Jump to content

Mainspring winding


Recommended Posts

Second newbie question for the day.  I've taken level 1 and 2 of Mark's course.  During the "how to use a mainspring winder" lesson he mentions if it's not catching you may have it backwards or upside down.  If I twist the other direction it would catch.  Do I turn clockwise or anti-clockwise?  I guess I don't know how I would know if I have it upside down?  I'm playing around with an old Vantage watch, bought my Watchcraft Bracelet mainspring winder.  I think this is going to take a lot of practice, I kept having an issue where a) I didn't know which direction I should be going, but always got it to catch, however it would seem like the spring would float up and down in the winder barrel, so it wasn't in a nice neat spool.  When I tried to press it back out it would shoot all over the place.  On my fourth attempt it just went in a huge knot and split.  So I guess now I have to buy a mainspring.  *womp*womp*  lol   Is there some trick I'm missing in the video to successfully do this?  Thank you experienced guys for putting up with and helping out with my newbie questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I Only have a cople of he multi barrel winders at the moment but i always have to wind clockwise, as you would when winding the the watch by the crown, when you say you are pushing itout and it springs everywhere are you pushing it directly into the barrel, from what you are writing it sounds like you are allowing it to just come out the barrel and expecting it to say wound, im probably wrong but that is how it reads.

as for the spring catching or not, sometimes it doesnt catch and others it does, on my winders i fit the spring onto the winder then feed it into the winder barrel, that way i know it is hooked and ready for winding, when fully wound i turn anti clockwise so as to release the spring from the arbor and to allow it to be pushed into the barrel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also do a small drawing of the barrel with the old mainspring so yo remember. Print it and tape it to your bench. After you do a lot of mainsprings it will become second nature.

Practice makes perfect, you will be all right ,with a little time:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks everyone.  So as a rule it's always clockwise for winding the mainspring into the winder?  To transporter's question. The gap in my mainspring winder where the spring threads through has a enough width that the spring doesn't necessarily coil over the top of the previous turn, it may be higher or lower in the winder.  I think this is making it shoot out.  One time I was able to get it in a good coil, put it into the barrel and pushed the button to push the spring from the winder into the barrel, but it didn't stay in the bar rel, it flung all apart.   I have the same winder set in the attached picture.

post-38-0-83567500-1388280209_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An additional question for anyone in the US.  Where do you get mainsprings from?  The suppliers listed in resources don't seem to have much and the websites aren't very easy to use.  I saw Mark's video and from the Cousins website I found it super easy to get the GR code for the mainspring I need.  Finding it on the US suppliers websites is turning out to be a challenge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, kevinb95 said:

An additional question for anyone in the US. 

Even from the US you can use Cousins UK. No VAT, reasonable shipping cost and delivery times, no customs fees for you. No need to be fixated on domestic suppliers in this global market age.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • in general this shouldn't be any change. but in general questions like this it be nice to know the specifics of the watch in other words how was it performing before it was cased up and what is it doing now.
    • just as a reminder this watch is a Swatch group product. This will bring up a problem like spare parts and technical information. that I found some links to some information on when I talk about your watch and some of the technical and basically your watch is equivalent to 2834-2 for which I'm attaching the technical sheets. But equivalent does not mean exactly the same you want to do a search on the group for C07 as we discussed this watch before including the technical differences how it's supposed to be regulated and basically because it's watch group there is no parts availability. https://calibercorner.com/eta-caliber-c07-xxx/   https://www.chrono24.com/magazine/eta-movements-from-the-2824-2-to-the-powermatic-80-p_80840/ https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/h-10-movement-details.4636991/ eta CT_2834-2_FDE_481857_15.pdf
    • people be honest.... Swatch is evil for the watchmakers and repairers, BUT not everything in watches from Switzerland is from the Swatch-Group. As far as i know, Selitta got sacked by Swatch as a Movement-Assembler for them and they started to produce Movements in their own Name with slight Modifications. As far as i know, they sell Parts to the Market for their Movements. In most cases, if a ETA-Movement fails, it is a valid Option to replace it with a Selitta Movement, which i consider the Solution for this Mess with the Swatch-Group...... I have no Connection to anybody at Selitta, but being a Swiss-Guy, i still like to have Swiss-Made Watches, but not from the Swatch-Group.   ok ? regards, Ernst
    • Just one more greedy act by Swatch. They started a number of years ago here in the US..cutting off supplies to watchmakers that could build complications that many Swatch houses couldn't even touch. Old school masters who had gone through some of the most prestigious houses in the world. Otto Frei has some statements on their page about it. I tell all my customers to avoid new Swiss watches like the plague,..unless they just want an older one in their collection that still has some parts out on the market, or they have really deep pockets and don't mind waiting months and paying through the nose to get it back. Plenty of others to choose from..IE Seiko,..or other non-swiss brands Even a number of Chinese brands are catching up with the Swiss,..and I think that in time, their actions will be their downfall
    • Yes. If that's not what you are experiencing...start looking for something rubbing. A 1st guess is that one of the hands is rubbing against the hole in the center of the dial. Especially if you now have lower amplitude in face up/ face down positions.
×
×
  • Create New...