Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Week 37 Apr. 4-10, 2011

Last week I worked on getting the rest of the power reserve and moon phase systems in working condition. I had to make the power reserve pivot and finger, along with the spring to hold it against the cam. This meant milling out a recess in the mainplate to fit the spring under the dial side barrel bridge. After some careful planning I had the recess milled out, and the locating pin and screw hole done. I was planning to make another identical screw to the ones for the moon phase/star wheel springs so I wouldn't have another different type of screw. For some reason I forgot I made the screws 0.60mm thread not 0.50 so I ended up tapping the hole twice, oops! But not a functional problem, just an extra 20 minutes. So here is a picture of the spring. It's a kinda funny shape, but it could only fit in that location so it is what it is.


And here is the spring on the mainplate under the bridge.



Then I had to make the pivot for the power reserve finger that carries the indicating hand. It is just a small shaft that has two burnished pivots on it, and then I friction fit it onto the finger. I also tried to polish the side of the finger to reduce the friction when it slides on the cam (even though it is a slow moving part, friction never helps). Here's what the piece looks like, finger and pivot.




There is a step on the pivot for the hand to help it sit parallel with the dial. 


While I was doing this I was also tweaking the springs for the star/moon phase wheels. The beaks of the springs had to be adjusted so that the wheels jump at the correct moment and with the right amount of tension. The beak also should be polished so there is little friction and won't stop the motion of the parts. So after a bunch of filing and polishing here are the springs against the wheels.







I also put in the new post for the pivot of the moon phase wheel. The original one I milled out from the mainplate, but after I did the decoration on the real moon phase wheel, the hole was too big for the post I milled out! Instead of making a new wheel I now have a post that I can adjust the height of the wheel to sit just under the dial, so I guess it worked out better in the end.


Next was to try the moon phase system out! Here's a video which is much better than pictures. It is working exactly like I designed it, nice when a plan comes together.


After that I had to work on my click spring. I had been having a bit of trouble with them breaking. It's a very small spring since it fits under the click, and it does a lot of work. I think I had just made it too thick before and it was too much stress. So I milled out a few, and now I will test how long it will last. It seems to work much smoother now that it is thinner. What a difference 5/100ths of a millimeter can make!

I wasn't going to make just one!


Hopefully it lasts!



Once I had the click spring back in action I was ready to test the power reserve. I first tested it without the PR and I had about 270° amplitude. And when I assembled the PR and got it running again I had the same 270°. That was a good sign that the PR didn't suck the amplitude from the balance. There is still some tweaking to make it function smoothly but it worked on the wind up and down so that is sweet! I'll have some more pics when I get it all running properly.

Another thing I started making was some hands. I have to make them since all of the dimensions are not common and I would like them to look a certain way anyways. I just drew them up on the CAD program and then used the M1 to mill them out. It worked pretty good, I was kinda surprised! I only made the hour and minute hands and only the rough milling so far but here's a pic of the basic design.

They will need a bevel and to be polished and blued...


Then the next thing was to try and make some finishings on the trial dial I have. The main part was to be sandblasted, and then circular graining for the hour/minute and seconds cut-outs. Then coat it in black rhodium for a matte grey look. I had a plan of attack in my mind and it worked awesome. It looks just how I had imagined it which is always a plus. Here's a pic:


So then I had to make some indexes for the different hour/minutes. I still have to try this again to get it the way I want but it's pretty close. I also plan to have the 3, 6, 9, & 12 engraved as well. And then maybe only marks for every 5 seconds not all. But that's just a design aspect. So here it is with the hands. Only the hour/minute are the right ones, but the other ones will be similar. All the hands will be blued I think. What do you think about it? If you have any thoughts feel free to share them, feedback is always nice.

The moon phase wheel is just held on with rodico from the back for the picture. There will be a + and - for the power reserve indication as well, just didn't do it there.


After I realized I will most likely be able to finish the inside parts of the watch, I had to think about a case. I just want a stainless steel one (much cheaper) and we found (thanks to Hanne from Gravalance) a guy who hopefully can make one for me. The main reason for needing to have a case made is because I added a lot of height to the dial side of the movement which puts the winding stem way out of alignment for regular 6498 cases. So I had to work on designing the whole case and all the dimensions to make it work. It's not so easy! There are a lot of things to think about. Plus I needed to design a corrector for the moon phase wheel. Anyways it took about 2 days to think of all the parts (like glass, gaskets, screws, crown and tube, pusher for corrector) needed and dimensions. We submitted the drawings to the company and now we are waiting to hear back if it the design is ok. They said it takes about 4 weeks to make it so it should be done in time if all goes well.

Sorry for the glare in these pics, but just trying to show the designing of the case and all the dimensions/measurements.




So I hope that fixes any cravings for info on the blog, really exciting to see it all coming together. I also have to work out a strap for it as well, but I'll get to it later. One last thing I wanted to show is my bench. Watchmakers are known for being clean and organized. I get laughed at all the time because there is so much shit on my bench. But like I say "that's just how I roll". Plus I always seem to know where anything is so I find it easier this way. Of course I wouldn't have all this stuff when servicing watch, but it's too bad for the people who visit the school and see my clusterf!&# of a workbench haha!

Not sure what those drawers are for.....


If you have twitter I just started an account here if you are interested. Personally twitter is not my thing, but I'll give it a go...

3 comments:

  1. The dial looks fantastic! I think it would be interesting to have a silver power reserve hand to contrast with the dial better and stand out from the time telling hands.

    I interviewed at the Lititz Watch Technicum today and told some of the students there that they should check out your blog. They were impressed when I mentioned your work.

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  2. I love you craftmenship as usual! You certainly have a gift for what you do.

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