Hairspring Manipulation Practice !

[dnhb]

Don't you have anything better to do, I hear you ask.....

[HectorLooi]

Enjoy! Good luck!

[Kalanag]

I hope for a good outcome! Let’s see the result, no matter what!

Edited February 25 by Kalanag

[dnhb]

4 hours ago, Kalanag said:

I hope for a good outcome! Let’s see the result, no matter what!

Thanks for the interest! Here's the position after phase 1: the HS seems to be shellacted into the stud & I didn't want to get into removing & re-attaching it; also I couldn't move the boot on the regulator to release the HS. Hence the arrangement at the outer end of the HS shown in the photo which gets these parts out of the way.

After trying to undo the tangle around the collet for an hour or so I decided the only option would be undo the whole HS from the outer end & I'm now at the last stage of that having worked back to the final few coils around the collet.....

[dnhb]

Update: having this HS to practice on has taught me:

1. that after working for about an hour, I suffer from the equivalent of the golfer's 'Yips', those involuntary twitches which cause one to miss the 'target': in the present case that being a smooth 'bend' in the HS. Taking breaks is therefore important & doing so is also a reminder/opportunity to re-dress the tweezers which is, this practice has reminded me, time well spent

2. that I lack the degree of wrist articulation required to make vertical adjustments effectively.

What I intend to do now is to spend a little time in each session at the bench doing a little tweaking of this sacrificial HS in the hope of improving my technique as well as 'keeping my hand in' for when I have to work on a salvageable HS.

I've often wondered about making some die-jawed tweezers to facilitate HS work & I now think such a tool could ameliorate the problems caused by the 'Yips' so I hope to find time to explore that possibility.

[HectorLooi]

The secret to good hand stability is wrist and finger support. Bean bags, sand bags, wooden blocks can be used for supports.

Another secret is using very light touch tweezers. A heavy tweezer will fatigue the fine muscle fibres in the hand and cause tremors.

Caffeine also causes tremors.

The blood pressure medicine, Atenolol, has a side effect of making the hands more stable. That's why it is banned from competitive shooting. I'm not suggesting that you go out and get a prescription of Atenolol when doing hairspring work.

Except when I need to twist the hairspring, I only use one tweezer in the left hand and a bent needle in right. Grip the hairspring a little behind where you want to place a bend and use the needle to stroke and shape the bend.

To prevent tremors, I work on a slab of glass. I grip the hairspring with the tweezers and rest the tip of the tweezers on the glass. The needle tool also rests on the glass.

I'm sure everyone have their own way to do hairspring work. This is only a suggestion. Try them out and see what works for you. 

[praezis]

We have a thread where hairspring tweezers were discussed.

I cannot imagine doing hairspring adjustments without curve tweezers, but I often see „adjusted“ hairsprings in fora with a series of small kinks instead of a curve.

You should practice your skills with an intact hairspring, best of an alarm clock, make determined distortions and try to remove again. And make yourself familiar with the few rules for such adjustments.

Frank

 

[Kalanag]

2 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

To prevent tremors, I work on a slab of glass. I grip the hairspring with the tweezers and rest the tip of the tweezers on the glass. The needle tool also rests on the glass.

2 hours ago, praezis said:

I cannot imagine doing hairspring adjustments without curve tweezers

I can strongly support these two recommendations based on my own (limited) experience.

Karl

Edited February 28 by Kalanag

[dnhb]

5 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

The secret to good hand stability is wrist and finger support. Bean bags, sand bags, wooden blocks can be used for supports.

Another secret is using very light touch tweezers. A heavy tweezer will fatigue the fine muscle fibres in the hand and cause tremors.

Caffeine also causes tremors.

The blood pressure medicine, Atenolol, has a side effect of making the hands more stable. That's why it is banned from competitive shooting. I'm not suggesting that you go out and get a prescription of Atenolol when doing hairspring work.

Except when I need to twist the hairspring, I only use one tweezer in the left hand and a bent needle in right. Grip the hairspring a little behind where you want to place a bend and use the needle to stroke and shape the bend.

To prevent tremors, I work on a slab of glass. I grip the hairspring with the tweezers and rest the tip of the tweezers on the glass. The needle tool also rests on the glass.

I'm sure everyone have their own way to do hairspring work. This is only a suggestion. Try them out and see what works for you. 

Thank you for sharing your tips, Hector. I'll certainly try the slab of glass. Re wrist & finger support, my problem is not so much tremors as involuntary jerks - hence the putting analogy! I also tend to use one pair of tweezers but with an old, very fine oiler. But as I inrimated it's getting the HS to lie in one plane that I find most difficult......

