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I can remember in the army, doing a tactical night march and the officer leading the march had the bright ide of taping his compass (with tritium tipped hands) to the end of the barrel of his rifle so he could get a better bearing in the dark. We ran around in circles for hours until he realized that the compass was reacting to the steel of the rifle barrel. To say he was unpopular was a bit of an understatement.

Which is why we never gave a map or compass to the bloody Rodney’s! Tom

Ha ha, reminds me of this: "Don't go puttin' none of that stuff on my sled, Clark. You know that metal plate in my head? I had to have it replaced, cause every time Catherine revved up the microwave I'd pi$$ my pants and forget who I was for a half hour or so. So over at the VA they had to replace it with plastic."

I use the same thing on my android:

Here is another option, if you have the patience to sort through the parts you usually find 50-100 screws as well as some other cool stuff. Most times I get an order from these guys I get a 250g box, takes a few days, but end up with hundreds of spares and all you need is for one of them to be useful and it pays for itself. Also helps hone your tweezer skills!

As Hector said they have too much tension, that tension is also fixed and not easy to control. Conventional tweezers have infinitely variable grip provided by us.

Donor movement showed up, so I stole the bridge screw from it. Which made me sad, because it's in such nice shape! It seems a shame. Maybe I'll find a use for it one of these days. Unfortunately, the stem is for a different style of case and is much too short. Fortunately, I ordered a brand new stem from McCaw Company. Unfortunately, the crown on the donor movement is thoroughly stripped out (it unscrewed in a shower of brass) so i just put the old stem back in for now until I source a new crown. As you can see, it's just a little too long for this case. Overall I'm super pleased. I didn't think I'd like the bracelet, and even that is growing on me. Anyone have a favorite crown assortment?

I use on of these Eclipse demagnetisers. https://www.eclipsemagnetics.com/products/workholding-systems/table-top-demagnetiser/ I got fed up with those Mickey Mouse blue things and went industrial You can pick them up on eBay from between £70 to £100. They will demagnetise anything. I mean, anything, from a hairspring to a hammer head. The table is about 5 x 6 inches. You are not going to find anything close to being this good! It will demagnetise the biggest and chunkiest of cases with the movement inside. You'll never wonder again if your demagnetiser did the job.

That looks very much like an AS984 That doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a genuine watch though. These were used in a great number of watch brands

That looks very good. Watch out she will have you ironing the clothes next.

OK so everyone has covered the veneer and case, I'll give you the springs, I make these myself and are very easy to do, measure the gauge of the wire and order some off ebay, then chuck up a rod of the same diameter or as close as you can get in the lathe, stick one end ( use super glue ) and slowly turn the lathe holding tension on the other end of the wire and keep the coils tight together. Once at the required length cut the wire slightly longer than is required and use acetone to free the stuck en, then using round nose pliers form each end.

It happens H , i suffer from the same condition, its called verbal diarrhea. If we ever meet we can talk shit to each other for hours.

As a child/young person, I remember how the police sometimes appeared in the middle of a country road and blocked off the traffic. A few minutes later, a fighter jet flew over our heads (loudly and respectfully, almost making us crap our pants), landed in front of us and was towed into the forest. It made us feel safe. I just realized that I've come a long way from demagnetizing watch movements, but isn't that the charm of associations and discussions? Anyway, I'll stick to the topic from here on! Yeah, we decided to stop developing nukes in the late 50s and spend the money on conventional weapons instead. Oops, sorry moderators, I seem to have a problem controlling myself. No more now. I promise.

That's exactly why you need to exercise, or you'll meet with an untimely death! Well, good thing you weren't born in my neck of the woods then as you would have no choice. Back in the day when it was time for my service (early 80s) this small country could mobilize 800,000 soldiers in a few days, and mobilization supplies with modern weapons and munitions were everywhere and we had an air force second to none. Then beginning in the 90s it was scrapped because our politicians decided that Russia would become a Western democracy. In discussions with colleagues, friends and acquaintances where I mentioned I thought it was imprudent to scrap our capacity for self-defense, I was laughed at. I wonder if anyone of those people would laugh today.

I bought a compass to detect magnetism. The magnetic tip reacted to both magenetised and non magnetised basic steel so it became a guessing game as to whether my test subject was either weakly magnetised or dense steel. I've found the best way to detect magnetism is by using the smallest unmagnetised screw and a known piece of unmagnetised steel to test the screw and another piece of known unmagnetised steel to test the first known piece of unmagnetised and another.......................

I have a DIY version, it’s a voice coil from a 300mb disc drive and a vdu transformer , when you put the tweezers in they vibrate like a tuning fork and come out clean. Could get an engine block in.

For larger or longer components I have a home made demagnetiser, a old central heating pump with the rotor removed, works well.

