WEEK 153
Origin: Thailand & USA,
Name: A, Kate, David & Leilani
Watchmaking class: Technician
Current mood:
The technicians have been very busy this week working on their movements. We started by fitting and adjusting cannon pinions onto each of our 7 movements, then we began our escapement lessons. We are working on correcting balance wheel endshakes and using tools we made earlier in the course for pallet fork restoration! It has been very interesting to work on parts of the escapement and to see the different iterations of systems and part styles developed over the years.
- Leilani
Team B
Origin: Japan/Switzerland & Canada
Name: Tetsu & Dean
Watchmaking class: Fullskill
Current mood:
This week, (07~11 March) went by in the blink of an eye.
Well, not quite true but at least for Dean & Tetsu, we felt that way.
Dean continued working on his steel angular rule and got it graded, then moved on to the next piece; brass wheel trueing guide.
After so much of sawing & filing steel plates, Dean found himself being at a different level when he went back to a brass tool.
Tetsu tried the ACIERA F1 milling machine to cut some practice blocks; making slots and pockets, to gain more experience.
As some were successful and others were slightly off but luckily still recoverable, Tetsu has already found the importance of the accurate set-up & planning.
A few more re-calculations and fine adjustments were required and now he is ready to continue.
Time consuming as always but there are no other ways to make things happen.
We wish you all a great weekend!
Dean & Tetsu
Team C
Origin: Switzerland, Norway & USA
Name: Renato, David, Francesco, Åsmund & Robert
Watchmaking class: Fullskill
Current mood:
Hello everyone! Finally, I’ve finished the case sleeve for an old pocket watch with a Zenith movement. It was a bit tricky with the process: First of all, I wrote out all the steps before starting, then I had some problems with the milling of the slots, so I decided to change it.
I also had to modify an old punch in order to bend in the end part of the four prongs in the staking set. The purpose of these prongs is to block the winding stem in the winding position and in the time-setting position; in a distinct fashion.
Luckily, it worked perfectly at the first attempt. I’m really happy with the result . After the brass prototype, I made a stainless steel and one hardened and tempered steel to be very elastic to see which one works better.
You can see the part working on these Instagram profiles:
@fb_watchmaking
@khwcc
See you next weekend!
Francesco.
This was a week of slow progress. Slots on practice winding stems were on the menu. First project to complete in this was grinding the shape of cutters (from blanks) to different widths for cutting slots of different widths. This grinding was accomplished free-hand on the Agathon diamond wheels. The Agathon support platform needed to be reset numerous times to complete the task, and after using the cutters, of course modifications came to mind for future trials.
The slots are cut by resting these cutters on a T-rest, holding the cutter by hand, and cutting the slots to meet dimensions. The first practice winding stem piece was dimensionally good in all aspects...the second...I'll just say it was "challenging"...but the cutters were not at fault. Glad to say they cut very well. Onward to next week!
Robert
STEP 1: BIRTHDAY! (FRANCESCO)
STEP 2: MACHINING! (FRANCESCO)
STEP 3: DESIGNING! (TETSU)
STEP 4: TOOLS! (DEAN)
STEP 5: CANNON PINIONS! (TECHNICIANS)
STEP 6: GRAVERS! (FRANCESCO)
STEP 7: MILLING! (TETSU)
STEP 8: GRAVERS! (ROBERT)
HENRIK's WORDS:
As I am running out of time I will keep this post short. Lots of things going on this week! The Technicians started a new course, the escapement course! Renato is doing really well with pivot gauges and will do his exam next week, Francesco had his birthday! Tetsu practiced milling slots with the Aciera F1 and Dean started to make the brass truing guide! Have a great weekend everyone!
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