Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hello fellow watch enthusiasts I wondered what people did for day jobs. I'm a draughtsman or that's what we were called when I worked on the board with pens , tracing paper and lots of math but now we are CAD operators which doesn't sound as grand but a lot less math computers are good at math. I find watch repair a great way to relax me after a day spent in front of a PC screen (oh and vodka)

Mick

Posted

As you all know I'm retired from watch and clockmaking for many years due to poor health. My other job when I went back to work was a teacher in I T and I also learned how to repair them and build the little blighters.

Posted

Well, I've been retired for nearly 7 years, so the "day job" has become a mixture of grandchildren, music practice and web work - I maintain a number of web sites (mainly, but not totally, musical) for myself and for friends - plus long-standing research on my family history. But before all that, I worked as a chartered librarian in a variety of jobs ranging from programme research at the BBC to installing and managing library software systems and, the last 20 years or so, managing a university library (staffing, budgets, systems, resources, etc.).

But that was just the day job.

:D

The real job was playing music in pubs and clubs and theatres in the evenings - folk, jazz, funk, '50s rock'n roll, blues, and. latterly, more weddings and party functions in a ceilidh band. Plus making instructional and other music videos on YouTube, with a little guitar teaching on the side. All of this I still do.

It's a good life if you don't weaken!

[Did I mention watches...?]

Posted

Well, typical day starts with getting wife out of house off to work, followed by walking dogs, emptying trash, washing and drying clothes, working on mid century house, final restoration in sight, getting clean dishes out of dwasher, filling with dirties, maybe an hour or so surfing for watches, couple more hours of actually working on watches, time for afternoon walk, (didn't mention these Cairn terriers are full of energy), then back to some house putzing, paying bills, maybe a trip to hardware for more materials, bout time to start dinner, b 4 you know who gets home! After dinner and a few adult beverages, maybe some tube time, (not much quality here) so off to bed, then rinse and repeat. Before doing all this, I worked for an OEM auto mfg in the service engineering department as an analyst, figuring out software calibration parts for all auto computer controllers, (way too much computer time) and IT coordinator for computer services for ~250 users. 

I must admit after being laid off almost seven years ago, I thought I'd go crazy, but delving in to watches and repairs has kept me sane!?! That makes no sense at all!, why watches?, because not many people can do this type of work AND to keep myself busy. Too many times folks retire and do nothing, which I think contributes to shorter live expectancy.DSCF0057.JPG

Posted

Started in the family printing business in Central London 40 years ago eventually owning & running it. Unfortunately it began to own & run me more, so I sold it 8 years ago. Since then I have worked as a self employed Handyman, with a continuously full order book of varied work mostly on period properties.

  • Like 1
Posted
On ‎4‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 5:27 PM, Blacklab said:

Started in the family printing business in Central London 40 years ago eventually owning & running it. Unfortunately it began to own & run me more, so I sold it 8 years ago. Since then I have worked as a self employed Handyman, with a continuously full order book of varied work mostly on period properties.

Let me share a few of my reno's or renovations, like I said 1950's track house, slab floor, plenty of room for error, not the same standards as today. First pic of 'bay window, cold in winter, hot in summer. next pic blown out bay window, next one door moved to corner and window put in where door was. Last pic finished except for paint and siding. I have a great appreciation for you skills. If you have the time, you don't have the money and visa versa. I used to do typeset printing business cards and flexographic envelopes in a past life.... 

000_1461.JPG

0915151341-00.jpg

0916151805-00.jpg

0929151137-01.jpg

Posted

My Day & Evening job is as a Lecturer, 16 to 20 year olds in the day 16 t0 116 in the evenings, too many subject areas to cover but my website has all the courses I am running at the moment, but main subject areas are Photography & Film & TV.

I still work as a photographer in between lectures.

Posted
4 hours ago, Alienfox said:

I still work as a photographer in between lectures.

Ah, you are the right person then to join our macro photography thread! :D

Cheers from the IT Netherlands, my day job!

Bob

Posted

I'm a long distance truck driver & as such I'm rarely home, hence my limited activity on this great forum. I'm hoping within the next few yrs to be working nearer home & spending a lot more time with my favourite hobby.

Posted

Master Electrician by trade. Also hold a General Contractors license. Made my living this way for 25 years from Apprentice to owning my own contracting company for about 9 years. Shut it down towards the end of the recession and back to working as an estimator currently. When not working I also run a youth baseball league in the community and have been coaching baseball for 14 years now. Haven't quite figured out how to make a living doing that one unfortunately.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

I am IT support for a large UK based accounting software company! I did the same for law firms for several years.

 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Hi All, I’m having a hard time finding a balance assembly or even a working donor movement for a Gruen 330.  Any leads appreciated.   Gruen doesn’t stamp the caliber number of the movement but lust in the case back.   
    • Why do you think this is Fontainemelon ?  The balance staff you will need to source separately.  But first it's important to accurately identify what you have there. Research Ebauches Sa, see who was in group, to find the brand that made this movement. 
    • Hi Watchrepairtalk, I have some questions about part sourcing I was hoping someone here might be able to help with. I'm working on an FHF 180 movement with a broken balance staff, broken regulator pins, and damaged cap jewels (both top and bottom). Some Googling says that this is similar to other FHF calibers like 150s, 160s, 180s and so on but I can't figure out what the functional difference is between these movements.  Is there any reason I wouldn't be able to acquire a donor FHF 150 or similar (with no shock protection) and use parts from that or would it be smarter to source replacements individually? Also are there any sources someone could recommend to get bulk cap jewels like this? Thank you for the help!
    • Hello and welcome to the WRT forum.
    • interesting video nice to see the machine what it can do now I wonder what it costs and I'm sure it's not in my budget. Plus the video brought up questions but the website below answers the questions? What was bothering me was the size of his machine 4 mm because I thought it was bigger than that? But then it occurred to me that maybe they had variations it looks like four, seven and 10. With the seven and 10 being the best because way more tool positions in way more rotating tools. Although I bet you all the rotating tools are probably separate cost https://www.tornos.com/en/content/swissnano   Then as we been talking about Sherline. Just so that everyone's aware of this they have another division their industrial division where you can buy bits and pieces. I have a link below that shows that just in case you don't want to have the entire machine you just need bits and pieces. https://www.sherline.com/product-category/industrial-products-division/   Let's see what we can do with the concept I explained up above and bits and pieces. For one thing you can make a really tiny gear very tiny like perhaps you're going to make a watch. Then another version the center part is not separate it is all machined from one piece. Then fills gear cutting machines have gone through multiple of evolutions. A lot of it based on what he wanted to make like he was going to make a watch unfortunately eyesight issues have prevented that. Another reason why you should start projects like this much sooner when your eyesight is really good or perhaps start on watches first and then move the clocks then local we have from the industrial division? Looks like two separate motors and heads. Then it's hard to see but this entire thing is built on top of a much larger milling machine as a larger milling machine gave a very solid platform to build everything.   Then like everything else that had multiple generations are versions the indexing went through of course variations like above is one version and the one below was the last version. Now the version below I mentioned that previously and somewhere in the beginning to discussion and somebody else had one in their picture. As it is a really nice precision indexing. Then I wasn't sure if I had a the watch photos here is his unfinished watch. No he wasn't going to make a simple watch like none of his clocks were simply either what would be the challenge and that.    
×
×
  • Create New...