Watchmaking at a Molecular Level

Got nothing when it comes to watchmaking, only case I open is full of beer.

Jesus that's a pretty serious bottle opener you've got there I just use the one on my key ring

There are a few ways to do this - the hard way is fully oiling the cap jewel and then setting the balance cock on top of it, not allowing it to shift at all as you install and tighten the 2 screws.

A slightly easier version of this is to first treat the cap jewel with epilame (not sure if you use it or not), then apply a very small drop of oil to the hole jewel on the side that the cap jewel goes on, and then assemble the two together. It's not enough oil to be functional, but it provides a way for more oil to be fed in with a thinned down oiler through the hole jewel - that small amount of oil will help draw more oil in. This takes some time as you have to feed very small amounts through the hole jewel, but it's less likely to end up with smeared or off center oil under the cap jewel.

Last option is an automatic oiler. Bergeon 1A is fine enough for oiling cap jewel through the hole jewel. I do have one and use it from time to time:



These do have drawbacks - not cheap to start with, the tips are fragile, and they are difficult to clean well when you change the oils inside. They take some getting used to in terms of how to adjust them to get a consistent delivery of oil, but they do make the act of oiling easier.

Cheers, Al

I don't use One-Dip personally - fumes are not good for you and I won't have a jar of it evaporating in my workspace every day. For cleaning, I use the cleaning machine - I know, a novel idea! 😉 Two things regarding cleaning that my instructor used to say continually ring in my ears:

1 - the movement will never be cleaner than it is when it comes out of the cleaning machine. In other words, any additional cleaning you may do at the bench is going to make it less clean.

2 - the movement you are working on is only as clean as your bench - that phrase really comes to mind when I see photos of watchmakers benches that are completely filthy - see it all the time. I wipe down the bench every morning before starting work, and wipe it down again through the day as needed - you should be able to eat food right off the bench it's so clean.

I have a can of One-Dip that I have opened and used some from, and the can is still nearly full. I bought it 10 years ago or more, so evaporation in a properly sealed container is not a problem if you choose to use it. The only time I clean a part at the bench is when I'm about to go run it through the cleaning machine, so I use a ground glass jar with 99% alcohol in it for small "pre-cleaning" jobs. Cleaning braking grease or excess oil out of a dirty mainspring barrel for example, but again the part immediately goes into the cleaning machine after:





For epilame, I keep the bottle in a drawer in my bench - cool, dark place. The key with that is not having the bottle open for any longer than is absolutely required. For treating the escape wheel, I use a bottle designed for this so the solution is decanted into that bottle, and the escape wheel is placed in a small plastic basket:



The bottle is inverted to treat the wheel, the basket removed, and then dried using warm air:



For treating the pallet fork jewels, I load a syringe with the solution since you only want to treat the stones, and not get any on the rest of the fork - press the fork in pith wood as shown and make a drop form coming out of the syringe needle, and use that to treat each stone:



I use the same syringe to treat the cap jewels like you are dealing with to just place a drop on them. Other than those I don't normally treat cap jewels for watches with shock absorbers on the balance.

Epilame is expensive, evaporates quickly (why you have to heat the part after as condensation will form otherwise), and as the solvent evaporates, the solution becomes stronger. When it becomes too concentrated, it can cause problems, so it has to be changed regularly, and that can get expensive if you are a hobbyist. I am currently using the old formula so the FK/BS version, so have not yet tried the newer ecologically friendly version ES/BS that uses the "EcoSolv" solvent. It's very new so I suspect I might get that one my next reorder - I'll see how it performs when the time comes I guess.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Al

Good to see something Holden staying in Australia
( even if it is a plastic case with watch parts in it ) 🤦

Man the geckos are beyond a joke, they're not native they're Asian geckos that were an introduced species and have no natural predator so they just breed and breed and breed unchecked even cats and dogs don't want to hunt them. They also destroy your electrical equipment and air conditioner by chewing on and shorting out wiring. 10 years ago I'd never seen one before in my life but its just an infestation here now, kill everyone one of them you see.

http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+a...eptiles/Geckos/Asian+House+Gecko#.WISDFrGr0nU

The geckos eat the insects..... 👍

@Stewart H have seen them that small they can get through no matter what you do.

Awesome work Jim. Great you got it running again! Is the dial or the crystal discoloured? If it's the dial, from the looks of it that may be a type of dial and printing that will stand up well to cleaning if you so desire. This is a ladies watch I serviced a number of years ago - brand name Mars running a Champ movement:



Dial was heavily discoloured:



Some movement shots:





Main issue was the cracked mainspring barrel:



Strange construction - the brass ring with the gear was a separate part to the actual drum of the barrel - not an easy part to find, but I did find it eventually. But anyway back to the dial - these old silver dials with black printing that is almost recessed into the dial can be cleaned rather aggressively, so here is a before and after shot of the Mars dial:



Customer was over the moon as she had taken it to many watchmakers over a 20 year period, and all said it could not be fixed. Feels good when you can get something working that means so much to someone. Final shot:



So if it's that sort of dial, you can try cleaning an area that can't be seen through the crystal first to see how it cleans up. These didn't tend to have lacquer on them from what I have seen, so I think it would clean up fairly well like this one did. I actually used an eraser to clean this one - one of those Staedler Mars plastic drafting erasers.

Once again - great work.

Cheers, Al