My first disassemble and reassemble

[gary drainville]

Well I stripped down a Waltham Equity 16 size 7 jewel and put it back together. It runs for a bit then stops. And when I pull the crown to set the hands I can hear that the cogs are not completely engaged. So, I’m going to strip it down again reassemble, use a bit of oil. Lots of fun for sure! A few observations during this whole process:

1. Take pictures and come up with a better system of accounting for what order each part comes off – at least until I’m familiar with all the parts.
2. Watch parts do go flying out from tweezers.
3. I need a far better light!
4. Although I have a 10x loop, a 3x would be handy.
5. I can never have enough trays.

Gary

[stevefitzwater]

Gary, here is a video of a Waltham being taken apart and reassembled, it is a 3 part video, the keyless work is similar to yours, maybe that will help with your keyless works problem. This is from the Watch Repair Channel on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h80cbc5MsT4

As far as a loop, I find I am using my 3.5x the most, and the 10x only when checking the condition of pivots or jewels, the working distance of the 3.5x is around 6 inches, where as the 10x is under two inches and I find it very hard to work on the watch that close. I am going to add a couple loops in between just to try them out, they are not too expensive.

The tweezers pingin those parts… try a lighter grip, I try to use as little pressure on the tweezers as possible, I find myself dropping parts a lot now because I am using so little pressure, which is better then pinging a screw off into the virtual black hole that is the floor.

Hope this helps a little!

[gary drainville]

Thanks Steve, the YouTube link is very helpful – especially for the keyless mechanism. Your right, the 10X loop has a way too close of a working distance and for the pressure with the tweezers I guess “less is more” works with that. So my watch appears to run okay as long as I leave it in one position, no problem because when I strip it down tonight I’m going to oil it and pay careful attention to the assembly. The bezel has now fallen out, however, I did see some glue at Otto Frei that’ll do the trick.

Gary

[stevefitzwater]

pay attention to the pivots, and jewels, if you can not see a well defined hole that or a smooth pivot, that could be the issue… it was on one of my Waltham model 1883

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1653

[gary drainville]

Thank you Steve, I’ll be stripping it down again so I’ll do just that. The watch has been running for quite a few hours now but when it is picked up and moved around I can see struggling a bit to keep going.

@SteveFitzwater wrote:

pay attention to the pivots, and jewels, if you can not see a well defined hole that or a smooth pivot, that could be the issue… it was on one of my Waltham model 1883

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1653

[gary drainville]

Thank you Steve – this is a great thread with some good points I can take away.

Gary

@SteveFitzwater wrote:

pay attention to the pivots, and jewels, if you can not see a well defined hole that or a smooth pivot, that could be the issue… it was on one of my Waltham model 1883

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1653

[willofiam]

Hey Gary, sounds like your having fun.
When you say @Gary Drainville wrote:

And when I pull the crown to set the hands I can hear that the cogs are not completely engaged.

It could be the sleeve needs adjusting, just a guess (Bob has a video on that subject). As far as it running and stopping it could be many things. When you disassemble, closely check everything as Steve is suggesting, pivots, end shake, side shake (I would lean towards this), guard pin, hairspring, ect… Do you have any books on watch repair? I know u-tube has some great videos out there but they can sometimes leave out important info. I have found that reading an assortment of books fills in any gaps left out from videos when trying to decipher issues and put together good repair techniques. Have a great day, William

[gary drainville]

Thanks for the tips William. I have bought a few books and I’m going through all the resources online, there certainly is no lack of information out there. I’m going to take a look at the sleeve – and I’ll find the video that Bob has on the subject, thanks for that. Since this watch ran well before I got my hands on it that all I need to do is ensure that I’m doing everything right and I should get it back together no problem and running well. However, what do you by side shake, etc.?

Gary

@willofiam wrote:

Hey Gary, sounds like your having fun.
When you say @Gary Drainville wrote:

And when I pull the crown to set the hands I can hear that the cogs are not completely engaged.

It could be the sleeve needs adjusting, just a guess (Bob has a video on that subject). As far as it running and stopping it could be many things. When you disassemble, closely check everything as Steve is suggesting, pivots, end shake, side shake (I would lean towards this), guard pin, hairspring, ect… Do you have any books on watch repair? I know u-tube has some great videos out there but they can sometimes leave out important info. I have found that reading an assortment of books fills in any gaps left out from videos when trying to decipher issues and put together good repair techniques. Have a great day, William

[willofiam]

Hey Gary, side and end shake should be in your books, basically looking at end shake will show if the wheel arbors or pivot shoulders are free of the plates, if not then they can bind, side shake will show pivots with enough space to turn freely AND if there happens to be a worn pivot hole. I see you have a 7 jewel movement, from my experience I have found worn pivot holes that would require a bushing. I have also come across a watch that had the wrong jewel put in. It was at the lower side of the balance (it was too big) the watch ran in most positions yet struggled to get its full oscillation back, AND would stop when I had the balance directly above perpendicular to the lever, what it was doing was allowing the lower side of the balance to “fall in” far enough for the guard pin to rub the roller table and slow or stop the watch, the jewel had to be replaced with the correct size, anyway, checking side shake would have told that story alot sooner without all the embellishments to the plot. hope that helps, William

[stevefitzwater]

Well I need to take my own advice on the tweezers, I finally got my watchmakers desk up this weekend, and I had a small piece of powder coated steel that I placed my L&R on right next to my work area.. while I was working on the keyless works, I pinged off a screw which landed on the powder coated steel (which is black) and went into deep orbit from there into some black hole in another universe. Well that steel is going to be replaced, the color is bad and it seems to increase the speed of a little screw as it skips across it.

It was the first time in a couple weeks that I had worked on a watch and I got a bit heavy on the tweezers.. so now I will be hunting for it or I will need to find a parts movement to steal a screw from it..

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