I spent a bit of time in the workshop today having a practice at making my first watch Balance Staff.
This photograph album and video are relating to my first “practice” of making a Balance Staff out of 1.4mm Blue Steel on my Vintage Telco Watchmakers Lathe.
It is time to check out some of the parts before assembly, as the movement has no movement in the train wheels, etc when it was being deconstructed.
First I take out the bad dents in the dust Ring then take out the Dents in Main Plate.
Next, I demagnetise the Setting lever with my line free machine.
Then I replace the Balance Wheel minus its hairspring to check the pivots correctly, and the play in the wheel confirmed the top pivot is broken. Strip off Balance cock and Wheel.
Now to replace the Winding and Keyless Work and check it operates correctly, which it does, but note to self, when you tighten the screw on the Keyless Work make sure that you cannot see the Setting screw head. If the head can be seen the large washer will clamp down on the Keyless Work and stop it working correctly.
Next, refit all the train wheels and make sure they run freely, as they were jammed when stripping down movement. Now after a good clean and oiling, they are running fine.
Now due to the Barrel Arbor only slipping into the Barrel as the Mainspring is attached to the Barrel lid, it is easy to slide the Barrel under the Centre Wheel and then slide back in the Arbor. Refit the Barrel Bridge and check the winding and setting work. Watch the sliding Pinion from the dial side, slide in and out freely, also due to no Pallet fork fitted the train wheels also run freely.
Replacing the Pallet fork and bridge is the last item and can do on this movement until I get or make a replacement Balance shaft.
A badly damaged dial on this movement which will have to be
scrapped, I have spare dials to use as a replacement. Only two hands on this
movement (Hour and Minute) removed. Dial removed from movement and measured (Dial
Size: 42mm) and put in scrap box!
Dial Washer, Hour Hand, Minute Wheel and Cannon Pinion
removed. Remove the badly dented dust ring then measure movement size (41mm)
and Movement height (6.5mm).
Remove complete balance (Balance wheel, Hairspring, Balance
Cock a Regulator), Remove Hairspring from Balance Wheel and check it.
Try to let down Mainspring, but winding stem will not move,
so while keeping slight pressure on the stem I remove the Click, still no
movement from mainspring Barrel! Remove Ratchet and Crown Wheels and then the
Barrel Bridge. Pull out Barrel Arbor, on this model of Waltham the Mainspring
end is attached to Barrel lid so Arbor just slides out. Now I remove the
complete Barrel.
Try to move Train Wheels and cannot move them, Remove Pallet
Bridge and Fork, try again and still no movement in train wheels!
Remove the Train Bridge, then the Train Wheels (Centre, Third,
Second (Fourth) and Escape Wheels. Then remove the Keyless Work and setting
lever.
Turn over Main Plate to remove the screw for the Winding
Work, lift out the intermediate wheel and Winding Work drops out from Main
Plate.
So the deconstruction is completed, so now to clean all the
parts and check what faults to correct before assemble. (See assembly
photograph album).
After cleaning all the watch movement the parts it’s time to assemble the movement as far as a can before I need parts.
First I have to take out the dent in the mainplate, which I did successfully. Then I found a screw to replace the missing one in the mainplate for the Keyless work Setting Lever.
Fit the Winding and Keyless work. Then fit mainspring barrel and Bridge and this as far as I can go today, as I now need to find parts.
Having given all the movement parts a good clean, time to reassemble as far as I can today, as I will need plenty of replacement parts to completely finish the job!
First I assemble just the Escape Wheel and Train Bridge, this to check play and movement, as when I deconstructed the movement the Escape Wheel was really stuck in Train Bridge.
The Escape Wheel is moving fine, so I disassemble and this time replace all the train Wheels, (Escape, Second, Third, Centre) and Train Bridge, once again checking play and clearance. All the wheels are moving freely, so disassemble again and start the assembly.
Replace the Keyless Work, Then the Winding and setting work, Mainspring Barrel and Bridge, Crown, Ratchet Wheels and Click. Time to replace all the Train Wheels again (Escape, Second, Third, Centre) and the Train Bridge.
Once this completed I test the movement by winding up the mainspring a little with the Winding Stem, and hey presto the wheels are moving nicely. At this point in the deconstruction, I tried to wind up the mainspring, but nothing moved!
This is as far as I can go with the assembly, so start checking out what I need to complete the job.
Parts to rectify are 1. one of the Pallet Jewels is loose, needs to be reset with shellac. 2. Balance Wheel shaft has broken Pivot, so needs to be replaced. 3. Impulse Roller Jewel is Broken and needs replacing. 4. Complete Hairspring is missing, so need a Hairspring and Collet and Stud. 5. Hairspring Stud screw is missing, so need a replacement.
Well, another busy day in the workshop as I stripped down the last of my "Ebay" won Model 1908 Waltham pocket watches. This being the fourth movement (Movement No: 22863520) and was manufactured in 1919, and is a higher grade (625) 17Jewels, but as I deconstructed the movement I found a lot of issues to rectify!
Model 1908 Waltham 17 Jewels Movement 22863520 Deconstruction
I had to strip down the movement in a slightly different way to my normal routine.
On the Dial side, its normal routine set the hands at 12o/c then remove all hands, unscrew the dial from movement and remove dial. Measure the dial (42mm) then remove Hour, Minute Wheels (No Dial washer) Remove Cannon Pinion.
On the movement side after measuring the movement (41.5mm), first I remove the complete balance, the top pivot of the balance wheel broken and the hairspring is missing along with the Hairspring stud screw, plus on closer inspection, the impulse roller jewel is broken off and missing.
Could not let down the mainspring by keeping the click out of way, as the mainspring was FULLY wound and could not move the barrel, so while holding the stem, I remove the click and slowly let down the mainspring.
Now I remove the Pallet Bridge and Pallet fork, then I replace the click so I could wind up the mainspring a bit. Mainspring wound up, but no movement in the train wheels!
Next, I remove the Train Bridge, and the Escape wheel is stuck in the bridge, carefully remove Escape wheel from Train Bridge, on closer inspection both pinion's on Escape wheel look fine, but I did notice that the Escape wheel has slipped on its shaft.
So now back to the Click, Crown, and Ratchet Wheels are removed, along with the Mainspring barrel, after removing the Centre Wheel first. The rest of the train is removed (Third, Second (Fourth) Wheels.
Next, remove the Keyless Work; I do notice that on this Waltham Model 1908 “Grade 625” movement it is on the right-hand side of the stem, where on the Waltham Model 1908 “Grade 610” movements it’s on the left-hand side of the stem. While removing the Keyless I notice the setting lever spring was magnetised (I have demagnetised that).
Lastly remove the winding, sliding pinions, and the movement stem, by unscrewing the screw on the dial side of the mainplate.
Check the Jewels in the Mainplate and Bridges, find the centre wheel jewel in the train bridge cracked, so needs replacing. The deconstruction now completed its time to clean all the parts and check again for any more faults.
