Getting rusty after summer

After a great holiday we were back, refreshed and ready to go the next stage.  Henrik had a great time for his teaching on summer restoration course. 

Our skills needed polishing up slightly but we were soon on our way learning more practical and efficient methods to make windings stems. It will take only one third of the time to make winding stems compared to the traditional method. The new method is good for us to save lots time and has the better quality for winding stems.

A total of 6 watchmakers participated in the one week restoration course. The students tried out various restoration and part making techniques, machines, heat treatment, gold plating as well as other things, Henrik’s brother Kaj who is also a watchmaker joined in to assist Henrik. Below are some pictures from the course. 

Kaj showing students the various uses of a profile projector.

Learning how to make Breguet teeth on winding and sliding pinions.

Setup of tool and machine prior to cutting the Breguet teeth on a winding pinion.

Practicing turning with the Schaublin 70 lathe.

Bench work, Student testing spring tension.

Practicing of annealing, hardening and tempering of springs. 

The students also tried out to gold-plate some test bridges, this is before the gold plating.

Gold plating.

Students inspecting the gold platig. 

The bridges were red gold (5N) plated.

Som more practicing of turning.

The students also tried out making Geneva stripes.

The Jig-Boring machine was the last machine they tried out.

Group photo of students participating in the course. Everyone seemed to have a great time learning a lot in a short time.

This week we also learned how to use the jig boring machine to make a precise hole in the precise locaton. The jig boring machine is a really an amazing machine, we can do very precise work on this machine. The precision is even beyond what we would need as watchmakers. This is really a dream machine to own.

Any tools that are left also needs to be completed as soon as possible so that we can then learn finishing techniques. 

Stan milling one of his tools.