UNEXPECTED VISITOR!

Friday, March 6, 2020

WEEK 48

James Punshon, Pierre Aubert, Jayne Zhuo

Origin : Sydney, Australia. Toulouse, France. Singapore.

Age : 38

Watchmaking class: Technician Course

Current mood: Feeling accomplished! Hi everybody, James here! The three of us have had a busy week with the introduction of the new module, The Escapement. After much mind-warping theoretical content, we've all dived straight into adjusting pallets and staffs. Have mercy!

Check back in on us regularly to ensure we maintain our sanity!

Markus McDonald 

Origin : Stockholm Sweden 

Age : 21

Watchmaking class: 2 years Fullskill Program

Current mood : This week was dense as I had too covered a lot of things for my start with the pivot gauge. This was an intense experience as although the pivot gauge had less elements than the winding stem it required the use of a lot of tools the schaublin late, the staking set and a alternative to my  bench lathe. The most trying part which pushed my endurance was the constant need to refresh my graver for the cutting as their was a risk of burnishing when the graver got blunted and when added up all these things made the week intense. In conclusion although this week was intense I found it an incredible learning experience which pushed and expanded my micro mechanics and I know will benefit me in the long run. 

Michael

Origin : Malaysia

Age : 28

Watchmaking class : 2 years Fullskill Program

Current Mood : After practicing on my practice piece, I started to mill the actual piece. Managed to convert my practice piece into a screw stand for those practice screws i made, without going to waste. Made a big mistake, I did not take into account the length of the drilling bits, the larger the diameter the longer they are! My drilling went too deep instead. Have to improvise for the error. However, definitely looking forward for next week.

Alex

Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 

Age : 26

Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program

Current mood: It'a been a nice week up until an hour ago when I accidentally dropped Henrik's very rare and expensive micro-meter. My heart stopped as it kissed the cold and lifeless floor. Thankfully nothing is wrong except the shift of the starting position. Anyway, made a second stand for my slots pieces, tried the pantograph, and has started practicing on winding stem. Overall a good week!! Would be better if the drop never happened.

STEP 1: FANCY STANDS FOR NOT SO FANCY PIECES (ALEX)

STEP 2: DRILLING A 0.15MM HOLE FOR A UNIVERSAL PALLET FORK STAFF PUSHER (PIERRE)

 A 0.15mm hole cannot be drilled with a regular 3 jaw chuck. Why? You won't get any feel when drilling. What you need to do is to drill by hand. For that purpose, I had to turn a brass holder to be  held in the regular chuck. My 0.15mm regular steel drill was glued to pegwood (super light in order to allow me to feel the drill!). 

Making center hole 

Drilling. 

The hole! 

 The pegwood is then inserted in the holder and slides nicely in order me to drill. N.B: I had the microscope set up above my work in order to see what I was doing..! 

 After drilling the hole, I hardened and tempered the piece. I did this before turning the pusher because the hole was going to be in a very thin part of the pusher that could have melted or bent had the hardening been done after the turning of the final pusher. 

The finished pusher for pallet staffs.

 The final turned pusher in action!

HENRIK's WORDS:

A bit of a hectic week but the students are progressing well, I got some time with my projects too! But the biggest surprise for me this week was a very nice visit from someone you most likely already have heard of, I will get the opportunity to be interviewed by him with the students! But I will tell more when it gets more serious, in the meantime stay tuned! see you next week!