HAND TURNING!

 WEEK 205

Team A

Origin: Sweden, The Philippines & Taiwan

Name: Daniel, Miguel, & David

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood:

This week, we started hand turning on our 8mm lathes.

We worked on a shape making exercise turning 5 different shapes; a cylinder, cone, reverse cone, rounded edge and the shape of the balance staff pivot.

-Miguel

Team B

Origin: Japan/Switzerland & Canada

Name: Tetsu & Dean

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

This week, (6-10 March) Henrik introduced Tetsu and Dean to hour wheel fabrication.  This is a practical skill as hour wheels can become lost because they are not directly attached to the movement like other parts.  Also, the process of learning how to make hour wheels is related to other wheels in movements.  Dean took his hour wheel exam on Friday and is looking forward to learning the results next week. Tetsu will be preparing a practice hour wheel in anticipation of taking the exam as well.

Also, Tetsu and Dean worked on their respective watches registered for repair points.  These will be essential in accumulating enough points to graduate.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tetsu & Dean

Team C

Origin: Switzerland, Norway & USA

Name: Renato, David L., Francesco, Åsmund & Robert

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

Hello everyone, this week I finished repairing the detent escapement pocket watch. 

I fixed the gold spring on the detent lever that was loose and I modified a screw that was missing. Then I started finishing the movement, the ratchet and the crown wheel with a fine matt finish. It had been pretty tough to get a good result, I think, because of the old steel that had a really weird behavior. 

After that, me, Åsmund and Robert started the balance and hairspring course. We learned how to remove the hairspring, the roller table and the balance staff with different techniques.

It has been a busy and interesting week!

Have a nice weekend!

-Francesco.

Team D

Origin: Finland

Name: Xinying

Watchmaking class: Technician

Current mood:

This week I continued with hairspring practices. Kept having difficulties but also had some progress. Learned how to do dynamic poising and timing.

Xinying 

STEP 1: HAND TURNING! (DANIEL, DAVID & MIGUEL)

Daniel, David and Miguel got introduced to hand turning!

Practice hand turned brass pieces!

STEP 2: REPAIRS! (RENATO & DAVID L.)

Renato and David busy with repairing various watches as they are approaching the final part of the Fullskill course!

STEP 3: WINDING STEM! (DEAN)

Dean completed and fitted his winding stem for the vintage watch!

STEP 4: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (FRANCESCO)

Happy Birthday Francesco!

STEP 5: SCHOOL WATCH! (ÅSMUND)

between the regular course work Asmund worked on his school watch!

STEP 6: SHELLAC! (ROBERT)

Robert adding the final touch to his pallets before finalizing them!

STEP 7: DIALS! (ÅSMUND)

Asmund cleaning a dial for a future repair!

STEP 8: MAKING WHEELS! (DEAN & TETSU)

Dean engaging the dividing head prior to making his wheel!

Dean preparing the material for wheel cutting!

STEP 9: BALANCE AND HAIRSPRING! (XIN)

Xin busy working on balance and hairspring related work!

HENRIK's WORDS:

 

It was mostly cloudy and raining this week, good to be indoors! Francesco, Asmund and Robert started a new course; the balance and hairspring course! Daniel, David and Miguel continued on their tools and the path towards making winding stems! Renato and David are nearing the end of their course and have been very busy with repairing watches and also completing some old work left behind from previous courses! Tetsu and Dean learn how to make wheels and also how to make the countersinks for screw and jewel holes as well as how to polish them before going into the next course! Xin continued working on balance and hairsprings and also practiced timing watches! It was a really diverse and nice week! Have a nice weekend everyone!

BUSY!

 WEEK 204

Team A

Origin: Sweden, The Philippines & Taiwan

Name: Daniel, Miguel, & David

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood:

This week we learned how to properly service and set our 8mm Horia lathes.

Next we learned how to refresh our grinding stone by rubbing it against a special kind of gravel.

Finally we began preparing our gravers with the required angle for us to use when we start our winding stem lesson next week.

-Miguel

Team B

Origin: Japan/Switzerland & Canada

Name: Tetsu & Dean

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

This week, (28 February~03 March) after passing the first exam of Watch Technician Course, Dean & Tetsu had a rather relaxing week.

