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Cleaning and Repairing

As the movement is taken down, note should be taken of any needed repairs or alterations, either in the watch or case. See that the movement is tight in the case and that the stem turns easily. Examine movement carefully with eye glass and if a Swiss bridge movement, examine the depths of the wheels, see if minute wheel pinion touches the dial, and if balance pivots have too much side shake. Try the side shake of a Swiss bridge with a pair of fine and light tweezers. See if the guard and banking are correct. In a great many Swiss watches and also English watches, the jewel pin is too small for the fork, and often it does not enter properly. Memorize these little things as you go along, and repair them in this regular order. After examining the escapement, let the mainspring down; after taking the movement out of case, remove the hands first, with a modern tool made for that purpose, that does not interfere with the dial.

Now remove dial, and notice if it fits right; if the hand arbors come in the center of the holes. Oftimes this can be corrected by bending the feet with a pair of flat pliers, so the edge of the dial will correspond with the movement and the hand arbors. Sometimes, in American watches, the screws do not reach the dial feet; alter this by turning the shoulders off in lathe, so they will go further in. If the pins (when the dial is pinned on) are too high above the plate, fill them with a little pin and soft solder, and drill or punch new holes in the proper place. When you put a new dial on a Swiss watch, where the feet do not correspond with the holes, cut off the feet of new dial and file or grind the enamel flat around the feet and grind the enamel away with an emery wheel, where the new feet are to go. Now take a piece of copper wire, long enough for both feet, and the proper thickness, put it in lathe and hollow out the ends with a graver, so it will hard-solder flat on an old piece of dial copper about three-sixteenths of an inch round. If too large, put it in the lathe by the foot and turn it off. Now have feet prepared for new dial; take a little dissolved shellac and put it on the bottom of each of the dial feet and put the feet to their places in the movement plate. Slightly moisten the places on the dial, where the new feet come, with dissolved shellac, and lay dial on these feet and see that second pivot comes properly through the dial, and that the edge of the dial corresponds with the edge of the movement plate. Now in this position let dial and movement lay over night, and in the morning the feet will be hard. Now lift your dial off carefully, turn it upside down, and bend up two brass clamps like a hair pin, but not so long, and clamp these feet on the flat part and lay this dial on a cork or piece of wood, feet up. Now put on your soft solder fluid, and blow a broad flame over it, and after the fluid has boiled you can put on your solder and blow again. Now dip it in a solution of cyanide of potassium, and wash off with soap and water, and brush dipped in clean water after the dirt is removed, Then dip it in alcohol, and dry in box-wood saw dust. The balance, of course, is removed during this process of fitting the dial. Now examine further and we find our center pivot worn and the hole in the bridge or upper plate too large. We now turn the pivot smooth with a graver, and grind with a pivot polisher, or a hand oil stone file, or pencil made of iron wire. Now clean off with pith, and polish with rouge or crocus. Now take the bridge or upper plate, and with a round face-punch in staking tool, close the hole. Now use a round broach and open the hole to its proper size, so it will fit the pivot correctly. Run this broach through, with the bridge screwed to its place, letting the broach go through the opposite hole at the same time. Now in an English watch, we may need a new bush, as the hole may have been bushed to one side and the center wheel be out of upright; but the question is, how to make the best job, so it will be strong, neat and workman like.

If you are compelled to put in a bush, or upright a hole in the center of a Swiss, English or American watch, first broach out the hole about twice its size and tap it with a fine thread. Now put in a threaded bush to fit snug; now rivet it in the staking tool, center the opposite hole in the universal head, center with a graver point and drill the bush in the lathe with a drill a shade smaller than the pivot. Now broach out in the lathe to suit the pivot and turn the bush off nicely with your slide rest.

After sharpening your cutter on an oilstone, run it over a fine emery stick to remove the burr on the cutting edge. Now, with moderate high speed, you can turn off this bush in good style. Should the endshake be too tight, lay your plate (English or full American), on a movement cup or ring, and with a wooden punch and hammer punch it outward. Treat a mainspring barrel in a similar manner when the end shake of the arbor is too tight, by laying it on a small silk spool, one end of the spool turned conically inward, so the outer edge only will touch the barrel. Strike the arbor with a horn, ivory or wooden mallet.

