Panic!

I have posted before about working on a watch my late nother owned, and that I plan to give to my niece for Xmas for her to remember her grandmother. I am pretty spotty when it comes to finding time to work on these projects, but I made great progress on this movement over the weekend, and thought I would try to carry on last night.

As a reminder of what this thing looks like, it's an ETA 2360 movement, and is quite small when laid on top of a modern ETA 2836:




Working on something this small has been a challenge, but it has honed my skills for handling parts quite a bit. I have done well so far in terms of not losing anything.....until last night that is! I have the movement assembled with the exception of the balance jewels and the balance assembly itself. Once I have those installed, I will know if my work has paid off with a functioning movement.

I was looking at the balance jewel last night, which is a 2-piece affair. The main jewel is in a brass setting, and then there is a "cap" jewel that is part of the assembly. I had the assembly in my tweezers, and was looking at it to make sure it was perfectly clean before I oiled it and put it in the movement. I then heard the dreaded "tink!" sound of the tweezers coming together, and I felt something hit me in the face.

The assembly was gone! Panic set in, and I enlisted the help of my wife (and of course the dog was interested too!) to help find this part. About 15 minutes later, we found it and I thought all was well - I was mistaken. The cap jewel had come off the assembly, and although I found the base setting the cap was still missing. Back on the floor, with about 5 different lamps plugged in plus a trouble light, and the big search was on.

Now this ladies movement is not readily available on the net, unlike some other old watches I've worked on where the entire movement is available as surplus parts from various parts suppliers. This is an old obsolete ladies movement, so not something there is a lot of lying around. If I lose this thing, I am in big trouble!

About 45 minutes later, I noticed a small pink thing on the floor about 6 feet away from where I was working.......yep, that was it! The setting piece had landed 2 feet in front of me, and the cap 6 feet behind me! I decided to pack it in for the night and let myself calm down before I get into it again.......maybe later this week.

Here is a picture of the piece that I spent the time looking for under the pencil I put there for scale......it's maybe 2mm in diameter, pale pink in colour, and very hard to find on the carpet!



When I do start working on this again, I am going to use some Rodico to help keep the parts under control. Here is another cap jewel (this time in a chaton sort of, so much bigger to handle) that I had to lubricate and then set into the movement plate - there were 5 of these in total, and using the Rodico helped me handle them without smearing the oil I had just placed on them.




All these little tricks come with experience and time at the bech. Hopefully some day I will master some of the basic techniques - until then I will keep the trouble light handy!

Cheers!

[roadcarver]

Holy cow Al.... hats off to you in being brave in working on such small and delicate parts. Loosing parts on the floor is hard enough, and hopefully you didn't loose it on carpet. That will be a b#tch to find.

I already started to panick when I lost a small screw for my watch.

Do you have a watch maker's bench or something?

[hutchman]

Hard to find on the carpet! I can hardly find it on my 21 inch monitor.

I wish I was capable of projects like that but I have a hard enough time getting all the sugar in my coffee and not on the counter.

Originally Posted by hutchman

Hard to find on the carpet! I can hardly find it on my 21 inch monitor.

I wish I was capable of projects like that but I have a hard enough time getting all the sugar in my coffee and not on the counter.

LOL! Mike - I was probably shaking that bad while I was hunting for this part!

Al, hats off, my friend. That's awesome work and I can't believe you found that tiny piece... it's got to be a little bigger than JJ's brain, right?

Once together, I'm sure it'll work and it'll be a lovely gift your neice will treasure for years. Good on ya!

Originally Posted by roadcarver

Holy cow Al.... hats off to you in being brave in working on such small and delicate parts. Loosing parts on the floor is hard enough, and hopefully you didn't loose it on carpet. That will be a b#tch to find.

I already started to panick when I lost a small screw for my watch.

Do you have a watch maker's bench or something?

Thanks Vernon - brave or crazy.......I'll tell you which it is once I'm done with this thing!

I don't have a proper bench, and that makes things more difficult no doubt. I use a serving tray, like you would serve someone breakfast in bed on, placed on top of the kitchen table. This brings the work surface up high enough that I don't have to contort my body too much to see what's going on through the loupes. Here's what it looks like with me working at it a while back:




Normally a watchmaker's bench is much higher than a normal work bench, but I have to make do with what I have for now and this set-up is close.

One of these days I may either buy or make myself a proper watchmaker's bench.....

Originally Posted by Avalon

Thanks Vernon - brave or crazy.......I'll tell you which it is once I'm done with this thing!

