Hairspring vibrator?

[tmac1956]

All:

Here’s a hairspring vibrating contraption that neither I nor the seller understands.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Watch-Master-Hairspring-Vibrator-/140961546124?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d1f67f8c

The question is… into what does this thing plug? Being the old guy that I am, I recognize the end plug as either accepting an vacum tube on one end, or of plugging into an amplifier vacum tube socket. Does anyone have thoughts as to how this beast actually works?

Thanks!
tmac

[david pierce]

Tom,
If you can get that at a low price get it anyway. The stand alone would be worth it at a bargain price. It may have a microphone and if that is the case it can be fed into an amplifier or an oscilloscope. In any case you can always figure it out after you analyze it.
david

[tmac1956]

@david pierce wrote:

Tom,
If you can get that at a low price get it anyway. The stand alone would be worth it at a bargain price. It may have a microphone and if that is the case it can be fed into an amplifier or an oscilloscope. In any case you can always figure it out after you analyze it.
david

David:

This gets me to thinking (uh oh)… Why couldn’t someone build a digital contraption based upon this one, that has a tiny speaker like output device directly below the suspended hairspring. One could devise a computer interface that could pump digitally sampled test hairspring vibrations into it – highly amplified mind you. It seems to me this would work just as effectively as one of those Swiss analog devices that are SOoooo expensive – PLUS – you wouldn’t need to own and/or maintain all of those test hairsrpings, and via the software, you could tweak the sample any ol’ way you wanted. All one would need would be a library of digitized samples and one could have a huge assorment of those in order to vibrate just about any type/size of hair spring. Anyone up for a challenge? I can write the software…

Or going the other direction, just use a mic below like this one, record and digitize the suspended hair spring vibrations and analize it that way.

Thanks!
tmac

[david pierce]

Tom,
If you go to Youtube you can find a couple of old doumentaries on the Hamilton Watch Company. They were using electronic devices to vibrate hairsprings back in the 1940s.
david

[tmac1956]

@david pierce wrote:

Tom,
If you go to Youtube you can find a couple of old doumentaries on the Hamilton Watch Company. They were using electronic devices to vibrate hairsprings back in the 1940s.
david

david:

Is there anything like these units available today?

Thanks!
tmac

[david pierce]

Tom,
I would think that the companies that manufacture watches today use electronic/digital machines to determine the hairspring length. In a mass production operation the springs are probably processed without any human intervention.
david

[arutha]

As David states I would imagine that the watches are produced to known tollerances, when they are tested I would think a human will pull out any showing inaccurate time keeping and they will then probably just swith out the balance rather than pay someone to sit there adjusting to get them right. The few watchmakers I have met dont use a vibrating tool, they just measure the thickness of the hairspring and count the coils to put in a replacement. This is then checked on a watch timing machine. If the hairspring is missing altogether then you guess on the correct spring and try it on the timing machine, if the spring is too strong the watch will run way to fast etc so you would then put a thinner spring in.
I would imagine a vibrating tool would save some time but you would have to weigh up the cost against how often it would need to be used. Most bent hairsprings can be straightened out, I have now done quite a few and you would be quite suprised what can be sorted. The next time I do one I will post up some pictures.
Paul.

[rrmelo]

Hi all,

If it’s the hairspring that needs adjusting, I’ve just posted in the forum a tip on how to use a video camera to time a hairspring here:

viewtopic.php?t=682

Regards

Rod

[Author]

Posts