We oftentimes find American and English center pinions badly worn, so that when they are trued and polished up, there will be no shoulder left for the cannon pinion. When they are so badly worn as that, take a piece of steel, sometimes an old English cannon pinion (this will not have to be drilled), put it in lathe and turn a collar out of it, first preparing center pinion to receive this collar. Have this collar a little higher and a little thicker than the pivot is to be, and to go on loosely. Now soft solder it on to its place, wash clean and dry, and put the center wheel with its pinion back in the lathe and finish off with graver and oil stone, file and rouge, as before mentioned. The collar can be hardened and tempered in first-class style, by cutting a piece of binding wire through it and holding over the lamp and dipping in water or oil. Now you can clean it off by running a pointed peg-wood through it, then run over it with a fine emery stick, then lay on the bluing pan and turn to a dark chestnut color.

Take the mainspring out of the barrel, hold the arbor in the same way and revolve the barrel and you can see if it runs true. Now to true this barrel, either Swiss, English, or American, close the top or bottom hole with a round-faced punch, in a staking tool. In a Swiss, close the bottom, and in an English, the top hole. An American seldom needs this treatment. Now put barrel together and center it in universal head, and with a narrow and short cutter in slide rest open the hole that you closed to fit the arbor. When fitted, take it out and revolve it as before and our barrel will be dead true. Now in our key-winder Swiss, we find the ratchet worn, and it needs a new one. As the arbor and ratchet are one piece, we turn the ratchet about half off, edgewise. Now we turn it flatwise, and file or grind the square a little lower, so it will receive the new ratchet. This new ratchet must have a recess turned in it to fit over the part of the old ratchet. The square hole must fit the square snugly. Now, if this new ratchet is not too hard and the teeth not too fine, it will last better than the original. Now, in English watches, the square is oftentimes badly worn, or too small. In this case, draw the temper of the old square, turn it down by holding it in a step chuck by the fusee, taking off the great, or fusee wheel, and maintaining ratchet. After turning it down and squaring the pivot, cut a left-hand thread in a suitable piece of steel, and also on the old square (which, of course, is turned down in the step chuck), and fit this piece of steel on the old arbor, down to the pivot shoulder, against the stop cam. Now turn it down with a graver and square up the end in a lathe, and drill a very small hole through near the end of the square upper end. Now take and unscrew the new square and harden and temper it. Hold it over the lamp by a piece of binding wire, and dip in oil when cherry red. Now hold it in a chuck and clean it off with an emery stick. Now turn to a dark brown, screw back on, and grind and polish up. No graver is needed on this job after it is hardened and tempered. The thread need not go all the way down; half way will do, but the new square must go against the shoulder tight up to the lower round part of the square. When all done, put the little pin through, which keeps it from coming off when turned to the right. On opening a barrel observe the condition of the mainspring, and the inside of the barrel head. Often, in good watches, the inside of the barrel head is not flat, and the mainspring scrapes it. Turn this flat with a step chuck and slide rest, at high speed, and sharpen the cutter as before mentioned. Now examine the mainspring, and see if it is the proper strength and width, and examine the hook, or brace, and stop work, the teeth of the barrel, etc. Now, sometimes in American watches, the barrel touches the balance; alter this by countersinking the lower hole of the arbor in the movement plate and bending the bridge down a little in the center, with a wooden spool and wooden punch, as in endshaking the center hole in American watches and the barrel arbor. Oftentimes we find the winding pinion too shallow for the bevel wheel. Remedy this by either lowering the pinion deeper into the wheel, or the wheel into the pinion. Oftentimes, in Waltham watches of the old series, the intermediate winding wheel is too deep in the ratchet wheel. This can be corrected by the banking screw, by putting in one with a larger head. Now, very often the intermediate setting wheel is too shallow in the minute wheel. Correct this by stretching the lever where it touches the yoke, and taking off a little of the yoke where it banks for the hand setting. Remember that the yoke should be perfectly steady and firm, in turning the hands either way. The teeth of the minute wheel are often ruined when the cannon pinion is a little tight and the intermediate hand setting and minute wheels are too shallow. Never touch the arbor of the cannon pinion, but see that it is perfectly smooth and round. If the cannon pinion is too high from the plate, turn a little off from the under side. Take pinion off with a pair of brass lined pliers. If the cannon pinion is too loose on the arbor (if a stem-wind), punch it in the same place, with a punch in the staking tool, having a V shaped stump to lay the cannon pinion on, and holding it with a peg-wood, or broach, while punching it. Use a punch a little rounding. A cannon pinion should work smoothly all around. Now, in a Swiss watch with a hollow center pinion, when its arbor is too loose, lay the arbor on a small flat anvil, or steel, or brass block, in front of you, not on vise, and hold a small square file across it, and tap it with a small hammer, rolling it while you tap it. This raises a nice burr all around it. If a little too tight, take it off with an oil stone slip. This can be done when the watch is clean and running.

