TASTER COURSE!

 WEEK 125

Michael

Origin : Malaysia 

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Michael here, the preparation for my final exam has began!! I received 5 movements to complete under exam conditions in order to develop a systematic work sequence for the real exam as well as gathering repair points. There is nothing special other than that for now. See you next week!!

Renato & David

Origin: Zug, Zürich, Switzerland

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: After finishing the slot cutting practice pieces, I finally moved over to making the first actual watch part: a winding stem! Quite interesting, turning unhardened steel for the first time with HSS gravers. Fairly more time consuming than with tungsten carbide gravers (which we'll use later in 'real life') and leaving a finish not as nice as those. However, a great exercise in hand turning that will help handling the 8mm with a higher degree of perfection. Also interesting to work on a piece that requires so many steps and keeping the concentration required. Looking forward to finishing the stem next week and seeing how nice the surfaces will turn out! On a side note: got a very nice old school micrometer that I can measure very narrow slots with :). Renato.

This week I worked on completing the winding stem practice. Next I worked on sharpening my new gravers to a 30° angle. These gravers are really important for the future, as we will use them for hand turning. Fun fact: the smaller Arkansas stone I have is a vintage from 1922. David.

Francesco, Åsmund & Robert

Origin: Italy, Norway, USA

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood: This week I started filing the steel part for the brass truing guide. The difficulty in this tool was that I had to check for every step the 45 degree corners and if all measures are in tolerance of 0.08 mm/ 30’’ at the profile projector. After the filing I decided to start the pointed cone for the balance bridge support. After some calculation I’ve set the lathe in order to get the right slope for the cone. The tool is almost completed, I’m looking forward to learn more finishing techniques in the finishing course. See you next week. 

Francesco.

STEP 1:  TASTER COURSE! (DEAN & MICHAEL)

Dean from Canada and Michael from USA came to take the taster course!

STEP 2:  BOOKS! (RENATO)

As usual Renato brought a very nice book!

STEP 3:  MOVEMENT! (RENATO)

Another really interesting pocket  watch movement for restoration from Renato!

STEP 4:  WINDING STEM! (RENATO)

Renato in the making of his first winding stem.

He also got himself a very nice school micrometer!

STEP 5:  SQUARS & GRINDING! (DAVID)

Davids practice squares. 

David trying out his sharpening stones.

HENRIK's WORDS:

Intensive week! we had Dean from Canada and Michael from USA taking the taster course this week which was really nice! Renato started to prepare tools to make complete winding stems and started to make one complete practice winding stem, David completed his square winding stem practice pieces and prepared his sharpening stones and HSS gravers to learn the basic cuts on the 8 mm lathe next week. Michael practiced repairing and servicing several ETA movements in preparation for his final exam, and Asmund and Francesco continued hand filing on their tools which will help them prepare for the filing exam next week. Intensive week but very lively and positive, it was also really great to have both Dean and Michael for the week! Renato show us another really interesting pocket watch movement that sparked a lot of interest! Have a great weekend everyone!