I don't have a proper bench, and that makes things more difficult no doubt. I use a serving tray, like you would serve someone breakfast in bed on, placed on top of the kitchen table. This brings the work surface up high enough that I don't have to contort my body too much to see what's going on through the loupes. Here's what it looks like with me working at it a while back:


Normally a watchmaker's bench is much higher than a normal work bench, but I have to make do with what I have for now and this set-up is close.

One of these days I may either buy or make myself a proper watchmaker's bench.....

If you ask Craig nicely, I'm sure he's give you one of his mini-chairs.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Atomic

If you ask Craig nicely, I'm sure he's give you one of his mini-chairs.

Great work, Al!!

[C.J.]

That's going to make one hell of a gift, pal Congrats on the time, effort and patience it takes to get it done

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Atomic

Al, hats off, my friend. That's awesome work and I can't believe you found that tiny piece... it's got to be a little bigger than JJ's brain, right?

Now come John don't exaggerate nothing could possibly be that small.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by padi56

Now come John don't exaggerate nothing could possibly be that small.

Keep that up, Padi, and you just might displace your boss (Ed)!!

[padi56]

Good luck in the project Al.

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

Keep that up, Padi, and you just might displace your boss (Ed)!!

That's only because he got on and saw this thread before I did. When I saw Johnny's post, that was the first thing I thought of.

[Calogero1]

I'm sure it will run like a charm.

I'm with Hutchman though...my hands are not meant for that.

Just changing straps put on enough scratches on my lugs. Love the fact you took on that challenge!!

Lets see it upon completion!!!


Carlo

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

That's only because he got on and saw this thread before I did. When I saw Johnny's post, that was the first thing I thought of.

Great minds Ed... great minds.

[Langnam]

Al,
I'm impressed that A.) you can do watch work and B.) you could find that jewel in the carpet. My eyes are getting to the point where I can' t really read the font on the dials anymore--even with glasses!
Big dates and big dials are a must these days.

Originally Posted by Langnam

Al,
I'm impressed that A.) you can do watch work and B.) you could find that jewel in the carpet. My eyes are getting to the point where I can' t really read the font on the dials anymore--even with glasses!
Big dates and big dials are a must these days.

Marc, do I smell a Panerai in your future?

[Langnam]

Originally Posted by Atomic

Marc, do I smell a Panerai in your future?

Pannies are starting to make sense to me now. Seriously, the GO was bought partly to stop the eyestrain. At least that's what I told the Missus.

Originally Posted by Langnam

Pannies are starting to make sense to me now. Seriously, the GO was bought partly to stop the eyestrain. At least that's what I told the Missus.

There's method to my madness.

As I'm well into the bad side of 40, even with lasik I know my days until I need reading glasses are numbered. A big watch with a simple, easily legible dial makes sense. So does manual wind as we become less active (hint, hint, Ed).

[Launch Mini]

Great post Al.
I have trouble finding me keys & wallet in the morning.

[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by padi56

Now come John don't exaggerate nothing could possibly be that small.

What would make our JJ a genius? Double the number of his braincells: 2

[amanda]

Wow thats awesome Avalon - I am guessing Vacuum Cleaner is Avalon's worst enemy!

[hutchman]

Originally Posted by amanda

Wow thats awesome Avalon - I am guessing Vacuum Cleaner is Avalon's worst enemy!

I don't know about enemies but if I ever get invited over to Al's place I'm sure not taking my shoes off! Did you see the knife next to his right foot on the floor?

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by amanda

Wow thats awesome Avalon - I am guessing Vacuum Cleaner is Avalon's worst enemy!

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Goodwatch

What would make our JJ a genius? Double the number of his braincells: 2

But Frans double zero still equals zero.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by padi56

But Frans double zero still equals zero.

That's it!! That's it!! New CEO coming up soon....very soon!!

[Prince]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

That's it!! That's it!! New CEO coming up soon....very soon!!

Peter HAS been nailing you on a continual basis, hasn't he JJ!

However, that big Bart moon oughta get me pretty far up the ladder as well.

Originally Posted by Prince

Peter HAS been nailing you on a continual basis, hasn't he JJ!

However, that big Bart moon oughta get me pretty far up the ladder as well.

Yeah but without the brilliant set ups, he'd be nowhere. LOL

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Atomic

Yeah but without the brilliant set ups, he'd be nowhere. LOL

Now that was funny, tosser!!