What's the big space in this movement for?

Will come back to this hairspring at the weekend, as don't have the time or concentration in the weekday evenings, and will post some pics.

It was bad when I opened it up but Saturday, I had it looking good to me and built the movement. Being not too happy with the timegrapher results, I decided my work was never going to be good enough so called it a day. Bit of a mistake as looking back, I'm sure I can rescue it (I've been practising) as it's fine at the collet end. Just need to spend some more time. Thanks for the encouragement, guys. Wish mine had looked like the ones in those videos in the before shots!

If you have an old movement that you can afford to lose, put a couple of bends in the hairspring that best mimic the issue you have, then try to fix. Always better to practice on something that doesn't really matter.

I do wish you the best of luck with it, and given the level and quality you work to, I think you'll sort it! 😀

Thanks Geo.

So guys, am not working on this spring until the weekend but decided to take it off as it has been gnawing away at me. I think on Sunday, I threw my toys out of the pram and declared 'new hairspring' a bit prematurely.😟

This has been the most difficult hairspring work I've done. It was twisted over from about 180 degrees across from the stud and was partly crossing the next coil in so, I had to recreate the whole of the part that flares out and goes through the regulator. I had two goes at this so my final frustration is perhaps forgiveable. It's not perfect and my dog leg is not well defined but this is how it looks. I am still pretty happy with the plan view but could not fix the side elevation as that's what I find the hardest.

Three pics showing Max and Min regulation positions and just the spring. I don't see much wrong here except close to the collet (see side elevation) so be brutal. The gap to the pin varies but these are the two extremes and it is much better in the middle range (could be improved).


The collet does not appear to be completely centred above and for me, this is because it and the stud are not perpendicular to the spring. Hard to take this shot but best I could do. For me, the spring is flat, it is just the attachments that are not at 90 degrees.


OK, am open to thoughts and opinions. Now I've seen it again, am sure I overreacted. I do struggle with the out of plane adjustment.

Cheers, Chris

You're getting on fine Chris. I agree with you about the couple of minor issues, but I still think you'll get there. 😀

When I work on hairsprings, I place a sheet of white paper over a block of cork and pin the the spring to the cork with a watchmakers screwdriver through the collet. This holds the spring firmly for tweeting, and the contrast with the paper allows you to see what you are doing more easily.

From that last picture, it looks like the problem is fairly close to the collet - but it may just be the way it is sitting on the table.

I had another go and it suddenly clicked how to fix the perpendicularly. Don't know why I made such a fuss....


It is absolutely fine now, I believe, but the fourth wheel issue was not fixable, at least by me. The watch runs well with good amplitude and 0.2 to 0.5 beat error. The timegrapher is like a rolling wave with a one minute frequency so, I need to make an order with Cousins for that wheel. That means another wait as it's not worth ordering £5 worth of wheel with £25 postage. Ah well, onto something else till I build up an order.

Thanks for all the help and encouragement.!

Chris

There must be a book or some tools you need.

Good news Chris, there's nothing like a bit if perciverance to sort things out. 😀