Final Exam!

Finally, after almost two years we have arrived at the final exam, this week we have been very busy preparing for it, the exam started today this morning with the theory, and the practical part of the exam is next week.

Stan also had his birthday this week, Happy Birthday Stan!

Screwdrivers, tweezers and other hand tools were prepared as well as thinking of a good strategy for the practical part of the exam. The theory was revised as well.

Wish us good luck!

Preparing a bench with communal tools.

Screwdrivers and other hand tools prepared for action.

Revising the theory one final time.

Yi-Ting preparing her tools.

Stan practicing servicing and repairing a movement.

Happy Birthday Stan!

Final week to prepare for the final exam

This week we practiced as much repairing as possible because the final exam is coming really soon, only one week left. During the practicing,  it took us some time to get familiar with all the procedures to overhaul a watch. We also retraced some repairing skills which haven't used for a while. It's getting better now, but we still worry about the issue of not enough time to finish the overhaul, and how good the quality should be to pass the exam. Hope everything will be fine for the final exam. This week we also learn how to set the hands correctly for a quartz watch. It was not difficult for the hour hand and minute hand. However, it's little bit tricky to set the second hand because the play for it is relatively big, and it's hard to align with the dail. But it's good to fresh ourselves to do something new during the stressful week.

 Got Delta 3, nice

 Found an entangled hairspring when check the movement

Fix the problem and make it normal

 What's wrong with the barrel?

Bent teeth which stop the geartrain

Hand setting tool

Two weeks away from final exam

We work like a real watchmaker now. As you see, piles of works are waiting for us. Don't panic and stay cool. We just have to get use to it and find our own pace to do quantity and quality works. Keep fighting....

Henrik check all our work one by one. Make sure everything is clean, screws are tightened, timing is good, everything functions well. If it is not good, we have to improve it until it is good.

Stan turning a  bushing to restore worn out screw thread

Prepare Epilam

Preparing for the final exam and practicing hand finishing in a snowing week

Final exam is getting closer and closer, and this week we keep on practicing to overhaul the 7 movements. Some movements still need more practice to reduce the overhaul time. Besides preparing the final exam, this week we also try some hand finishing techniques. We practiced making bevels, cutting and polishing jewel and screw sinks, and also do the frosting for the bridge and wheel. Doing hand finishing is really fun although it needs a lot of practice to make the finishing result very good. In addition, we also try to using lathe to cut the bevel for crown wheel. The result is pretty good for the first try. We hope to learn as many finishing skills as possible to enjoy the artistic parts of watchmaking.

Lots snow in this week

 Yiting is practicing polishing bevels

 Sif is using micro motor to make bevel 

 Stan is practicing making bevel for bridge by hand filing

    CJ is making the bevel for crown wheel in the Schaublin 102

Mud finishing and bluing for crown wheel

Armin Strom and start to prepare for final exam

We are going to have our final exam week at the end of February, so it's about time we start to prepare the oral practice every morning, and to train ourselves do quality service as well as quantities. Meanwhile prepare most of the tools we may use during the final exam, also for future works.

This week we are very glad to have Armin Strom team come to our school for two days specialized course, as well as sharing various ideas about finishing and decoration in watchmaking. What a wonderful experience, passionate and fun at the same time!

Claude (left) and his Armin Strom team with Henrik (right)

Hand lever from Sif, with nice polish.

Our photo studio in the school.

School watch from CJ, with classical bimetal cut balance with blue steel Breguet hairspring. Will do final finishing after final exam.

Busy week we had...

This week we had some interesting projects but also we had a bench tester (Alex) that surprisingly is from Taiwan, maybe he will continue the Taiwanese legacy here in the school in the next group, then it would be 3 groups in a row with someone from Taiwan.

The work we did this week will be better shown in pictures...

Alex the next Taiwanese legacy (Hopefully) 

Stan copying a minute jumper in the profile projector which he needs to remake 

Here's his drawing of the minuet jumper

Here we have a tiny little hair that was messing up the timing in the dial down position but no other positions, so if your timing doesn't make any sense make sure you check your incabloc! 

Stan's bridal rivet that he did this week 

Yiting was cutting a wheel for her school watch.

Let's make sure that you will get the same position back!

This is an old cannon pinion (lower one) that Yiting used as a reference, she made a smaller one from the older one that fitted better in her school watch.

Here she is finding the center distance of the cannon pinion and the wheel that she was cutting before.

Yiting at her work.

CJ making some magic for the school watch.

Sif is making some levers to be able to lift the hairspring collet higher up on the balance staff to fit it better under the bridge.