Frost is creeping up

 Welcome back, another week in Le Locle past. 

Jaewon is getting aquatinted with the lathe. Looks like he’s building some gym equipment. 

The junior students, Gary, Phillip, Chris and Jaewon are working hard with the machines in the school, to finish up all their tools and move on to hand turning. 

Mill man Chris

Chris is doing some experiments on the lathe, trying to see the deepest cone he can make with a graver.

The lather Gary

In the meanwhile Gary has also been putting Chris’ new furnace to work in some enamel experiments. With some trial and error he found the ideal material for the enamel base and a good temperature. Here he is trying different colours to see the end result.

Fresh mint

Here we got Louis grinding hard and having made his first balance staff!

Look at that baby

Craig, always ahead, has now moved on to timing and adjustments, the heart of horology. He started timing the balances, making adjustments to the position and clearance of the regulating pins, and performing dynamic poising to bring the timekeeping into tolerance for 5 positions and at full and half winding.

Before 

After

Cesar and Bernd have happily finished with their pivot gauges, having completed their exams this week. But out of frying pan and into the fire, for balance staffs are next!

Thank you once again for reading. Until next time.