Finally, A Proper Working Environment

[colinh]

I started taking my watch apart in the kitchen, because that's where I'd started unpacking my package of tools . Then it got late and so I moved to my bedroom. In bed. How many of you take watches apart in bed? I don't recommend it. Then I moved to my desk, which was somewhat cluttered.

At this point I noticed that I had no hour wheel! It hadn't got knocked or jumped away—I'd never even seen it! I had no recollection of it at all, and it wasn't on any of my photos :( I considered the possibility that there had never been an hour wheel, but discarded that hypothesis pretty quickly.

How can one loose an hour wheel? They're enormous! (compared to the sub millimeter screws anyway). I didn't even know where to look :(

Anyway, it was at this point that I decided I really needed to tidy up my desk. And floor. The whole flat, in fact.

Eventually, I remembered that there had been a suspicious sound at the beginning when I'd turned the movement over. I'd looked down and saw the little golden dial washer (?). I remember being suspicious of its capability of making just that sort of impact noise... not suspicious enough though.

A quick search with a bright torch turned up the little bugger, hiding innocently enough under the desk. :) Life can go on again.

 

 

Camera quality seems to be getting worse and worse. Now I need to disassemble my **BLEEP** phone too :(

[Mark]

You have room for a coffee cup! Now that is pure luxury :D

 

Anyway - looks like a nice environment to work in - but if you have not got a lamp then you should consider using one as you could put strain on your eyes :)

[colinh]

:)

 

Yes the lamp is one of those ring lamps, with a big magnifying glass in the middle. It's just off the top of the photo.

[Mark]

Good. You have to take care of your eyes :)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bobm12]

I don't know, but I would fence away -- maybe with a removable piece of cardboard -- the osciloscope and keyboard. I you don't use the microscope when working on watches, I'll do that too to minimize hiding places.

 

In my experiece, every hole, crevise, crack, you name it, is a good hiding place for the minute parts. I just lost  the bottom half of a barrel just because the spring jumped from my fingers!!! I haven't found it for 3 days, can you believe that! Last time I lost a big part, I found it inside some clothes I had near by! How they travel so far and get in those places, go figure!

 

Just an opinion but as it is, it looks really nice and with enough room to be a confortable corner. I wouldn't ask for a better place myself. Good job.

 

By the way, how does the magnifying glass/lamp combination works for you? I was about to test something similar myself.

Edited September 26, 2014 by bobm12

[Geo]

I'm looking forward to more posts Colin, now that you are well organised.

[PadraicB]

Going to need some height though, unless the desk is already raised up? It took me about 2 minutes today using the 4x loupe that arrived this morning, to realise that bending over anything to keep it at the magic in-focus distance on my desk will cripple my neck muscles in short order. Luckily, the packaging box was a good height!

 

That said - I am just going to have to do something about a work station where there's not a 6-8 inch drop to the rest of my desk followed by a random bounce to the floor... At a minimum, I've going to use some cardboard to create a 6 inch "fence" around this box to hopefully narrow the possible trajectories of screws. No hope there if they decide to have a good go at reaching the moon though :)

[colinh]

The battery is flat :(

[Geo]

Hmmm, if you wind it up, would that be revolting?

[colinh]

The magnifying glass lamp is only something like x2. I actually use the stereo microscope mostly, except when doing screws. Then I use a jeweler's loup.

 

My chair goes really far down, so the desk height is ok.

[colinh]

I guess so. After a couple of revolutions my automatics seem to revolt spontaneously.