Is it advisable to place an entire fusee watch movement in a cleaning bath before disassembling it?

[GregG]

I unfortunately broke a fusee chain.  I followed the steps provided in this video (https://youtu.be/jVs5sp_ObP8?feature=shared&t=1937), and as I began to unwind, I did not feel any tension from the chain.  All of a sudden, the barrel quickly picked up all of the slack in the fusee chain, and when it hit the end, it snapped off the hook.  I realized that the watch was so gunked up that it was preventing the barrel from moving and then it eventually gave way.

So, to prevent this from ever happening again, can I place the entire movement, dirty yet assembled, into the cleaning solution to pre-clean it before disassembling?

 

[GregG]

Any takers?

[RichardHarris123]

Only just seen this, don't know why.  Not sure about the answer but I wondered the same for gunged up movements.  Can't see the harm if it's going to be fully dissembled anyway. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 8/15/2024 at 3:03 AM, GregG said:

I unfortunately broke a fusee chain.  I followed the steps provided in this video (https://youtu.be/jVs5sp_ObP8?feature=shared&t=1937), and as I began to unwind, I did not feel any tension from the chain.  All of a sudden, the barrel quickly picked up all of the slack in the fusee chain, and when it hit the end, it snapped off the hook.  I realized that the watch was so gunked up that it was preventing the barrel from moving and then it eventually gave way.

So, to prevent this from ever happening again, can I place the entire movement, dirty yet assembled, into the cleaning solution to pre-clean it before disassembling?

 

Thats something I've been doing for a long time with pin pallet movements in an USM.  I don't do it with jewelled levers for the obvious reasons that the pallet stones can potentially loosen and without the palletfork installed if the mainspring is fully wound it can suddenly give up its energy when the old oil breaks up. 

[nevenbekriev]

It depends on the nature of the cleaning solutions. If they are water based, then whole movement will not be rinsed and dried as it should and may get rusty. 

Gunked mainspring still may not clean at all if stays closed in the barrel.

If one holds the barrel with finger, then releasing the spring will be controlled and no mistakes will happen. If the barrel is stuck and will not start turning due spring gunked inside, helping it turn in the correct direction will probably release the spring.

[oldhippy]

Do no such thing. It should always be taken apart. Never clean it in an ultrasonic. Don't take this the wrong way but from what you have said I don't think you should have undertaken this in the first place. I have said many times fusee pocket watches are totally different from any other type of watch. 

[JohnR725]

On 8/14/2024 at 7:03 PM, GregG said:

So, to prevent this from ever happening again, can I place the entire movement, dirty yet assembled, into the cleaning solution to pre-clean it before disassembling?

I'm a little confused here you already broke the chain and how exactly would this prevent this from ever happening again?

23 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Only just seen this, don't know why.  Not sure about the answer but I wondered the same for gunged up movements.  Can't see the harm if it's going to be fully dissembled anyway. 

in typically modern watch repair shops they will do something which is called pre-cleaning. This is where the movement comes out of the case hands and dial are removed Callender mechanism anything that would not be good to put in the cleaning machine then the entire movement is run through the cleaning machine typically a separate machine for pre-cleaning.

then the purpose of pre-cleaning is so the watchmaker can work on a nice clean the movement. three cleaning is not a substitution for cleaning once the watch is evaluated repairs are made etc. then the entire watch would be disassembled and properly cleaned.

Plus sometimes my reading skills are lacking but why are we answering a question that was asked three months ago? I wonder what's happened in the last three months of this watch probably maybe I shouldn't ask? then related to the original watch we get no pictures of what sort of fusee watch this is. Plus fusee typically indicates vintage and a lot of people frown on running vintage some vintage watches through ultrasonic cleaning machines. For instance a lot of the early watches the gold plating is not electroplating it was done with a Mercury process and people do have concerns over the effect of ultrasonic cleaning fluids.

 

 

[oldhippy]

Pre cleaning is fine but not for something as a fusee pocket watch, it has to be taken apart first. These things must be handled with care so after taking it apart check for pivot damage wear and tear, it will cost you if something went wrong while socking it, you cannot just replace parts they are all individually made for that movement and adjusted.  These watches are made of brass and ultrasonic cleaning can and will damage the brass it can cause tiny fractures in the brass which you can't see right away but in time it cracks.  

[GregG]

9 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Pre cleaning is fine but not for something as a fusee pocket watch, it has to be taken apart first.

Then how do we approach this issue of "it's so dirty that removing a train wheel doesn't even allow the power to wind down safely" vs "it must be taken apart first"?

If I don't pre clean it, it can't be wound down. But if I don't wind it down, it can't be taken apart.

[AndyGSi]

49 minutes ago, GregG said:

Then how do we approach this issue of "it's so dirty that removing a train wheel doesn't even allow the power to wind down safely" vs "it must be taken apart first"?

If I don't pre clean it, it can't be wound down. But if I don't wind it down, it can't be taken apart.

I suppose this comes down to experience as to what you need to manually clean to gain access and let the power down.