I have a question on the L&R cleaning machine how long or how many minutes is enough for the cleaning and rinsing cycles..

I have always used a ultronsoinc cleaner and only used the l&r machine for drying parts..There was a couple of L&r cleaning machines in a watchmakers estate i bought ,,I thought i might give one of them a try on some watches i have to service...

So how long do i need to leave them in the L&r cleaner and do you use foward or reverse..

Samie,
Ask the company. They're still in business.
http://www.lrultrasonics.com/contact.html
Brian C.

Sammie, i have one and use it a fair bit.I put it in forward and run it in the first jar the cleaner for about 3 mins, then first rinse about 2 mins, each time i bring the basket out of the liquid and spin it in forward or reverse to shake the excess liquid off.Then in the last rinse for a few minutes and spin excess off then in the heater.This method has worked for me well.I prefer this machine over the ultrasonic for most work.

Thanks kevin & Brian i cleaned a couple of watches yesterday with a L&r master machine ..i ran the cleaning cycle 8 minutes and 5 minutes on the 2 rinse cycles it done a good job...Thanks brian for the link to the company site....A old watchmaker i know will not use anything else but these for cleaning watches and tells me not to use the ultrasonic cleaners ,,myself i like the ultrasonic cleaners but have been told that they will damange jewels in some of the older pocket watches..

Hi Samie,
I'm with your watchmaker. I will only use the L&R 3 jar cleaner. I leave my watches in the cleaner for about 12 minutes, reversing the spin now and then. I leave the watches in each rinse for about 10 minutes, reversing now and then. This may be a little long but that's what I'm use to.
I mostly use my ultrasonic tank for watch cases.
Brian C.

Samie,
I have been using the L&R machines for over 10 years. I started out with ultrasonic but after 6 months to a year of everyday use I was having a problem with the roller and pallet jewels becoming loose on the cleaned watches. The ultrasonic sound waves were breaking up the shellac on these jewels and it took almost a year on some models to verify this. If a person only stores the watches and winds them once a month it may not be a problem.

I have 4 of the machines and have some parts if you need them. Mine have a auto-reverse that automatically reverses the basket and I run a 10 minute clean and 7 minute rinse and drying cycle.
Another way of looking at it is " If it worked for over 50 years" something was done right.

Thanks jim for the offer on the parts,,i tried this one beacuse it looked to be in good condition..There was 2 master machines in the parts and tools they dont have the auto-reverse but work okay...I too have had a few problems with the pallet stones getting loose but had not thought about the ultarsonic causing the problem..For some time i have been cleaning the pallet fork with a soft brush to keep the stones from getting loose ...So far i have cleaned 4 watches with the L&R may start using it all the time..

A friend of mine puts the pallets stones back in a pallet fork with super glue is that a good thing? ..

Samie,
Your friend using super glue on pallets is fine as long as we don't buy any of his watches.
Keep Super Glue as far away from your bench as possible.
Brian C.

Samie,
The super glue issue opens up a whole new can of worms and should be moved to another topic. It gets into the effects of Cyanoacrylate or any "acrylates" on metals etc.
As I said before "If it has worked for 50 years" it must have been done right. It will work, but the long term effect is not known.

My main point was the ultrasonic damages the shellac holding the roller or pallet jewels.

I have cracked jewels in watches in the past and take more care now, sometimes i check the jewel with a loupe or a 30 power microscope to check for cracks.
I still prefer the 3 jar cleaner the mosts.