Watch tips and tricks.

[Neverenoughwatches]

Eyup watch peeps. Thought a thread about random ideas and tips we have might be of interest. If i can kick one off with something i thought of last night while wrestling with a hairspring.  At 1 oclock in the morning trying to figure out a ridiculously low amplitude on a cheap swiss movement was testing my patience. Power was good with a nice escape wheel back spin, pivots on the lever looked good and the lever flicked nicely over once installed. A well shaped hairspring was put back on the marked up balance fitted to the cock and installed back into the movement.  Looking inside it looked pretty naff, all bent up at one side and rubbing on the bal cock, so a slight twist at stud should pull it into place. Needing to be right up to the stud was proving  arkward to get to even with the smallest tweezers i have as i wanted to be directly above the spring to twist. Checking out the dial side i noticed a very conveniently largish hole directly below where i wanted to be. Largish hole but not quite large enough to get the tweezers in and be able to twist. Being a rough arsed joiner i love my days of tearing stuff apart on houses and first fixing, its all big hammers and crowbars and makes me very happy . I have a few specific bars and one in particular that is fork shaped is great for twisting joists over to straighten them out when nailing in noggins.  moment, some kind of thin fork shaped metal twisty thingy.  Looking around the watchroom at all the random shite i have I'm not seeing what i need, " i need to make something " . Then i clap eyes on a pack of needles, golden idea me thinks. Taking the smallest needle and honing off the eye gave me the smallest forked prybar known to man. Who said joiners are thick ? Nah we just pretend to be then we get the easy jobs

[RichardHarris123]

13 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Eyup watch peeps. Thought a thread about random ideas and tips we have might be of interest. If i can kick one off with something i thought of last night while wrestling with a hairspring.  At 1 oclock in the morning trying to figure out a ridiculously low amplitude on a cheap swiss movement was testing my patience. Power was good with a nice escape wheel back spin, pivots on the lever looked good and the lever flicked nicely over once installed. A well shaped hairspring was put back on the marked up balance fitted to the cock and installed back into the movement.  Looking inside it looked pretty naff, all bent up at one side and rubbing on the bal cock, so a slight twist at stud should pull it into place. Needing to be right up to the stud was proving  arkward to get to even with the smallest tweezers i have as i wanted to be directly above the spring to twist. Checking out the dial side i noticed a very conveniently largish hole directly below where i wanted to be. Largish hole but not quite large enough to get the tweezers in and be able to twist. Being a rough arsed joiner i love my days of tearing stuff apart on houses and first fixing, its all big hammers and crowbars and makes me very happy . I have a few specific bars and one in particular that is fork shaped is great for twisting joists over to straighten them out when nailing in noggins.  moment, some kind of thin fork shaped metal twisty thingy.  Looking around the watchroom at all the random shite i have I'm not seeing what i need, " i need to make something " . Then i clap eyes on a pack of needles, golden idea me thinks. Taking the smallest needle and honing off the eye gave me the smallest forked prybar known to man. Who said joiners are thick ? Nah we just pretend to be then we get the easy jobs

As thick as two short planks? Hehe 

[rehajm]

I have two of rubbing Breguets that need help. Searching here and everywhere else the technique to correct the overcoil in the flat is..elusive. Hovering tweezers midair whilst twisting is not in my physical repertoire. I may have to give this a try. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 minute ago, rehajm said:

I have two of rubbing Breguets that need help. Searching here and everywhere else the technique to correct the overcoil in the flat is..elusive. Hovering tweezers midair whilst twisting is not in my physical repertoire. I may have to give this a try. 

Absolutely, i didn't say but it worked a treat, 2 twists and it was fixed the second was to correct the first overtwist. Tbf i did have a very good vantage point from underneath, and I'm sure thats why the hole was there.  After honing the eye you may need to bring the fork together. Twists with tweezers can be tricky, when using 2 pair, one is to hold and the other doesn't grip and twist but is open moved to a position and then closed to twist the hairspring.  Less hand action

[KarlvonKoln]

This is brilliant!  I do tailoring and alterations, and because I find that needle shaft can always be used for other things, I've saved any that broke.  I think I will look through my small stock of broken needles and make myself a tool.

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

As thick as two short planks? Hehe 

Rude

47 minutes ago, KarlvonKoln said:

This is brilliant!  I do tailoring and alterations, and because I find that needle shaft can always be used for other things, I've saved any that broke.  I think I will look through my small stock of broken needles and make myself a tool.

As my well fitting t-shirt rightly states   #Thats what i do - I fix stuff and I know things #   ( sometimes ) 

[Neverenoughwatches]

No its not marshmallow on a toaster but it does buff up those flat jewels beautifully. Pithwood pushed onto a broach.

[Neverenoughwatches]

Who likes rust ? I hate it, been busy with an old rusty green tinged movement pass couple of days, mostly using vinegar and WD for a quick dip deactivating delaminating solution. It quickly gets to work lifting the light surface rust into the solution...but leaving the parts in vinegar for too long to deter the deeper stuff can have a detrimental effect on the steel, i try to stick to half an hour at most. This then leaves mechanical options available, pegwood even tougher bamboo can struggle to touch deeper rust and bits of timber end up stuck in bearing holes that then need poking out. fibre glass pens work well at rubbing off rust but they scratch brass and steel and the fibres go everywhere, plastic chisel edged probes are ok but still pieces break off. Sharpened knife blades and needles....still need to careful as they scratch will scratch so i thought i would try some softer metal, titanium , bronze, brass and copper. Heres a few scrapers i made.  The copper is from a sheet copper canopy roof i replaced.. thats probably the softest, then brass from a big ol barrel lid, then bronze...this is cut from an old pre 1990s UK penny, technically its a mild bronze as apparently copper uk couns were 97% copper but a spec. list i found labeled them as bronze...then last is Titanium cut from the handle of my tweezers. The hardness order i have mostly guessed so if anyone want to correct that....feel free to.

[RichardHarris123]

Your order if hardness sound right to me. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Your order if hardness sound right to me. 

wasn't sure about the titanium at first, I like using it because it doesn't scratch like steel does , its a deceptive metal...very light but quite tough, it takes almost as much grinding effort as steel. I'm putting my mystery movement back together at the moment but as soon as the scraper blades have set I'll give then a scratch test on brass.  I need to pick your brains Rich about Leeds Uni, its the closest place to me that does construction types of degree courses.  Ideally i need structural engineering.  How far is the Uni from the train station....approximately.....any idea.

[RichardHarris123]

I've got to pop out, I'll message you soon. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

For those of you frightened of working on a hairspring....come on you know who you are .......do me a favour and just get one of these......i mean seriously, stop messing around and just get one of these...i wont tell you again.....last time.....just do it...