Working At The Bench

The mornings have been so delightfully cool. It was perfect to work in my upstairs workshop as the second floor really heats up during the day.

That gas light clock has been driving me crazy to get to work on it. My workbench was a horror show with tools and stuff scattered all over. I needed to start with the heavy stuff first. I don’t have a gas light "burner tube" the clock holder will slip over. There is a slit in the back of the holder, but there is not a lot of play. I don’t need to be fracturing the old brass trying to force it open. It was a simple job to alter a gas “fitting” from a previous application. I wanted to be sure the tube was cut to the proper height to give the most illumination behind the milk glass dial. The trial showed a successful adaptation.

The original finish on the brass fame was a gold wash in a matte effect. I suppose I could clean and then buff the life out of the thing to make it nice and shiny. No… I’m going to keep the finish just as it is.

I took a break going to the “Y” and did an easy 5,000 meters on the Concept 2. The one exercise I really hate to do is the “dead bug”. You lay on your back with both arms and legs straight up. You then slowly lower the right leg and arm for a set number of reps while holding the left arm and leg up. I try to do 20 reps of each side and then ten reps of left leg and right arm and then ten reps of right leg left arm.

From the “Y” I went to the boat house. I took 0000 steel wool and rubbed down the 2^nd coat of finish on the gunwales. Wiped it down and applied the third and final coat of Polyurethane. That third coat went on real easy. I can’t do anything more on the shell till it gets turned over and we can get to work cleaning the insides.

Back home I went back to the workshop and tore into that watch movement. I was very careful as this is such an oddball product. There is no way to obtain any parts if needed.

This Waltham 7 jewel watch movement is a “14 size” which was not a big seller. According the serial number this was manufactured around 1898. I lucked out in that there was nothing missing or broken mechanically. The works were so dry….

Disassembled and ready for cleaning and polishing

Only having seven jewels it is very important to have the pivots on the wheels as smooth and shiny as possible to cut down on friction. I have a tool I made up in my first month of watchmaking school that I used to polish up the pivots. My instructor always called it a “bell metal slip”. It is a piece of brass that is filed to certain dimensions and angles. Once the main filing was done it was given a finish by doing only one pass on a fine file to give a line finish. It is these lines with abrasive compound that do the polishing. I’ve had to reface this tool many times over the years.

It felt so good to be working at the bench again. I can really get lost doing this kind of work. Once all was polished up, the parts went through the cleaning solution. I so wanted to get this back up and running today, but that was not to be. Instead I just got the mainspring and gear train installed. I reused the old mainspring. It was not “set” too badly. When testing out the gear train it should have “backlash”. You give a couple winds to the mainspring which activates the gears. They should run free and then reverse direction then the mainspring is totally unwound. Good grade watches with a fresh mainspring are pretty amazing where backlash is concerned. This poor thing needs a bit of imagination to see the backlash that is there!

Tomorrow I’ll reinstall the jewels for the balance assembly. The shellac is missing from the pallet stones and roller jewel, so I’ll need to put some fresh on those.

All the time I was working at the bench my newest fire hydrant was traveling. The scheduled delivery day in Birmingham is next Thursday. This morning it was in Reno, Nevada, and the last time I checked it was headed to Salt Lake City!

I know I sound like a broken record, but I still find it so mind boggling I can do things like track the progress of the fire hydrant delivery, send E-mail in an instant to anywhere in the world, and yes maintain an on line journal for the world to see. Life is good…..