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You think you've seen everything, then you see a glued on hairspring!!!

Mark
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Mark Distinguished Member

Mark

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Posted

After servicing the movement, the watch had a low amp at around 150º. On investigation I see an irregular bounce to the hairspring. So I thought I would take it off the balance and have a looksee. And this is what I find... 

So instead of tightening a hairspring collet, we should use superglue instead!

Screen Shot 2016-05-05 at 17.58.08.png

 

Why, why why???

And yes, this watch was gaining like crazy too.

It's 6 o'clock, i'm tired - i'll fix it tomorrow (need beer).

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SSTEEL Distinguished Member

SSTEEL

Posted
Posted

Yup Mark, I have come across similar, ask my wife, I tell her everything, not that she understands, but she gets in, the sheer amount of bodges I come across is shocking.

Geo Distinguished Member

Geo

Posted
Posted

I had to remove superglue from the coils if a hairspring on a giant pocket watch.  Someone had tried to glue a broken pivot on the balance and managed to glue all the coils together in the process.  I soaked it in acetone to remove the glue, then re-pivoted the balance.  That was more than an bit fiddly!

noirrac1j Distinguished Member

noirrac1j

Posted
Posted

What?!? A while ago I was tempted to use glue to repair a tricky problem on a watch. I knew that if I EVER used glue on a mechanical watch, I would be on the path to perdition, and I would be lost forvever....

JC

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jeffc83 WRT Addict

jeffc83

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, noirrac1j said:

What?!? A while ago I was tempted to use glue to repair a tricky problem on a watch. I knew that if I EVER used glue on a mechanical watch, I would be on the path to perdition, and I would be lost forvever....

JC

I see you chose the right path in life;)

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Mark Distinguished Member

Mark

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Well, I managed to remove the glue without damaging the hairspring. 

The collet was way too loose obviously so I tightened it and then remounted the spring. It went from gaining +600s/d to losing around -1000s/d

Why you ask??

Well - because some muppet (probably the watchbreaker who glued the spring up and wondered why it was gaining so much) actually GLUED some extra weights to the balance rim!!! 

I never even noticed them until I started investigating why the watch was losing such a huge amount.

I lopped them off and replaced two other timing screws that looked very damaged and hey presto.

Screen Shot 2016-05-10 at 14.16.31.png

 

From this...

Screen Shot 2016-05-10 at 14.22.42.png

 

To a more healthy...

Screen Shot 2016-05-10 at 14.23.00.png

Bit of tweaking to do but at least I have something to work with now :D

I made a video which i'll edit and publish in due course.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Geo Distinguished Member

Geo

Posted
Posted
On 10 May 2016 at 8:21 PM, bobm12 said:

I'll be interested in knowing how could superglue was removed so successfully! I thought the hairspring was a goner!

 

Soak it in acetone Bob, it works a treat.

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...
bobm12 Distinguished Member

bobm12

Posted
Posted
On ‎5‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 7:34 PM, vinn3 said:

super glue has its place

Yep, the seat!!!

On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 3:28 AM, Geo said:

Soak it in acetone Bob

Thanks Geo. Good call, I don't know what I was thinking about, never crossed my mind to do it to a balance wheel/spring...I guess I overthink things sometimes!!

Cheers,

Bob

vinn3 Distinguished Member

vinn3

Posted
Posted

if you  look up  'SUPER GLUE   might find the break down temp..   with the  older locktite  items it was 250  degrees  F..   BUT,  that would take the temper out of the  spring?   with a large nut and bolt,  a torch will remove loctite.  acetone MAY  work.

Geo Distinguished Member

Geo

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, vinn3 said:

acetone MAY  work.

No may about it, acetone does remove Super Glue.  I used it to clean a hairspring that was covered in the stuff.

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