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 2/25/2025 at 11:09 AM, dnhb said:

Don't you have anything better to do, I hear you ask.....

It's definitely practice I'll give you that. Maybe try something a bit bigger so you can see the changes that you make easier. With a small spring like this it's very easy to get fuddled, until you understand how your intentional bends affect it . I like to well fed before I start playing around with a spring, heading towards low blood sugar becomes apparent at magnification. I always use 2 pair of curved tweezers for straightening out twists and vertical bends. I keep my hands low on the bench so that my wrists and forearms are flat down as well. The tweezers are slid between middle and wedding finger, i find this gives me the most stability with zero shake.

[dnhb]

11 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

It's definitely practice I'll give you that. Maybe try something a bit bigger so you can see the changes that you make easier. With a small spring like this it's very easy to get fuddled, until you understand how your intentional bends affect it . I like to well fed before I start playing around with a spring, heading towards low blood sugar becomes apparent at magnification. I always use 2 pair of curved tweezers for straightening out twists and vertical bends. I keep my hands low on the bench so that my wrists and forearms are flat down as well. The tweezers are slid between middle and wedding finger, i find this gives me the most stability with zero shake.

Very helpful advice, there. Thank you.

[Neverenoughwatches]

59 minutes ago, dnhb said:

Very helpful advice, there. Thank you.

I kind of found this tweezer holding position by accident, i was looking to increase the angle of the curve on the tweezers to make the tips more upright, which is really important when correcting a twist. Otherwise a compound bend is created ( a twist at an angle other than 90° ) A really good tip from when i was learning to understand how my bending actions affected a spring; was to use a big spring, even better practice with an old worn mainspring or the central portion of it, it's basically the same thing and will behave in the same way as a hairspring, you need a small one though, it takes a lot to bend a mainspring with tweezers. 

Edited March 1 by Neverenoughwatches

[oldhippy]

I think I have more chance of becoming Porky Pig then you getting that hairspring correct. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

" th...th...th...the....thats all folks " !   

[dnhb]

On 3/1/2025 at 10:08 AM, Neverenoughwatches said:

I kind of found this tweezer holding position by accident, i was looking to increase the angle of the curve on the tweezers to make the tips more upright, which is really important when correcting a twist. Otherwise a compound bend is created ( a twist at an angle other than 90° )..... 

Yes: I'd actually realised that the contact angle could have such a complicating effect & am careful to check the angle of the tweezers before gripping the spring. In particular, I rotate the work surface so that the tangent at the point of the spring I intend to hold is pointing along my line of sight: this has helped me to correct/avoid introducing vertical divergence which I find the most annoying issue! 

[SteveF]

This is going to be my little “things to do when I’ve nothing else to do” projects. And yes, that’s a 5 pence piece!!

[dnhb]

On 4/9/2025 at 1:05 PM, SteveF said:

This is going to be my little “things to do when I’ve nothing else to do” projects. And yes, that’s a 5 pence piece!!

Good luck. Interested to hear what lessons it teaches/reinforces.....

[mikepilk]

On 4/9/2025 at 1:05 PM, SteveF said:

This is going to be my little “things to do when I’ve nothing else to do” projects. And yes, that’s a 5 pence piece!!

I thought I was getting OK at hairspring manipulation until I tried to detangle one on an Omega cal 455 - ladies automatic movement (with sweep second) just 16mm diameter (very small and fiddly movements - best avoided).  The hairspring was just 3.5mm diameter. Even with my sharpest tweezers working under the microscope I had to admit defeat and find a new balance. In the 'flat' I could correct errors, but trying to make vertical twists was beyond me. 

[Nucejoe]

1 hour ago, mikepilk said:

I thought I was getting OK at hairspring manipulation until I tried to detangle one on an Omega cal 455 - ladies automatic movement (with sweep second) just 16mm diameter (very small and fiddly movements - best avoided).  The hairspring was just 3.5mm diameter. Even with my sharpest tweezers working under the microscope I had to admit defeat and find a new balance. In the 'flat' I could correct errors, but trying to make vertical twists was beyond me. 

  mike your skill  have constantly improved from the start. 

Manipulating tiny coils is just another level of improvement, must say its painstaking. 

When you feel ready to attack the next tiny coil, be confident your dexterity  is practically on the improve  and you will get proficient at it, and come to give good advice.

Best regards.