New member getting started with pocket watches
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:08 am
Hello to Bob and all; This is my first post on this particular discussion board so I will share a little background. I am a Ford retiree residing in Port Huron, MI who actually started working on watches some 5 decades ago when I was 12yrs old. A local jeweler in Wayne, MI where I grew up took me under his wing for a few months and showed me some very basic things with old large pocket watches, tools and work methods. I didn't have the patience for watchmaking back then so even though I was greatly fascinated by clocks and watches I drifted away from working on them. With the advent of E-bay you no longer had to be a treasure hunter to find old pocket watches and clocks. I bought several old clocks including a couple of Resch Remember Vienna regulators, a big old 3 train Junghans beehive bracket clock and a 1975 Herschede 9-tube grandfather clock, all on E-bay. Then I bought a couple of old pocket watches, a 1930's Illinois Bunn and a 50's Hamilton 992B. As the markets crumbled in 2008 I got interested in buyng a few solid gold cased pocket watches because I saw them as good investments and very interesting to boot. Now I'm getting to the point where some of my other hobbies are becoming less attractive such as hot-rod cars and power boats as they are getting very expensive to own, take up a lot of space and require lots of labor to keep them going. My interest is shifting back to collector pocket watches and the art of watchmaking. My collection has grown from 2 watches in the early 2,000s to 16 of them made by American Waltham, Elgin National, Hampden, Illinois and several Howards (Keystone). Having all of these neat old timepieces is really fun but I feel a bit handicapped with my very amateuerish skills as far as being able to fully maintain them. I view them all as art and view myself as just their current caretaker as most of them were around for a half century before I was and with any luck they will be around long after I'm gone. I want to be able to restore these watches and clocks and become proficient as their caretaker to keep them healthy, authentic and most important learn how to not harm them in any way.
I downloaded Bob's watchmaking videos and have been watching those with great interest and have been acquiring some tools. So far I have bought almost all of the tools Bob mentioned in his videos and a few others. I am still looking for a reasonable deal on a K & D Inverto 18R staking set and a good table type demagnetizer.
One of the tools I did buy is a nicely restored L & R Master watch cleaning machine. It brings me to my first questions. It has solution jars for 3 solutions and it has a dryer bay.
First question is does anyone on the forum have a set of directions for this machine they would be willing to scan a copy of and send to me?
Second, what solutions should I buy as L & R and other mfrs list quite a few solutions.
Last question is what are reasonable cycle times in each solution?
Any other tips on how to get the best out of this machine highly appreciated, thanks in advance.
Finally I just joined the NAWCC and the big news there is the announcement of the closing of the degree programs at least at their school of horology in PA which is very sad news.
Dave
I downloaded Bob's watchmaking videos and have been watching those with great interest and have been acquiring some tools. So far I have bought almost all of the tools Bob mentioned in his videos and a few others. I am still looking for a reasonable deal on a K & D Inverto 18R staking set and a good table type demagnetizer.
One of the tools I did buy is a nicely restored L & R Master watch cleaning machine. It brings me to my first questions. It has solution jars for 3 solutions and it has a dryer bay.
First question is does anyone on the forum have a set of directions for this machine they would be willing to scan a copy of and send to me?
Second, what solutions should I buy as L & R and other mfrs list quite a few solutions.
Last question is what are reasonable cycle times in each solution?
Any other tips on how to get the best out of this machine highly appreciated, thanks in advance.
Finally I just joined the NAWCC and the big news there is the announcement of the closing of the degree programs at least at their school of horology in PA which is very sad news.
Dave