Now examine the click, and see that it has a loose endshake and that the point goes freely in and out of the teeth of the wheel. Sometimes the point is too blunt, and in many cases, the click spring is too strong. Click springs should have a very low temper, and a nice slender shape, as the bending they perform is very little. They should not scrape on the plate, nor hold the click down too tight, if made like some Elgin clicks.

Now the end shake of the ratchet or ratchet wheel, should have some attention. You can easily manipulate this, if the ratchet is between the plates. End shake it with the winding arbor. Now we have the stem winding wheels, etc., in proper shape. The minute wheel pinion may rub on the dial. Remedy this by grinding the dial away with an emery wheel, and oftentimes free the hour wheel the same way. If there is too much end shake, put on a spring washer, cut it square and turn the corners up. We can examine the train from the third wheel to the scape wheel; see if the holes are large, and end shake correct. In some cases in Swiss watches, where the third and center wheels are under the same bridge, you can sometimes turn the shoulder of the lower pivot back. Sometimes we find pivots too loose in their holes, and in some cases a new jewel can be put in to fit the pivot to a better advantage. In this case we must be guided by our practical experience, as in many other instances. True pinion or staff in a split chuck, flatten the old place, that you are to center with, on an oilstone slip, and center with a graver. Nine out of ten Swiss or English, and a few American pinions, can be drilled without annealing. Use oil and properly made drill. For a bow drill use a rounding point, and in an American lathe an obtuse angle point, to cut only one way. Drill pinion or staff, and if you are compelled to draw the temper, do it in the following way: Use a cap made of copper wire, holding the opposite end of staff or pinion in a pair of brass-lined flat plyers; set copper cap on and blow a sharp blaze on the cap to blue article to be drilled. Remove the color with a peg-wood and rouge; first with rouge and oil, and then with dry rouge. Never leave a pinion or staff discolored. Now, if article cannot be trued in split chuck, cement it in, but you can true five out of every ten in a No. 1 Moseley lathe, without cement. For drilling it is not necessary that the article should run dead true; but it should be dead true, in turning the pivot on and finishing. Now, in pivoting after the hole is drilled and plug is hammered in, turn your pivot to its proper shape with a graver and almost with the point. Turn pivot down to about three degrees thicker than pivot is to be. Now we have our pivot finished with a graver. Now use an iron wire, about two millimeters thick and about five inches long, flattened about one inch on one end with a file, filing crosswise, and now and then retouching with a fine file. This is done so the file lines or marks will retain the grinding powder to be used with oil. For a staff pivot, always file the corner off a little, so it will conform to the conical shoulder, and file or grind, holding the oil-stone charged file so the latter and the pivot will traverse at an acute angle. This is done to prevent the pivot from lining. Now, if down to the desired size and shape, use another such tool, made of brass or zinc and charged with rouge and oil, and polish pivot in the same manner that you grind it. At last touch it up with dry rouge and a peg-wood. Diamantine and oil or alcohol can also be used to good advantage before using the rouge. After all repairs, clean your work in the following manner: Use good benzine or gasoline and cyanide of potassium; a lump as large as a walnut to a pint of water. Keep in a glass or china cup with a cover on it. Clean the lever in benzine only and dry in the sawdust. Have an alcohol cup, with cover, plenty of clean soft water (in cold weather use warm water), and a medium soft brush, like a paint brush, about a half inch thick for the benzine. A long, three or four row brush, to use with good castile soap and water, and three, four or more pieces of brass wire made into loops or strings, by bending an eye on each wire like a fishing hook. The wire can be almost any length, from three to six inches, and from three-tenths to five-tenths mm. thick. This, with about three pints of boxwood sawdust, put through a sieve to get out the coarse particles, and a soft camel's hair brush to use dry on the work after it has been cleaned, completes the outfit for cleaning. Put a wire through the top plate, hang in the benzine, and brush it carefully with the benzine brush, principally the pivot holes. After this has been done, pick up the stem