How do I adjust this hairspring.

[szbalogh]

There is a proper procedure for escapement adjustment and the checks to be done. Look for de Carle's Practical watch adjustment book for example! 

It could be a minor thing, but You have to turn the balance cock that direction where the fork is resting. 

https://youtu.be/qtgAJBPPefM?t=1251

[oldhippy]

The guide pin prevents accidental unlocking of the escapement. If the pin is bent or out of line the watch will intermittently stop. One more thing about the pallets don't oil the pivots unless you have the correct oil to do so as this will cause drag and the watch will not keep good time.

If all this is satisfactory we now go on to the balance. If you still have the old one I would like to see it in good clear detail the same with the replacement. You can first check the balance pivot holes and end stones I believe at one point you said you took them apart so are you sure you have put them back properly and not mixed them up, make sure all are ok and secured and screwed in tight, don't have one side higher than the other make sure they are both level and not loose.

Let me know how that goes.

szbalogh has posted a good link of Marks, unfortunately it doesn't cover fault finding in the escapement.   

[ftwizard]

Yeah, I've watched all of Mark's videos, very good and informative. I'll try to get a video of the balance stopping. I'm sure it has something to do with the pallet fork and rotor. I've checked the jewels as carefully as I can, and given my limited experience, they look fine.

I'll see what I can do regarding pictures of the balance wheels.

[ftwizard]

Bit of an update. I've tried a different pallet fork and it has definitely change something. It's running better, but clearly there is still something amiss. I've show the timegrapher readout. See what you think.

[ftwizard]

Anyone have an opinion on the timegrapher readout? I'm sure the balance jewel is catching on something, I just don't know what.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[JohnR725]

Swapping pallet forks is an interesting idea and for modern watches is usually acceptable. For modern watch their usually exactly the same. If you take something like American pocket watch for instance swapping a pallet fork is insane. There were variations either because things changed or machinery tolerances from the beginning of the run to the end of the run changed. Then there are adjusted for each watch. Depending upon how old your watch is there may be variations and adjustments.

Then for the timing machine if the graphical display is hard to make out then the numeric results are always suspicious. Timing machine doesn't have any magical reasoning ability to somehow filter out the garbage we see on the screen to come up with numbers. So a watch that's running very poorly visually and graphically with very low amplitudes will sometimes show up as a very high amplitude If the machine is reading the wrong part of the waveform. This is where having exotically expensive Swiss timing machines with the oscilloscope feature or timing machines software that also has the oscilloscope feature is nice to see if we can figure out what's really going on.

So if I pretend that everything is running fine, or basically I disregard my first two paragraphs. Then your watches out of beat might be nice to make that better and did you remember to lubricate the escapement? So you're almost getting a line on one side of the escapement you're not on the other that can be a variety of reasons I can pick up some really obscure reasons if you want but it's probably something simple.

Biggest problem were having or specifically I'm having for diagnostics is it be nice to hold the watch in my hand. The number one skill in watch repair is to learn to visually look at the watch in figure out what's wrong. The timing machine will point you in directions and show you things that you cannot see with your eyes but you still visually have to Be able to look at the watch in figure out what's going on. So we basically cannot 100% diagnose your watch with the timing machine print out it be nice to have a photograph of the actual watch and that's a problem of getting a decent photograph of whatever it is we perceive the problem is.

 

[vinn3]

the spring shape looks good,  though it may be the wrong size.  is it possable it is a "cylindar" escapement?   vinn

[ftwizard]

17 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

Swapping pallet forks is an interesting idea and for modern watches is usually acceptable. For modern watch their usually exactly the same. If you take something like American pocket watch for instance swapping a pallet fork is insane. There were variations either because things changed or machinery tolerances from the beginning of the run to the end of the run changed. Then there are adjusted for each watch. Depending upon how old your watch is there may be variations and adjustments.

Then for the timing machine if the graphical display is hard to make out then the numeric results are always suspicious. Timing machine doesn't have any magical reasoning ability to somehow filter out the garbage we see on the screen to come up with numbers. So a watch that's running very poorly visually and graphically with very low amplitudes will sometimes show up as a very high amplitude If the machine is reading the wrong part of the waveform. This is where having exotically expensive Swiss timing machines with the oscilloscope feature or timing machines software that also has the oscilloscope feature is nice to see if we can figure out what's really going on.

So if I pretend that everything is running fine, or basically I disregard my first two paragraphs. Then your watches out of beat might be nice to make that better and did you remember to lubricate the escapement? So you're almost getting a line on one side of the escapement you're not on the other that can be a variety of reasons I can pick up some really obscure reasons if you want but it's probably something simple.

Biggest problem were having or specifically I'm having for diagnostics is it be nice to hold the watch in my hand. The number one skill in watch repair is to learn to visually look at the watch in figure out what's wrong. The timing machine will point you in directions and show you things that you cannot see with your eyes but you still visually have to Be able to look at the watch in figure out what's going on. So we basically cannot 100% diagnose your watch with the timing machine print out it be nice to have a photograph of the actual watch and that's a problem of getting a decent photograph of whatever it is we perceive the problem is.

 

I don't think the watch is that old, '70s maybe. I was having problems with the balance stopping in one position i.e. With the balance above the pallet fork, so I thought I'd try another fork from a spare movement, to see if anything changed. I does run now, in all positions, but it still seems to be catching somewhere, as the display shows, I think.

I can't even see where the problem is, let alone take a picture. I was hoping to gather a few opinions, in the hope that something may provide a small breakthrough.

I don't have anywhere near enough experience to diagnose in the way you describe, but thanks for the input anyway.

Please ignore the picture of the balance wheel, it was just for an example of the spring collet that I was hoping to adjust to get the beat a little better (my original question)

Edited June 22, 2016 by ftwizard