Broken centre wheel pivot - a very newbie accident!

[Bill2024]

I just wanted to share this in case it helps someone else not to be so dumb. I had just reassembled my test movement (st 3620) and put it on the timegrapher. It was out of beat so I thought I’d try and adjust it while it was on the timegrapher.

The movement was not in a holder but mounted as seen in the picture. To be honest that way has never felt particularly secure but it’s OK if your pushing on the movement I guess. 

Long story short, it pinged out of the microphone holder and hit the bench. No problem I thought, it’s still running. The I noticed the cannon pinion on the bench as well . Whe the movement pinged out of the holder the cannon pinion must have hit the metal and sheared off. 

So the moral of this sorry saga I guess is to be more careful adjusting the movement on the timegrapher and use a movement holder.

I think I know the answer, but is there anything I can do about this?  I guess it doesn’t really matter as this movement is not destined to become a watch; but it is just very very annoying!

Thanks, Bill

[AndyGSi]

There are numerous posts on the forum about not using a holder and placing it directly on the microphone as intended.

Not sure how you've put enough pressure on the movement to get it to ping
out as should only need the lightest of pressure to make the adjustment.

Edit (Phone rang and clicked save)

Was going to add what are you using to move the lever with and have you
thought about holding the movement while you're making the adjustments.

Edited Monday at 11:16 AM by AndyGSi

[Bill2024]

19 minutes ago, AndyGSi said:

There are numerous posts on the forum about not using a holder and placing it directly on the microphone as intended.

Not sure how you've put enough pressure on the movement to get it to ping
out as should only need the lightest of pressure to make the adjustment.

Edit (Phone rang and clicked save)

Was going to add what are you using to move the lever with and have you
thought about holding the movement while you're making the adjustments.

To make the adjustment I was just using a pointed plastic stick. The regulator arm does seem to need more than a little pressure to move it; gentle pressure does not move it and then it suddenly jumps too far, so I was using lots of small pushes to try and move it a little bit. It’s also possible I didn’t have it seated correctly in the microphone I guess.  

[watchweasol]

A dangerous scenario, use a movement holder or hold in your hand when making adjustments, preferably the movement holder.

[Bill2024]

2 hours ago, watchweasol said:

A dangerous scenario, use a movement holder or hold in your hand when making adjustments, preferably the movement holder.

Yes I will. Honestly I don’t know what I was thinking (or not thinking). On other occasions I have always removed the movement from the timegrapher when making adjustments.

I tried it this way because I saw someone doing it online and it seemed like a good idea; turns out not all Internet ideas are good ones - who knew?

[mbwatch]

Not to kick you while you are down, but you should check the center wheel jewel in that mainplate too. If the arbor sheared off in the cannon pinion, there is a very high chance it cracked the jewel on its way out. And if you do make an effort to fix this one you'll need more tools.

[Bill2024]

1 hour ago, mbwatch said:

Not to kick you while you are down, but you should check the center wheel jewel in that mainplate too. If the arbor sheared off in the cannon pinion, there is a very high chance it cracked the jewel on its way out. And if you do make an effort to fix this one you'll need more tools.

Ah yes you make a good point. Just looking at the jewel around the sheared off pivot, while it’s still assembled, it looks OK but I’ll strip it down and take a proper look. 

[JohnR725]

22 hours ago, Bill2024 said:

To be honest that way has never felt particularly secure but it’s OK if your pushing on the movement I guess.

yes that is actually the way you're supposed to hold the watch on the holder.

something that I've often wondered about was the Chinese loosely cloned a witschi timing machine. Then they sort of cloned the microphone but that outer a notch in the metal isn't very good and it's come up before on the group yes watches have a habit of popping out. So yes it is a problem but how is wondered why they didn't do a better job of cloning and a while back I got an answer. This is because when which she made their first version of the watch expert timing machine microphone has a really pathetic a notch in the metal just like the Chinese. Where later versions it's at least twice as deep and is extremely good at holding a watch movement. So it looks like a witschi grasp the problem and fixed it at all the later generations of their microphone.

 

21 hours ago, AndyGSi said:

Was going to add what are you using to move the lever with and have you
thought about holding the movement while you're making the adjustments.

then yes it's an outstanding idea to always hold onto the watch when you're adjusting it just in case.