I agree - I use a magnetometer app on my iPad. A few years ago, I did invest in the Elma version of this demagnetiser. I have a background in electronics and when I cracked the unit open to explore it, I was very impressed - and reassured - by the careful attention given to the design and the quality of construction and quality of materials. It will out-live me, and not because of any shock hazard I find it very reliable for demagentizing watch movements, but for tools, especially elongated tools like tweezers and screwdrivers, they need to be done in sections, a couple of centimetres at a time. I always also repeat the demagentising process several times with the object (usually a movement) oriented in several different planes - horizontally at 0 and 90 degrees and vertically. Checking on the magnetometer app, the movement is effectively degaussed and I’ve not yet had to repeat the process. Just laying the movement horizontally and giving it a single shot sometimes works, but often doesn’t, hence my process above. Using a compass, I doubt I’d ever know whether the process was effective or not. The magnetometer is much more sensitive. I still use the Lepsi app, which was available for free, but which I don’t think is available on the App Store any more.

@RichardHarris123 I just look for a relative increase or decrease as it passes over the watch, not an absolute value. It it doesn't change much passing over the watch, than I conclude little or no magnetism, if I see the value jump from the background number, than I know I have a problem

Screws are available as below.

Personally I would salvage the missing screws from some donor movement. I also bought a random selection of screws "Assortment of Stainless Steel Watch Screws" for next to nothing. As for using an Alum solution - I had great success with that removing a rusted stem from a stainless steel crown. The best piece of advice I read on doing that was to keep the solution warm so that the reaction didn't take weeks! I did it in a couple of hours with the solution in jam jar and the jam jar in a saucepan full of water which I left on an induction hob maintaining about 60C in the Alum solution.

Do you use them? I have several pairs but never used them for watch repair work. The problem is the spring tension is already too high and may cause a "ping" when you release to grip the object. A conventional tweezer gives better tactile feedback. I use the fine grindstone on my bench grinder, then polish with a nylon fibre wheel to get a satin finish. I grind off about an 1 inch zone to distribute the stress to prevent metal fatigue from the repeated flexing. Take a close look at our College tweezers. Most of them have a thinner section just after the joint to give them flex.

I love these boxes, fantastic for spares, mostly Indian, chinese and Russian but exactly as you say scott, you only need to pick out a couple of pieces and they've paid for themselves.

Hi Murks. The shape of the stone face tells you which is entry or exit. I have attached a bit of reading for you. TM 9-1575.pdf TZIllustratedGlossary.pdf Hi Joseph Bulova School of Watch Making.pdf

You made a funny Nev

Hi you could try. Heritage 1854 they are a site dedicated to Timex and me be able to help or point you in the right direction. Good luck

@VWatchie you guys had some decent Air craft, Saab Dracken, the cars were good too the Saab 95.

Could you post a closeup photo of the broken screw that you are trying to remove so that we can better advise you.

I don't understand why did You use the bubble wrap. If You think there is any use to hold the thing exactly in the middle of the hole - wrong, there is no matter, just pass it tru the hole and take it away to at least 40 cm before release of the button. If You reduce the current, then You reduce the field strenght too, thus not alowing the tool to be demagnetised if it is holding stronger field than the coil can create. My advice is to eat You breakfast (for more muscle strenght) and to fix the demagnetiser to the table or bench top with some clamp so You will be able to use the both hands, then ask You wife to press the button for You...

Yup, I have one of those up in my shed and it's extremely effective. I picked mine up at a car boot sale for a couple of quid because nobody knew what it was. Mine looks like it came out of the Ark so I guess that they've been around for a long time. Generally for watch stuff I use an equally ancient pass through type which is usually sufficient but for really stubborn items, particularly tools I use the Eclipse.

Hi Dean, The solution with the alum for the broken screw is good and is generally used by watchmakers from many years, but You have to take off ALL steel parts from the plate. In some movements, the post for the minute wheel, for example, is made of steel. Deeping partly the plate works too, but some marks may left on the line where the solution doesn't cover the plate. Heating the solution is needed to accelerate the process. With the years, a rich collection of screws gathers and then finding the needed screw is not a problem. But till then it will be helpfull if You get some assorted screws lot. The other option is making screws. This is usually for the ones with specific form and sizes that doesn't meet often. But the skill of making screws is something that will never be unnecessary

I just remembered I recorded a video demonstrating my ELMA AntiMag when I had just bought it (5 years ago, gosh!):

I have the Elma demagnetiser and it works well enough for watch movements. However, it's not powerful enough to demagnetise tools such as hand levers. At least my copy isn't. These days I use a Greiner Magnomatic which I was lucky to get used for just about £100. It works really well with anything which fits in it.

Clickspring as a video review of the chinese demagnetizer.