wheels, wheels and small parts, unscrew the safety pinions, and wash and clean with the wheels. Oil the thread sparingly when you put it back. String all of these small parts on a wire. Put the lower plate on with the barrel. Use a very thick wire for the balance (dip it separately), and move it about in the benzine; dry it in sawdust, dip in cyanide solution, in clear water, then in alcohol. Then move it about in the sawdust; this will clean the balance and hair spring and roller. After the plates and wheels have gone through the benzine or gasoline, dip them in the cyanide and wash with brush and water and castile soap. Dip in clean water, then in alcohol and then in sawdust. By this process, every speck of oil will be removed, and the gilding or nickle finish will not be injured, as with old fogy chalk, and a variety of powder. Sometimes the dirt in the pinion is thick and hard, and it must be removed with peg-wood; sometimes it has been oiled with linseed oil and left to dry; this can be boiled off in oil and cleaned as mentioned. To get dirt or hard gum out of the wheel teeth, make a kind of pad with stiff writing paper, draw the edge of these papers through the teeth; this will clean them nicely. When taking the cleaned parts from the sawdust, hold them with Dennison's watch papers, and brush off with a three or four row soft camel or fine goat hair brush. In setting the watch up, set the stem work up first and oil it properly. Right here, in oiling, is where it requires judgment. For the stem work use a heavier oil than for the train. Use refined clock oil for the stem wheels, as they necessarily require a heavier oil, and it also has less tendency to spread. Use watch oil in oiling the center pivots, and they, being large, should have more oil than the third, fourth and scape wheels, etc. Put the proper amount of oil on the end-stone, or cap jewel, before putting the latter to its place; also the barrel arbor. Oil the pallet faces sparingly before putting the lever to its place. Now if your balance and hair spring are true and in poise, and the pivots have their proper freedom and end shake, and the roller its proper freedom, and everything is all right throughout, your watch will move off all right. To ascertain if exactly in beat, hold a peg-wood against the teeth of the fourth wheel, and move it slightly forward, and observe the motion of the balance. If one pallet throws the balance further than the other, turn the hair spring by the collet slot, so that the lift will be equal on both pallets. When in beat, examine the escapement again; see if the balance clears the stud, cock, center wheel, etc. See if all the screws are tight, and by all means have the hair spring so the second coil will not get into the curb pins. After this the train can be oiled. The barrel pivot next to the ratchet, or ratchet wheel, should be oiled before the ratchet wheel is put on. It is well to oil the balance jewel holes after it has been put in beat, on account of dragging in dust with the pivots if they should be oiled before. After this put on the dial wheels; do not oil the minute wheel posts; see that the hour wheel has its proper end shake. In cheap watches put on a thin washer to steady the hour hand and wheel; put the dial on, and see that the second and hour wheel sockets are in the center of the holes after the dial is properly fastened. If you have any steel hands to bend, it will pay you to bend them with a pair of hot tweezers, as this will prevent breaking them. Now set your second hand with your second pendulum regulator, and regulate pendant up. Meantime you can clean the case with water, ammonia and a soft cotton rag. An old tooth brush can be used in the corners. Stiff joints in front case can be loosened up with benzine. This will take the dirt out, and the joints will work free. Cases should be cleaned, like all other repaired work. Often we find balance hole jewels entirely too thick, so they will take an unreasonably long pivot to reach through them. To remedy this, use an iron point charged with diamond powder, that fits the concave of the jewel, and then polish in the same manner with a finer grade of diamond powder, diamantine and rotten stone. Keep the jewel wet with water in grinding and polishing, and use the highest speed you can produce. Care must be taken in this operation, as it requires a little experience. Like everything else, you will find a great deal of difference in grinding a garnet or a ruby or sapphire, also in polishing them. Zinc and lead points are used in polishing with diamantine and rotten stone and water. If the above process is understood it can be quickly done. The hole can also be polished, but in some cases it will pay better to put in a new and perfect jewel.