"Knot" in a balance spring

[Adrien]

Hi!

I currently struggle with an ETA 1301 from a Eska watch, during cleaning of the balance wheel, the stud came into the third ring of the spring and made some kind of knot...

I do not want to break it but I don't know how I can extend the spring without breaking it to step backward from this situation.

Thank you for your help if you could tell me how to manipulate this spring without any risk of breaking!

[Graziano]

Hi there Adrien , firstly you would need to demagnetize it .I don't know  what tools or experience you have but you can use demagnetized needles or 2mm sharpened pegwood and gently work the hairspring not applying any sort of pressure  .try and chase the crossed over sections by spreading and chase to the stud end where it  free so you can maneuver the stud back through the spring . This will take some time, you do not want any manipulation that puts pressure on any part of the hair spring as this will bend it which is what you don't want .You can put the balance pivot into some pithwood to hold it while you work on it .Use a 10x loupe, If it has become distorted or kinked or doesn't lie true or center correctly then it is a different kettle of fish and correcting with the tweezers is a skill which can only be learned through practice. Anyway good luck and I hope this helps

Edited May 25, 2021 by Graziano

[Nucejoe]

Stud always causes problems when untangling H/S, so I detach the stud off of balance first, this improves your chances of success greately, more so if you remove the coil (  from the balance ) and put the coil on a white sheet of paper spread on top of a hard flat surface.

Use a needle to chase ( from coil center outward ) , maneuver crossed circle with ease.

There have been couple of cases on this forum who didn't remove the stud and failed.

Regs

Joe

 

[watchweasol]

Hi as Joe recommends will work with care, take your time.

[Adrien]

Ok, thank you for your advices. I am not so comfortable with removing and replacing the stud, so I will try with much care as described by Graziano (thank you for the details).

If the "danger" is too high, I could then think of removing the stud if it seems to be too difficult (do you have advices for it, Joe?)