PIMP MY TOOLS!

 WEEK 116

Alex, Michael

Origin : Taiwan, Malaysia 

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Alex was busy with his movements and accumulating his repairs points to be able to qualify for the final exams. Michael finished his polishing tool and did some plating exercise as well. It was a busy week for both of us! 

Renato & David

Origin: Zug, Zürich, Switzerland

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: I continued on the brass anvil, drilling the remaining holes on the jig borer, which also lead to some nice 'drilling art' pictures... Then learned how to use the boring head to increase the largest two holes to respective diameters. Interesting, how it must/can be empirically fine adjusted to cut precisely the desired diameter. Also interesting, how to deal with the play. Unfortunately we found out too late that two screws in it were loose, which is probably why the first hole fell out 1/10th too large. Later on I did two 1h sessions of drill extraction in the acid bath on the brass anvil, which made it turn pink due to the copper in the brass. Then I decided to do the trial and later on the real filing exam. The trial exam helped to remember certain useful tricks for the real one. I guess it went OK, we'll see :) On Friday I had the intro to the 8mm lathe and started hand turning. Several pieces to be made next week on the small lathe. Busy week again with lots of sweating in the filing exams :) (Renato)

This week I worked on pointed head nose vice. After finishing milling all the sides, I used the microscope on the milling machine to find the exact centre for each point I had to drill. Unfortunately, on the first drill; the two pieces I had glued together for the milling split apart. The reason why it came apart was because I did not shake the glue before using (the colour was see through rather than black). Due to this I had to drill each piece separately. I was so concentrated on finding the exact location for each hole with the microscope (which took hours) that I over drilled some holes to a bigger diameter. The solution for this is that I drilled the holes even bigger, and I will make new bushings on the lathe with a 0.03 larger diameter than the hole, and I will press fit the new bushings with threads already cut on the the lathe. (David)

Francesco, Åsmund & Robert

Origin: Italy, Norway, USA

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood: In addition to the continuous sawing and filing of tools to be made, there was time spent on thought and design of the portions of these tools that were open to individual options.

And some after-hours work was brought in by Francesco, a working mock-up of a portion of a movement...in cardboard...that illustrated in motion precisely the principle involved!

Mr. Korpela gave the three of us an introduction to the Schaublin 70 lathes in the classroom and just some of the capabilities of them and their attachments. He also gave us the obligatory warnings about safety, and some of the things that can occur when procedures are not followed. It's best to follow procedures!

A culture note: Most stores carry notebook and graph paper, the graph paper as expected in metric dimensions. Or is it? Expecting the graph paper to be in 5mm squares (easily scaled up or down), the majority of the sheets resembled a measurement of...4mm. The work of saboteurs!

Have a good weekend! Robert

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: N/A

STEP 1:  PIMP MY TOOLS! (MICHAEL)

Michael got creative with his polishing tripod flat levelling adjusting screws, turned and milled in the Schaublin 102 and lapis lazuli stones inserted, a tool for a king!

Black rhodium and gold plated.

STEP 2:  DRILL EXTRACTION! (RENATO)

Renato dissolving a broken drill from his brass anvil with the same solution as is used in repair work when having to dissolve broken screws in mainplates.

STEP 3:  THE LATHE! (FRANCESCO, ÅSMUND & ROBERT)

Francesco, Asmund and Robert got introduced to the Schaublin 70 lathe, here, checking and correcting the position of the brass bar after removal and installation as it can cause it to wobble.

STEP 4:  BOOKS! (RENATO)

Some nice books to read from Renato!

STEP 5:  CREATIVITY! (FRANCESCO)

Francesco got suddenly creative and came up with what looks like a functioning mechanism, at least in its concept! Later hopefully he will make it in real size for his school watch.

STEP 6:  DRILLING HOLES! (RENATO)

Renato drilling the holes in the jig borer for his brass anvil.

STEP 7:  TURNING BY HAND! (RENATO)

Renato got introduced to the 8 mm watchmakers lathe.

STEP 8:  HALE! (EVERYONE)

HENRIK's WORDS:

 

My wish was granted! it got colder! 😅. Perhaps too cold as we had a massive hailstorm that destroyed thousands of car bodies just 10 minutes away from the school! Markus had his final exam this week and finished on time, which is usually a good sign. The new Fullskill students got introduced to the Schaublin 70 lathe, Renato did his filing exam and Alex is repairing complete movements and watches in preparation for his final exam, Michael did a lot of creative work this week with his first year tool finishing including rhodium and gold plating as well as making some fancy screws for his tripod. Very creative week!! Have a great weekend everyone!