Screws, screws, and yet more screws!

[Scouseget]

Hi all.

I was wondering if there is a sure fire way of NOT mixing up screws when reassembling a watch? The reason I ask is that I try to take as much care as humanly possible to keep the little sub-assemblies segregated; bridges with their screws, etc. I also photograph every step of the disassembly and have the photos on my computer screen when I'm actually reassembling the movement. Despite all this, the screws usually get mixed up and I end up guessing which one goes where on occasion. I think this mix up occurs during cleaning when stuff tends to mix together. 

Very often the screws have the same thread but one is slightly longer than the other and logic doesn't seem to help in deciding which one goes where. So any suggestions about this - is it experience over time that is the answer, i.e., do you just know what screw goes where once you worked over enough movements or is there some technique you use to prevent this confusion? 

Snow in the forecast for Edmonton this weekend - maybe I should have emigrated to Australia instead!

[Hertzogpholian]

when i was a hardware tech, taking apart laptops and printers and phones and other electronics, I just laid out the parts left to right across the desk/table as I disassembled whatever I was working on and then reverse to put it back together.  I didn't have the washing up step so it was easy as everything was right where I left it.  I can remember one Dell Latitude model that had 4 or 5 different screw lengths and the holes weren't marked as to which screw went into each hole and the screws were used to complete the grounding on the boards and if you got it wrong the laptop wouldn't power on.  if you got it really wrong, you'd fry the darn thing.  The following year, they started molding reference letters into the plastic.

With cars, it was the same kind of thing, lay the stuff out in order and keep things that go together, together.

in the beginning with watches, i used post-its and put the parts on a post-it. and i was washing parts by hand so i would keep them separate that way.  with the washer, they would go into separate little thimble screw-together holders.

in the beginning, you just need to document everything but it gets easier with practice.

[Marc]

As I disassemble the movement I simply screw the screw back into the hole it came out of once the bit it was securing has been removed before moving on to the next part.

Disadvantages; it adds a little time to the dismantling process.

Advantages; the screws never get mixed up, and there is much less risk of them going missing during the cleaning process.

If you look over any of my walk throughs you will see the screws have been replaced at each step.

[oldhippy]

Practice is what it takes. When you have good experience you will find you will be able to put all the screws together, as an apprentice I would put the screws with the part, when it came to cleaning I would try and put identical screws with the parts in a section of the basket, got mixed up a few times but as I said its experience.    

[jdm]

11 hours ago, Scouseget said:

Hi all.

I was wondering if there is a sure fire way of NOT mixing up screws when reassembling a watch? The reason I ask is that I try to take as much care as humanly possible to keep the little sub-assemblies segregated; bridges with their screws, etc.

Label the tray, and keep screws segregated there, no need to wash them. Note this is my just opinion. I do not want to get into another debate on the benefits of washing and moving around screws or parts that are clean and do not carry friction.

 

[oldhippy]

That's a good one jdm.

[petevig]

FWIW, I have several of those small micro screen holders (lower right side of white tray in jdm's picture), and put applicable screws and the bridge/plate/bracket piece together in separate holders to help keep them straight for cleaning and re-assembly.