Hello everyone

[lluvitar]

Good morning all from Minnesota.  Sort of a long time viewer of Mark's videos on Utube and been lurking here in the forums for about two weeks since I joined WRT through Patreon.  Been buying broken clocks of all shapes and sizes for years and restoring them.  Only non-functioning clocks did it for me.  It was/is the challenge of diagnosing the problem and implementing a solution.  

Recently retired after 31 years at UPS and after a trip to the UK to celebrate I have started wearing watches again. The job was too hard on watches so almost all of us there learned the hard way to stop wearing them.  Of course I love vintage things and trying my hand at minor repairs lead me initially to Mark's wonderful tutorials.  (Many Many Thanks Mark!)  I would rather find a well worn (and loved) watch that needed help and help it tick again, than buy something new.  Towards that end I have started buying the tools I will need (Thanks again Mark), set up a medium sized roll top desk in a well lit area and of course joined here for knowledge, help and encouragement.  Roll top desk was a must as the grandkid likes to "look" at everything if it's left out.  And I found out rather soon that my accumulated clock tools were so out of scale as to be of little use.  And the same goes for drinking too much coffee I found.  No good.

Currently I have an old Ball automatic watch that says admes on the bottom of the dial ready to be disassembled.  It runs okay, but the stem turns far too hard when setting the time so will sort that out.  I actually bought the watch more for the vintage leather band it had and the watch is a bonus.  

Yesterday I found an old thread here where Mark was teed off because someone on Utube accused him of giving away all the secrets.  I think what Mark had to say sums up why I decided to support this site and why I spent so much time watching his vids.  He is genuine and cares so much about this craft that he wants to see it carry on.  (So once again, Thanks Mark!)

On a side note.  I absolutely fell in love with cask ales in the U.K.  We spent some time in York where a couple of small pubs called Snickleways, The Blue Bell and Red Lion were on my daily visits.  And a place called Ye Olde Trippe in Nottingham was much attended during our week there.  I could be wrong about those names, as the trip was back in May and my consumption of "pints" was rather high.  My wife and I have found a local brewery here that one night a week has a cask ale they make, but it's almost 10% alcohol and for me that takes a lot of the fun out of it.  I guess I just like drinking the pints more than the getting drunk part.  Cheers!

[bobm12]

Welcome from Miami! I appreciate you nice words as I'm sure everyone does, specially the bit about Mark and Mark's videos! You are so right! Well, I hope you enjoy the site and most important, have fun while progressing through this wonderful hobby/occupation!

Cheers,

Bob

[Geo]

What a comprehensive introduction, I look forward to reading your future posts on the forum.

[Cad101]

Ayup and welcome to a fantastic forum but I'm guessing you already know that. This may sound strange but I've only ever visited York my counties capital once in my 50 years and I can't remember much about that seeing as I was about 8 or 9 at the time I must go back one day ( ill stick it on my hucket list along with buy a nice omega before i pop off ) but I'm glad to hear my fellow Yorkshire folk treated you well. 

[dadistic]

Ah, Minnesota. Even though wifey and I are stuck in the Chicago area for now, we are likely to end up there eventually. We were in Duluth this spring and liked it a lot. 

Have Fun!

[bobm12]

Yeah, Minnesota is a good place...McGuyver is from those parts...err, Richard Dean Anderson, the actor...good hockey player though, or used to be until the accident. By the way, is he still alive? Dumb question since I can just google it!

 

[Vich]

Hello lluvitar, (D&D ?)

good to have you in the fold, I look forward to your postings and projects and your appreciation of vintage watches and cask ale is noted so you must be a good guy.  10% is a bit strong for me and I prefer something about half as strong so I can stay on my feet a while longer.  Craft beers have taken off with a vengeance in LA and it seems like micro breweries are on the up.

Cheers, Vic 

[lluvitar]

Thanks everybody for the welcome.  

It's funny CAD about you not being in York proper since your childhood.  Let me guess it was a school trip wasn't it?  I think we saw so many school tours every day during our stay in York.  Kinda like me living in Minnesota and never having been to Duluth, definitely in the minority there amongst fellow Minnesotan's, it is a favourite vacation spot.  

Didn't know Richard Dean Anderson had a accident, have to google it myself.  Just did, if you're talking recent accident it was a hoax.  He's still fixing things with duct or gaffer's tape.  

Vich, you're close with D&D.  It was a name in Tolkien's Silmarillion.  I tried to read that thing once or ten times and some of the names are all I took from it.  

9.4% is too strong, just like some of the wines now at 18%+.  I know what I liked best about the cask ales was the lack of added CO2.  We have a kegerator at home (Newcastle Brown in it right now) and keep the CO2 at the bare minimum to push it out the tap, also not ice cold.  

[bobm12]

I'm glad he still fixes things! That was one of my favorite series. The accident I was talking about goes back a while and was, I believe, what made him become an actor...some hockey accident that prevented him to continue towards professional hockey I believe...

[lluvitar]

Based on how I felt this morning bob, I'm guessing it was a knee or back injury.  <grin>

 

Bought a used L&R Varimatic watch cleaner with ultrasonic recently and have been sorting it out.  These things are heavy, best guess is at least eighty and maybe ninety pounds.  So that's why my back is sore.