I visited this place last year just before they closed their counter service - amazing shop (filled from floor to ceiling!) and the guy that was working there was really knowledgeable and helpful!. Their website isn't as good as Cousins but I understand that if you fill out the contact form they have stuff that isn't on the site. https://gleave.london/mineral-flat-bottom-domed/

No. It's incredibly volatile and evaporates in seconds; there is no way it would last as long as it took to just install the part cleaned in it, in the movement.

Much like @mikepilk, I took a chance on a movement-unseen Citizen Square Custom. If I did my serial decoding right, it should be vintage 1969. Some discoloration of the dial, but otherwise looks to be in nice shape with the original bracelet. There's a video that shows it running and the price was right, so fingers crossed.

I am new to the new to the watch restoration hobby I have the basic tools. I'm here to learn new things. And utilize my resources (you guys) to expand my knowledge and hopefully save some derelict timepieces from the trash.

Updated photos with new leather strap and original signed buckle. I like the minimalist strap - plain back with black thread...

The front, runs lovely now and alarms works great.

I think my missus is mad ironing clothes, but what do i know ?

Hi Neverenoughwatches, Yep from what I have seen now I'd say you were probably right, the veneer really doesn't like damp. I got lucky with the new bubble - it split the veneer, so I injected some glue and clamped it overnight. See pic for results. Not perfect but I think this is as good as I am going to get it.

If everything is inside them, then once restored and keeping time the oris could be worth 20 -30 each, I've paid a lot more Oris date pointers in the past. Bought this last week for a quid at a carboot sale. A cute little Smiths made in England alarm clock. The alarm didn’t function properly because the movement wasn't fastened in. But it runs perfectly now, the previous made a bit of a mess of the dial but i still love it. For the Smiths lovers here's a picture of the inside before i case it up again. Still with it the original Jewellers box.

Come back Ross, come back Joe, hope you are both ok and its just life getting in the way .

I banished them without the right to do so, why because I'm jealous . @rossjackson01has become amazing with his tiny space and lack of funds and @Nucejoe because, he knows more than me. I hate them both. Hehe. If any of you two are reading this?, I'm sure you know, I'm joking. Not about your abilities though. Both brilliant.

Er yeah, not quite sure how to respond to that one Mark . But yes i fully appreciate what you have done here today. I look at it like this, i dont know if you have children Mark, i have a son and a daughter both around 30 years old but still my babies. I remind them every couple of months, " if something happens to me, i get run over by a bus, i have a heart attack while out running, I eat a very dodgy burger, you know where the spare hidden house keys are dont you, you know where the stashes of money are don't you, you know the things i have that are valuable don't you, you know how to deal with my finances don't you, you know the value of my watchroom and where the value lists of all the tools and watch collections i have are dont you, dont mess it up and dont get ripped off i want you to be rich when I'm gone " This forum is your baby Mark, i dont think i need to say any more. Appreciate your time Mark, live long and prosper matey Oh my flipping god, who's old enough to remember when the Iron lady came to power, i remember the old bag took my morning milk away from me. So I'm only going to ask you this once Rich " where is Ross and where is Nucejoe and what have you done with them " Ross my allstar and Nucejoe one of my wingmen, i aint happy Rich not happy at all.

As long as it’s legal and not spamming, information shared in private messaging between two consenting members is no concern of mine matey this isn’t eBay

Hi All, I started this forum over 10 years ago and never intended for it to me a 'for profit' concern. Since then, I launched an online course and I draw funds from that business in order to fund this website. There is also a little bit of funding from Google ads but I don't rely on it because they keep changing the goalposts. The forum costs a few hundred pounds per month to run and Im comfortably managing it. Why a few hundred pounds? I am OCD about backups and not relying on a single company to host those backups, I use amazon S3 to backup hourly and daily, I also use Digital Ocean. I use a separate mail service to handle the serious amounts of emails sent from the site, I am on here most days admin'ing and updating the site or servers/applying security patches and the like - its not a big deal, I enjoy it. In short - you might not see me a lot posting (for my sanity as it's addictive (same on all my social media)) but I certainly do a lot behind the scenes. I can't control my mortality and so there's always that - but other than that, I'm damn committed to this site as I am committed to my commercial site watchfix.com which supports this site. I have no interest in shutting down, selling or otherwise changing this sites format. Having said that, if anyone wants to consider taking on moderation tasks to help (in particular, making sure people post in the correct place and moderating new members posts) that would be very helpful. (Only members who have been active for more than a year please). Finally, thanks very much for your support and kind words - I truly appreciate that. This forum has to be one of the friendliest I am part of - a massive refreshment after reading some of the Facebook groups I'm part of - except mine FB group - that's also great with great people

My mentor has been using one of the Chinese clones for several years. Seems to work very well. Just put the object you wish to demagnetize in the centre of the cross and press the button. One word of caution though, the quality and QC of Chinese clones can vary a lot. You'll never know whether you got a gem or a lemon.

Here you see how @nevenbekriev thinned the base of his home made tweezers: