Home Forums General Discussion Forum Hamilton 926 Tear Down Reply To: Hamilton 926 Tear Down

#55423
chris mabbott
Participant

    Hi David,

    My cleaning technique is as basic as it gets and probably frowned on by professional swiss trained watch repairers everywhere LOL
    but I don’t use alcohol except for a beer or rye & ginger, occasionally of course and not for cleaning.

    first I wash everything EXCEPT GEARS, BALANCE AND MAINSPRING in warm soapy water, being careful not to damage any springs with my toothbrush.
    I dry everything off in paper towel, then use a mini hair dryer to eliminate any moisture.
    Then I manually clean and polish the plates with a toothpick and a metal polish, then I use a cotton dolly mop to buff.
    I put the pieces in a jar with clean zippo, naphtha. I let them soak for a few hours sometimes days if I forget haha
    When I take them out of the solution, i clean any residual particles that may remain, with a toothpick, I use a tiny brush that I dip in the naphtha for spot cleaning.
    Then I remove the double sets of jewels and I clean the mating brass parts with diamanteen paste and finish with naphtha..
    I also use lint free cotton to wipe, polish etc

    The alternative is to dump the whole lot into an ultrasonic or auto cleaner, but hey, where’s the satisfaction in thaat :-)
    It’s like hand washing your car versus running it through a car wash ;-)

    The watch I’m currently working on shows signs of being put into a cleaning machine and not being properly disassembled.

    One of the main signs, IMHO is when you separate the hole and cap jewels, those brass or gold settings should be at least clean if not sparkling. But nearly all are so filthy that you can’t see the metal. And really the small drop of oil used should not cause that kind of contamination.
    I feel that some people may not even remove both jewels, instead use a force feed bergeon oiler. Just my two cents but evidence points to it..