Friday, December 8, 2023

Quiet Week


Week 49


STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop B

Students:
Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

This week Ivan and Louis took their pivot gauge exams and Louis passed! Ivan is waiting for his results.

Ivan's pivot gauge in the lathe.

Louis made his own burnishers out of AP 20 steel for various operations.




GUEST STARRING

Workshop A

Students:
Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel

    This week Workshop A learned how to glue a sapphire crystal onto a case.

Using a very thin oiler to apply the glue between the crystal and the case.
Curing the glue in the UV light box.

    This week Daniel, David and Miguel learned how to set the division and endshake for the gear train.

    Daniel also made a new bridle for his 6498 mainspring, David fixed the division and endshake on his 6498 and Miguel finished up flushing the jewels of his 7 movements.

 

COMING UP NEXT...

 

Christmas break is just around the corner!

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week!

Friday, December 1, 2023

Benchtester and Raclette!


Week 48 
 
We also had a new bench tester! Louis from Taiwan!
 
Here he is black polishing a screw.

This week we had a Raclette night!


STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:
Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

    This week Daniel, David and Miguel learned how to flatten wheels using a truing guide and how to adjust the height of the jewels in the mainplate.

Flushing the jewels on the 6498 mainplate.

    This week Miguel also made a replacement screw for the cross slide of the Schaublin 70.

The two on the left are the original screws that were on the Schaublin. The one in the center has a torn thread, which is why we needed to make a new one.
 
 This week Dunham learned how to turn winding stems.



GUEST STARRING

Workshop B  

Students:
Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

    Congratulations to Dean and Tetsu for finishing and passing their final exams!

    This week Ivan, Louis and Varun started their pivot gauge lesson. They started making their required pivot gauges.


Friday, November 24, 2023

Masterclass!

  Week 47

This week Henrik gave a masterclass on how to re-lume hands in the event that it is damaged or if someone asks for it.

 

The super luminova in a mixing bowl under UV light.
Close up of the hour hand without lume.

The hour hand after filling with super luminova paint.

The lume under UV light before final cleaning.



STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop B

Students:
Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

    This week Ivan worked on an Audemars Piguet case for a client.


    This week Dean, Faris, and Tetsu learn how to use the leak finder as well as learning how to check watches for water resistance in general. 


Dean and Tetsu also worked on their own movements for repair points.

Dean is showing Faris how the Molfres balance staff extraction machine works.



GUEST STARRING

Workshop A

Students:
Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

    This week, Daniel, David and Miguel learned how to do complete restoration of barrels. Which includes how to close and open the end shake and side shake of manual and automatic barrels. They also learned how to rivet the bridle of the mainspring. 


    This week David practiced turning a rivet from blue steel and riveting a mainspring.


The rivet made from blue steel.
The bridle riveted back onto the mainspring.

 

    This week Dunham learned to do hand turning on the 8mm lathe and how to file squares by hand.

 

 

COMING UP NEXT


Next week we have another bench tester from Taiwan!

 

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you next week!


Friday, November 17, 2023

Another Bench Test!

 Week 46

This week we had another bench tester! Sheikh Ibrahim from Singapore!

 

Here he is assembling a 6498!

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:
Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

    This week Daniel, David and Miguel continued working on oiling the winding and setting of their 7 movements and also learned how to clean and oil the barrel of manual and automatic watches.

    Daniel has been finding the best size for a minute wheel restoration, unfortunately the current wheel just a bit too big.

    Daniel also needed to make custom Horia pushers for a bridge restoration.

The new pusher
New minute wheel in brass
 

    This week Miguel also finished his barrel closing tool.

It is larger than the standard tool from Bergeon to accomodate larger watch barrels.
It was also polished to be more transparent than the standard so you could see the barrel you are working on.

Here you can see a barrel that is being oiled.
The tool is clear enough that you can see the drops of oil for lubricating from the top.

    This week Harold redid and reviewed the disassembly, cleaning and assembly of three types of Incablocs, practiced on how to fix mislocking, and worked on the movements.

    This week Dunny was very busy! He finished his Steel angle rule, polishing tripod, and pointed nose vise ready for finishing, serviced his 8mm lathe, sharpened 4 gravers and started hand turning.








GUEST STARRING

Workshop B

Students:
Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

    This week, Varun made a winding stem for a vintage LeCoultre movement and also continued working on his polishing tripod.

    This week Faris started learning about balance staff and hairsprings.

    This week Dean worked on making a hairspring collet for a vintage Rolex movement.  This required the drilling of the pallet staff hole to 0.2 mm and the hairspring hole to 0.15 mm.

 

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you next week!