Addict

ColinC

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9 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

 What type of glue you figure it was. I wonder if acetone dissolves super glue. 

It wasn’t superglue - it was springy and didn’t set solid like superglue does. But I find acetone gets rid of everything!

 

The broken spring was blued steel.

 

I have the watch running with good amplitude - I just need to get the beat error fixed and then I will post some pics

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Neverenoughwatches Distinguished Member

Neverenoughwatches

Posted
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12 hours ago, ColinC said:

I swapped the incabloc setting with one I had from a donor that was missing the jewel.

IMG_5944.thumb.jpeg.e2183c4b611c3121c8a25d74bf07799b.jpegAnd here is the next interesting thing - never seen a mainspring SO broken!

This probably means I am not finishing this watch this weekend!

Seen this quite a few times, micro fractures in the steel, humidity,  corrosion fatigue ? The shock from a single break likely causes a chain reaction throughout all the fractures.

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mbwatch Super WRT Addict

mbwatch

Posted
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4 hours ago, ColinC said:

it was springy and didn’t set solid like superglue does

Like Gorilla Glue maybe.

4 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

corrosion fatigue

It's reasonable that corrosion bled through adjacent coils if it wasn't wound/unwound in a while, causing a weak spot radially throughout the whole spring.

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