TRANSMISSION & THE LEGACY!

 WEEK 85

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Age: n. a.

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Another fun week working with barrels and mainsprings. Getting better with adjusting side shake and end shake. Towards end of the week started doing Flatness Check for the wheels... oh my patience i need to be. Slow is smooth,  smooth is fast. 

Pierre Aubert

Origin :Toulouse, France.

Age : 24

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: Very interesting week: I’ve had to make specific cutters before I can mill the sliding and winding pinions’ recesses. It’s the first time I have had to do something like this and I really enjoyed it. It’s getting cold, we’ve had a tiny bit of snow. I am hoping for a lot more in the upcoming weeks. Have a great weekend everyone! See you next week.

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week I both continued my caliber work and started with the hairspring module specifically a mix of theory and practical such as disassemble and reassembly. 

This was a nice combination and change of pace.

In conclusion this was a solid week

STEP 1: WHEELS & PINIONS! (TECHNICIAN COURSE)

Upon inspection of these wheels from one of Yuriy's vintage Zodiac watches, we can see the pivot with its shoulder for the above wheel is worn, and for the wheel below it has been shaped as a reversed umbrella, most likely to compensate for another error which we will find out later when learning about divisions, side-shakes, end-shakes and clearances of the gear train.

For this wheel, a guide is used to find the spot which is out of flatness, then marked and corrected at that spot.

The wheel is then placed between two anvils with holes in the Horia jeweling tool that would isolate the pinion from the wheel, and near the ink mark, corrected with wood to make it flat again. 

STEP 2: MAKING THREADS IN THE LATHE! (YURIY)

Above making the thread, below the thread.

It was for this tool the thread was made, Yuriy also learn how to turn long tapers as well as experimenting with spotting on the base of the tool, looks cool!

STEP 3: MAKING CUTTERS! (PIERRE)

Designing the cutters.

Setting up the lathe for making the cutters.

After milling and turning the cutter.

Below; hardening the cutter.

Below; Tempering the cutter.

Below cutters ready to mill:

HENRIK's WORDS:

The Technician course feels as if it has reached warp speed now 😊 Most of the barrels from last week have already been properly serviced so we started to have a look at the transmission unit, specifically the wheels and pinions from the centre or great wheel all the way to the escape pinion. Pierre keeps on progressing well with his school watch and Markus started a new course; the balance and hairspring course, learning how to restore watches with a broken balance staff, including disassembly of balance complete with extraction of broken balance staff practicing different techniques, as well as how to rivet back a new balance staff and attach the double roller including all the necessary checks as well as truing the balance in the flat. The school also had the good fortune to be passed on a legacy from a good friend of the school who passed away recently, his wish was to pass on his legacy to the school so that his watchmaking tools can continue to be used in classical watchmaking for the next generation watchmakers and technicians. Such a powerful gesture will never be forgotten! Have a great weekend everyone!

STEP 4: THE LEGACY! (KHWCC)