I feel like I just hiked to the south pole and back, making it home alive.

Prior to tonight, in my effort to learn how to work on pocketwatches I have:

1) Bought and studied de Carle's "Practical Watch Repairing".

2) Bought a set of Horotec screwdrivers.

3) Took apart and put together a broken watch movement.

Tonight I took apart a running watch movement (a Waltham 17 Jewel "Crescent Street Colonial" that I bought for $20 with just this in mind). In the course of the evening, I had it down to screws and gears, and it is now back together and ticking away.

The main thing gained is confidence and practice.
I am working under a 7.5x stereo microscope, mostly because I have one handy that I use all the time for other things, but I may actually buy a loupe someday, or at least a set of optivisors
(any advice on that topic??).

Mostly though I just wanted to crow a bit, but here are a couple of questions:

How in the world do you get oil on the balance staff when it has cap jewels? All the other pivots you can access, but it seems to me the only way to do these is to put a "proper amount" of oil in during assembly (maybe I answered my own question).

And even more puzzling -- how do you deal with these cap jewel places during cleaning? If you soak the movement in naptha, these would be little hidden cavities that either wouldn't get cleaned or that would trap cleaning fluid ???

Cleaning and oiling is the next challenge.

Tom,
Congrats! It's a nice feeling, no?
Evan

Indeed it is.

The next thing is to do it all again to this very same watch, but clean and oil it this time.

I plan to use naptha as the cleaning fluid, I have it ready to hand and I don't smoke so it should be OK, but if anyone wants to make other recommendations ....

And doing some reading today, the advice I get is that the cap jewels need to be removed during a cleaning, so that will be something new the next time around.

Tom,
I picked up Zenith cleaning solution, rinse solution , and one-dip equivalent (naptha-like) based on recommendations here and other places. I also recommend ultrasonics (I have a Watchmaster). While I'm sure you can get things clean with Naptha and a toothpick, the ultrasonic and correct cleaning solutions make things a lot easier.

You'll also need oils. Check out Frei's or Cass-Ker (where I got the Zenith solutions).

Here's a link to Otto Frei's oil recommendation page:
Moebius Oil Recommendations

ETA Oil Charts:
ETA Oil Charts

Zenith Cleaning Solution:
http://www.jewelerssupplies.com/product3650.html] Zenith 67 Cleaning Solution
Zenith Dri-Z-Brite

Debbie:

Thank you immensely, that search leads to a wealth of discussions on watch cleaning agents.

Evan:

You read my mind, my next question was going to be about proper oils. I need to do a search and read what turns up (and I will), but just in case somebody is energetic, I'll launch in right now:

I currently have 3 bottles of oil which I view as candidates for watch oiling. I also have two oilers, one purchased and the other made from a thin bit of spring steel, but the question right now is about the oils:

I have two bottles of silicone based oils from Esslinger, one with a blue cap labelled 10 centistokes, the other with a green cap labelled 50 centistokes viscosity.

The 10 oil is thinner, almost like water. The 50 is noticeably thicker, but still a pretty thin oil. The question is which is appropriate for what?

I also have a bottle of Deoxit X10S precision instrument oil, also silicone based. It seems very much similar to the 50 centistokes oil from Esslinger -- any comments on this stuff??

Tom,

I would rely on the advice given be Evan and use the Oil Recommendation Chart by Moebius. I don't have experience with the oil you mention. I use Moebius mainly but have used Nye products with success.

De Carle's book has a very good oiling chart. Thats the book I started with years ago but to be honest, Henry Fried's book is superior in my opinion.

quote:

Henry Fried's book is superior in my opinion.

I just received my copy of this book a couple of days ago, and I have to agree. Not that I don't appreciate De Carle's book and I learned a tremendous amount from it as a beginner.
Fried's book is better organized, more comprehensive, and makes fewer assumptions about what someone reading it already knows.

That is the book we had to use in my watch making class. At JCJC Watch repair class.