Mainspring Winders

[Extractor 0]

You are right, when I re-read the Cousins info I belatedly spotted the fact that it was a clock mainspring winder. I will definitely keep it. Thanks for responding!

[JRH 0]

Bought a 6 piece Watch-Craft set from ebay, needed some TLC and they all are working and move smoothly and free.  What I was not expecting (I'm a noob), was it wasnt as simple as I expected to be able to hold, wind, and keep the spring from exploding out of the winder.  Im using a few cheap ebay mainsprings as practice without worrying about permanent damage.  

Having fun and getting better with the mainsprings, but hairspings well, thats another matter.  Seems if I breath in the same room as a hairspring it decides to tangle. 

[Klassiker 154]

I've given up on the idea of a comprehensive, affordable set of mainspring winders. A new spring is cheap and goes in so easily!

By no means am I  an expert with hairsprings, but repairing them is a question of the right tools and lots of practice. If you are tangling them, then you are handling the balance wrong. Watch how Mark and other professionals so it, and practise using the same techniques.

Hot Tip! If a fly lands on your finger when you are working, remove the tip of your tweezers from the hairspring before swatting it with your free hand.

[Kobus 0]

Noob - sorry

1. On the Bergeon site they have a 2795. Both in ETA and non ETA. Pic 1. What is the difference? Can the non ETA not be used on an ETA movement and vice versa?

2. Second pic, how would I know if this is ETA or "normal".

[spectre6000 125]

You wouldn't. It's about barrel sizes. The ETA set is sized (and I'm sure labeled) according to common ETA movements. Generic sets are sized by unit measurements (mm). If you do a lot of ETA stuff, it's probably nice to have, and you can always use the nearest size for whatever non-ETA movement. The generic set would be easier to use since the intervals will be more regular, and there's nothing special about ETA barrels that will keep them from working with the ETA movements in the same way there's nothing that would keep the ETA sized set from working with non-ETA movements.

A word on the Chinese winders (possibly dated information), Mark did a video a while back where he did a pretty comprehensive analysis. It was a bit on the critical side, but the big takeaway for me was the shafts being brass. As a hobbyist, it could be a while before you eat through one, but it could also be a single simple mistake. The Chinese manufacturers seem to be pretty good about keeping up with things like that, but I don't know how much noise has been made or if it's been made in the right places to catch the right ears for anything to have changed.

[mikepilk 137]

On 12/16/2020 at 6:30 PM, nickelsilver said:

It's a never ending strife, I watched a Finnish watchmaker lose about a year of his life from stress mucking around with a problem spring and he's an amazing watchmaker. In the end I wound it in by hand for him, mostly out of fear that he would start destroying the workshop (yes you can wind them in by hand without damage but it takes practice).

Hi @nickelsilver. Would you please explain the correct way to hand wind a mainspring?
From comments above, I believe quite a few people would be interested.

I've recently been working on a couple of Seiko automatics which have been driving me crazy getting the springs in. As they are left handed,  I first have to use a smaller winder, and transfer to a washer. Unfortunately my next smaller winder is a bit too small, hence a broken the bridle. Then, when trying to fit it to the washer it pinged out, then .... etc etc

Edited January 14 by mikepilk

[nickelsilver 1,123]

16 hours ago, mikepilk said:

Hi @nickelsilver. Would you please explain the correct way to hand wind a mainspring?
From comments above, I believe quite a few people would be interested.

 

It's a little hard to describe it. With automatics also it's quite easy to kink the spring just after the bridle too*, but here goes.

 

Get the spring started in the barrel, like the first turn in, as would feel natural (i.e. just do it). From there, you want to manipulate the spring, turning the part out of the barrel around by half turns until that bit will drop in, continuing until the spring is in. The important thing is to not stress the spring. It works with watches because almost inevitably you are working with a low profile barrel, compared to a typical clock for example. So a typical watch barrel might be 11mm inner diameter, spring 1.3 high, a 1:8.5 height to diameter ratio. A clock barrel might be 50mm diameter with a 25mm spring height- 1:2. So with the clock spring to get it out first of all the spring has to twist out of the barrel at an extreme angle, likewise going in, if not using a winder. With a watch spring the angle going out/in is quite small.

 

What some will do, the wrong way, is get it started, and then essentially force the coil in causing it to wrap itself up to the smaller diameter, stressing it. This is when you get a cone shaped spring.

 

* with automatics, the bridle is quite strong compared to the spring. Getting it started in the barrel is tricky, especially getting the last bit of bridle in before it's just mainspring. I would recommend a winder for any automatic if at all possible, or accept that you might put in a bend right after the bridle. Some are worse than others, El Primero springs are a real pain without a winder!

[mikepilk 137]

7 hours ago, nickelsilver said:

 with automatics, the bridle is quite strong compared to the spring. Getting it started in the barrel is tricky, especially getting the last bit of bridle in before it's just mainspring. I would recommend a winder for any automatic if at all possible, or accept that you might put in a bend right after the bridle. Some are worse than others, El Primero springs are a real pain without a winder!

You are right about automatics - the end bit of the bridle is very tricky, it won't wind straight in. I had to use tweezers to pull the end of the bridle in, before I could continue winding by hand.

I did manage your technique - form a small loop, then drop it in, rather than pushing it continuously in. I practiced on an old spring, and it was pretty flat when I took it out.

I would rather have used winders, but the barrel on Seiko 7002/7S26 is an odd size. I only have 9.5 and 10.6 mm winders. The 9.5 is too tight for the spring, and the 10.6 mm a touch too big for the barrel !

Anyway, it's in and running, with reasonable amplitude for a Seiko.

Ta