They received a surface finishing lecture from Henrik and tried it out by themselves. The techniques were “black polishing” and “frosting,” which were completely different from each other.
“Black polishing” is a process used to produce scratch-less super shiny surfaces, often seen on screw heads.
The “frosting” creates a rough surface by using sand blasting beads and making a sparkling effect, seen on bridges.
As both are very interesting and useful techniques, the guys will be practicing next week as well.

For individual projects, Dean made his pallet fork platform for jewel adjustment on top of his mandatory 7 movements and continued more repair work.

Tetsu registered his first watches for repair points and started to disassemble and inspect the condition of them.


Wish you all a nice weekend!

Dean & Tetsu

Team C

Origin: Switzerland, Norway & USA

Name: Renato, David L., Francesco, Åsmund & Robert

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

This week we worked on going over the Chronograph modules like Dubois Depras and 2894-2 chronographs. We went over the careful way to replace and attach the module onto the movement, by making sure that all of the wheels are actuated. With that we completed the chronograph course.

-Renato & David

Åsmund worked on finishing some school tasks, and then started work on finishing a pallet bridge for a personal project. (Lots of work on bevelling the edges while looking at it through a microscope.

Francesco spent a lot of time restoring/refinishing a vintage pocket watch that has a detente escapement. Not just an ordinary timepiece, some of the parts were treated to a black polish, there was some sablage done...standards befitting the movement.

Robert was working on the escapements of the school supplied movements. One of the tasks involves setting the pallet jewels in new shellac.

"What is shellac", you ask? A resin secreted by the female lac bug, it softens at approximately 120°C, and once the pallet jewels are in the wanted position, the shellac hardens when removed from the heat. There you have it, a little known piece of watchmaking: Relying on a bug secretion for a critical purpose in modern watchmaking.

-Robert

Team D

Origin: Finland

Name: Xinying

Watchmaking class: Technician

Current mood:

This week I struggled with hairsprings. It was frustrating but I also learned a lot. Hopefully next week will go more smoothly.

Xinying

STEP 1: SERVICE! (DANIEL, DAVID & MIGUEL)

On regular intervals its necessary to take apart the 8 mm watchmakers lathe to inspect bearings for wear and then clean and lubricate them, especially when they are used 8 hours a day!

Daniel, David & Miguel adjusting the spindle of the Horia lathe to have the correct endplay!

STEP 2: FINISHING! (DEAN & TETSU)

Before finishing the screw!

After finishing the screw in different angles, Dean & Tetsu learn how to black polish steel watch parts!

STEP 3: MODULAR CHRONOGRAPHS! (RENATO & DAVID L.)

Renato and David L. learn the final part of the chronograph course; how to deal with modular chronographs!

STEP 4: ANTIQUE CHRONOGRAPHS! (RENATO)

Renato brought some of his antique chronographs and we had an interesting discussion comparing them to modern chronograph systems!

STEP 5: HAND REMOVAL! (DEAN)

Everyone interested to see how this willl work out! No pressure Dean ;)

On one of Deans watches (Omega chronograph) he had to remove the hands, in this case he was using a very stable hand removal tool for the removal of potentially very tight hands!

STEP 6: RESTORATION! (FRANCESCO)

Francesco was very busy this week to restore a pocket watch!

STEP 7: VINTAGE WATCHES! (TETSU)

Tetsu submitted some nice vintage watches to repair for later!

STEP 8: HAND GRAVERS! (DAVID, DANIEL & MIGUEL)

Daniel, David and Miguel learn how to sharpen gravers by hand, of course, as always without any type of guide or fixation tools to obtain the true skill!

STEP 9: FLY-PRESS! (TETSU & ÅSMUND)

Tetsu found out that suddenly the speed regulator on one of the Schaublin 102 lathe was stuck and the speed was fixed at one speed only, upon the disassembly of the mechanism it was found that one locating pin inside the mechanism had over time dislocated, this was fixed by Tetsu and Asmund driving in a new pin with the fly-press!

HENRIK's WORDS:

 

Will keep my words to a minimum as I am running out of time. It was a really creative and interesting week but also very intensive! Have a nice weekend everyone!