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Hi all,
I’m slowly building up the tools and materials that I need to start learning to tinker with and service some my more affordable watches.
One thing I’ve found is that oil is quite expensive.
Before I bite the bullet and buy some Moebius oil I wanted to see whether you all use this too, or if you’ve found a reliable alternative that’s a bit more affordable.
Thanks!
Ignore! I’ve found a thread on the exact same topic on a different forum. Doh.
No easy way around this unfortunately, to do the job right you need a few different lubricants and they’re all around £20 each. Epilame treatment is important for the pallet lever jewels, escape wheel teeth and balance end jewels, that’s approx £100/bottle.
Thanks very much! I’ve purchased Moebius 9010 and 9104, as they seemed to be the general consensus for what most use for servicing Seikos.
I haven’t seen anyone mention epilame when working with Seikos but I’ll have a look at getting some as it sounds like I should be using it.
I disassembled a 7s26 movement yesterday and after some challenges I managed to get it reassembled again and working (had to borrow the pallet for and balance from another 7000 series Seiko I had as I broke the top pivot on the pallet fork by screwing the pallet bridge down when I’m the fork clearly wasn’t set in the jewel correctly.
I followed the oil instructions from a few walkthroughs, but with me having to take it apart multiple times to try to work out why it wasn’t working (the cause was the pallet fork pivot causing the pallet fork not to engage properly with the escape wheel), I’ll have to take it apart again and re-do everything, as I’m not sure whether I’ve ruined the oiling I’ve done with the multiple disassembles/reassembles.
On a positive note, having had to diagnose an issue I caused, and having had to tear it down multiple times has given me more confidence than if it’d have gone swimmingly.
I broke a pallet lever pivot on the BHI training course!
There’s a trick to avoiding this: locate the pallet lever ensuring the bottom pivot is home, place the pallet cock on top and gently locate, with the screw- holes and locating tabs in place. Hold it down with a piece of pegwood whilst carefully moving the pallet lever back and forth until the top pivot locates home, you can usually feel it pop into place. Whilst holding the pallet cock in place with the pegwood locate the screws and lightly tighten, stop as soon as slight resistance is felt then check with a strong magnifier that both pivots are in place, don’t tighten the screws till you’ve seen the pivots. Move the pallet lever back and forth to confirm its free and finally nip the screws up. I suggest you practice this a few times to get the hang of it.
I suggest you get some fine tweezers for these jobs, no4 are the ones I use. I also use them for teasing the train wheel pivots into place, the fine points are ideal for reaching under the train wheel bridge and waggling the wheels around to get the pivots to locate.
As for Seikos, they always run better when oiled the Swiss way and that includes epilame treatment of the escape wheel, pallet lever and balance pivot end jewels. I use Moebius 9010 for the balance pivots, escape wheel pivots and centre wheel, 941/2 for the escape wheel teeth (pallet stones) and hp1300 for everything else except the barrel walls which get braking grease kluber 125.
Be sure to buy a piece of Rodico, its brilliant for holding small pieces and cleaning marks/ oil when it gets where you didn’t want it to. Rodico and pegwood are essentials, plus a piece of pithwood for cleaning the oiler.
Thanks very much for this. I used this approach and managed to get the pallet fork to engage. Confirmed it by giving the mainspring a bit of a wind and lightly touching the pallet fork to make sure it clicks back and forth with a good snap.
I made the mistake of not checking the accuracy of the watch before I started the process, so as to be able to compare, however the watch is running pretty slow and the balance wheel looks to be noticeably laboured.
I bought a timegrapher today and it matches up with what I’m seeing. Running heavily slow and also a really very low amplitude.
I’ve dismantled and rebuilt a few times, cleaning and oiling as per the recommended approach, however it’s no better.
I’ve also oiled one of the jewels on the bridge. Didn’t do the 2nd as the first was so fiddly I almost lost the endcap and spring!
I have not yet cleaned and oiled the balance jewel.
I’ve inspected each wheel separately, and checked the endshake on each, and all look ‘ok’ from what I can tell.
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I don’t know what cleaning regime you’re using but it’s essential to get all parts completely clean and dry before assembly. I use an ultrasonic bath and cleaning solution in jars, I find 5 mins cleaning followed by 4 rinses gives the desired results. I dry parts under a halogen lamp on the bench, that drives off the rinse solvent. I carry out a similar process on the pivot jewels, using small glass screw- top vials.
You can set something similar up for a relatively modest outlay, a couple if petri dishes with a circular piece of paper in the bottom will be fine for containing parts whilst drying.
Its possible to achieve professional results without a cleaning machine, but you have to work in a clean dust- free room. It doesn’t need to be perfect, mine certainly isn’t, but it needs to be kept clean. Work with the door shut, it helps!
Good lighting is essential, but strong background lighting plus a desk lamp will suffice.
For cleaning I use L&R ultrasonic extra fine cleaning solution and L&R no3 rinse, unfortunately they’re expensive at around £40 per US gallon.
If you drop me a PM with your e- mail address I can send a few photos that might help. The best way to learn is to do the BHI basic watch repair residential course and treat it as a week’s holiday, there’s a cost involved but you learn a huge amount in 5 days. People spend money on hobbies such as golf and mountain bikes etc, that’s the way to consider watch repairing and accept there will be a significant start- up cost, that’s the best advice I can give.
Thanks for all of the advice and guidance.
I’d definitely love that, thank you. I’ll drop you a message.
I have been looking at the various courses. And I think the BHI one isn’t actually too far from me. So something I would certainly be up for doing. I’ll have to have a chat with the wife ;)