Jump to content

Loose Incabloc Springs?

spectre6000
 Share

Recommended Posts

spectre6000 Distinguished Member

spectre6000

Posted
Posted

I was practicing on an ultra-cheap Chinese watch. The sort where they don't even oil it. As I was manipulating the balance and end stones, the Incabloc-style spring just fell out of the setting. It actually happened on both settings. I lost one to the floor gods, and the other eventually broke after trying for hours in vain to get it reinstalled. 

I googled around, and the gist I get is that they're really not supposed to come out without some sort of damage or doing some other major operation, and getting them back in requires the setting to be out of the plate. Before I write off that error as a byproduct of fiddling with a low quality movement, I want to make sure I'm learning the correct lesson.

Did I screw up badly and need to adjust my approach, or did the manufacturer screw up badly and that's just one more detail of poor craftsmanship? Or maybe both?

JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

Posted
Posted

the Chinese are very interesting when they clone things? Sometimes they can get it really good and other times they might skip a step or modify a step.  so on the standard Swiss made Incabloc it's designed to hinge back and not come out. Occasionally on some watches it might come out but that's not very often.. But the Chinese made a tiny little correction to the manufacturing and there's nothing to hold the Incabloc spring in. so when you left it up it will fallout. On the other hand if you're really careful and put in at a angle you can put it in gently twisted bring it down and put it back in place.

oh then when you're looking for the gold spring just remember it's only gold colored it's a spring and it likes magnets.

if you're curious about the problem we've discussed it before you can find pictures at the link below.

https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/7631-re-seating-an-incabloc-spring/

spectre6000 Distinguished Member

spectre6000

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

I think the spring in mine was brass. I didn't test it with a magnet, but will to make sure. Thanks for the information. Looks like I should be more careful, but also not sweat it too much. 

That link describes the situation to a T. Next time...

Edited by spectre6000
HectorLooi Distinguished Member

HectorLooi

Posted
Posted

It has happened to me a couple of times. I've become very paranoid when opening an Incabloc. I would always use a pegwood to prevent the spring from jumping out of the slot.

When trying to put it back, rodico and fine tweezers just doesn't work for me. The grip of a fine tweezer is not strong enough to persuade the spring to get back into the slot.

What worked for me was an eyebrow tweezer. The tips are wide enough to grip both arms of the Incabloc spring to give enough rotational force to get one end into the hole of the slot first, slide it all the way towards that hole then rotate the other end of the spring into the other hole. The reason why the spring comes out of the slot is because there is too much freeplay ( like endshake ), if the spring moves all the way to one side, the other end comes out of the hole and just falls out.

But it's a bad day when an Incabloc spring falls out. It's not easy getting it back in.

 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Khan
      Bent screw

      By Khan · Posted

      Hi Can this pusher screw be straight again and how? 
    • JohnR725
      About repair watch's jewel.

      By JohnR725 · Posted

      Typically watch manufacturing companies will purchase parts to their exact specifications including the jewels. This means that typically you may not find an exact generic replacement. I'm attaching a PDF of a book that explains how to replace jewels. Seitz book.pdf
    • JseTay
      Lathe motor advice

      By JseTay · Posted

      Hey everyone! I sure this topic has probably been discussed before, but I want some good recommendations based on experience or knowledge about a good affordable high torque DC motor that I can use for my lathe. I have a little lathe but it has the regular old style motor that was used in the past with a foot controller. However, I would like to improve it by buy a nice motor with a speed controller so I don’t have to use my foot. I would like the motor to have really good torque so that even if I run it at a very low speed, it still can cut material easily. I saw online this brand called Servo sewing machine motor with a speed controller, but I don’t know how good they are and if they would work like I would like to for my lathe. Thank you for all the help!
    • JohnR725
      Etachron regulation system

      By JohnR725 · Posted

      Your only partially correct here. Let's look at a magnified view of the image up above. Then for a flat hairspring to function correctly there has to be a little bit of breathing room unfortunately. If you would like Better timekeeping if you get a watch with the over coil hairspring then those regulator pins are supposed to be as tight as possible but still allow the hairspring the slide. With if the pins are opened up at all you'll see a dramatic timing change based on amplitude. So in our example down below initially hairspring is basically free-floating not touching anything the effective length of the hairspring is at the stud. As the amplitude picks up at some point in time they hairspring will just tide should one pin on one swing and the other pin on the other swing. As soon as it does that it changes the effective length to being closer to the regulator pins. As the amplitude picks up more and more it's obviously touching the regulator pins more and more and the length of the hairspring shortens the watch speeds up. This is where in your video at around 16 minutes he opens up the regulator pins and the watch slows down. This is because they hairspring is no longer bouncing off either pin as much. Then because the watches running slow he speeds it up just to show that yes you could regulate the watch but now you have a problem. Because the regulator pins are much farther apart amplitude is going to have a much greater effect. Like in the image down below they hairspring is properly spaced between the pins. But if those pins are farther apart the effect of amplitude will be much greater. So he speeds up the watch to cancel out the effect of the regulator pins at the particular amplitude which was dial down then when he moves the watch to a crown position which will always have an amplitude decrease because the amount of friction on the sides of the pins now the hairspring is not touching the regulator pins as much and the watch dramatically slows down.   Let's look at the other example image. In this particular example they hairspring is actually touching the regulator pin at restWhich means the effective length of the hairspring is at the regulator pin the watch runs fast. As the amplitude picks up hairspring will lift off the PN moving the effective length towards the stud which is why the watches slowing down. As you can see is the amplitude picks up They hairspring is not centered C not getting even timekeeping and the watch is slowing even more down. But at some point in time when the amplitude gets high enough this will depend upon the watch the spacing Excedrin whatever the amplitude is will be balancing actually between the pins in the watch will of course speed up and then at some point time you reach that sweet spot where it's bouncing between the two pins but as you can see it's at a much higher amplitude. So this is why hairspring has to be properly centered between the pins and the pins have to be at the right spacing otherwise you going to get strange timekeeping based on amplitude which no matter what you're going to get a little bit of that as you do have to have a little bit a spacing. At least on a flat hairspring.  
    • BobG
      Etachron regulation system

      By BobG · Posted

      My understanding is that In the Etachron system the spring is only centered n order to set the stud angle when the the pins are wide open and the regulator block in at the midway point.  After that the pins are rotated in one direction only so that the width between the spring and one of the studs is 1/2 width of the spring. This results in the spring always being closer to one stud than other one.   
×
×
  • Create New...