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The Water Cooler
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Watch Rebuild – OSA Member Owned – U.S. Contract Pilot's Watch Issued In Vietnam – LONG POST - PIC HEAVY
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<blockquote data-quote="thor447" data-source="post: 3906921" data-attributes="member: 24867"><p>This is the final post (thank goodness)!</p><p>The watch had been fully assembled, but the case still needed some attention. It was in really good shape, but just needed to be cleaned. I absolutely wasn't going to restore/polish the finish in any way. We were going to keep it original, but just give it a thorough cleaning to remove dirt, spot rust, and gunk (and honestly it was hardly any at all). I just made some simple before and after pics:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]322749[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]322750[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p></p><p>Regarding the crystal, I had mentioned earlier that it had several very small scratches on it. Honestly, these weren't even noticeable when you weren't looking through magnification, but here's a before and after on the crystal, just using a little elbow grease. It isn't absolutely perfect, but it's light-years better than it was, and makes this original crystal just look great.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]322748[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well here it is fully finished. Again, thank you to the OSA member for allowing me to bring this amazing watch back into working order. I was honored that you trusted me with this, and thanks again.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]322751[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>One thing of note, I had another watch owned by another OSA member. I had worked on his before I began work on this Benrus. I won't call him out by name either, but he knows who he is. This one was an interesting project. It wasn't starting up very easily, and wasn't keeping the best of time. It's a totally cool looking watch though. After a bunch of trial and error, I finally nailed down why this watch wouldn't kick in when winding. When it would start, it would keep time pretty well, and then all of the sudden start to run fast for a few minutes then come back down to normal. </p><p></p><p>I tracked the problem down and it would only do it off and on in the dial up position. The hairspring was not aligned properly and engaging the regulating pins in an irregular manner. When the watch was dial up, gravity is pushing down on the hairspring, and it would routinely engage the base of the regulator, throwing the watch out of whack. When it was in the dial down position, gravity is pushing the hairspring away from the base of the regulator and the watch would run fine. </p><p></p><p>The movement in this watch wasn't something I had worked on before, and I got LUCKY and found replacement 'balance complete', which is the pre-assembled balance wheel, hairspring, balance staff, and roller table. The watch had been cleaned and lubricated, and when the part arrived I disassembled the balance assembly from it's bridge, installed the new one, re-cleaned and oiled the balance jewels, and did a full regulation on the watch. This one was a challenge, but we got it figured out! Here's both OSA member owned watches together.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]322752[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The Benrus was returned to it's owner this morning. The second watch mentioned is being returned to it's OSA owner this afternoon/evening sometime. It was a privilege to get to work on some OSA owned watches, and thanks to both members for entrusting me with these.</p><p></p><p>OK, I'm done! If you actually read all of this and made it to the end, my hat's off to you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="thor447, post: 3906921, member: 24867"] This is the final post (thank goodness)! The watch had been fully assembled, but the case still needed some attention. It was in really good shape, but just needed to be cleaned. I absolutely wasn't going to restore/polish the finish in any way. We were going to keep it original, but just give it a thorough cleaning to remove dirt, spot rust, and gunk (and honestly it was hardly any at all). I just made some simple before and after pics: [ATTACH type="full"]322749[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]322750[/ATTACH] Regarding the crystal, I had mentioned earlier that it had several very small scratches on it. Honestly, these weren't even noticeable when you weren't looking through magnification, but here's a before and after on the crystal, just using a little elbow grease. It isn't absolutely perfect, but it's light-years better than it was, and makes this original crystal just look great. [ATTACH type="full"]322748[/ATTACH] Well here it is fully finished. Again, thank you to the OSA member for allowing me to bring this amazing watch back into working order. I was honored that you trusted me with this, and thanks again. [ATTACH type="full"]322751[/ATTACH] One thing of note, I had another watch owned by another OSA member. I had worked on his before I began work on this Benrus. I won't call him out by name either, but he knows who he is. This one was an interesting project. It wasn't starting up very easily, and wasn't keeping the best of time. It's a totally cool looking watch though. After a bunch of trial and error, I finally nailed down why this watch wouldn't kick in when winding. When it would start, it would keep time pretty well, and then all of the sudden start to run fast for a few minutes then come back down to normal. I tracked the problem down and it would only do it off and on in the dial up position. The hairspring was not aligned properly and engaging the regulating pins in an irregular manner. When the watch was dial up, gravity is pushing down on the hairspring, and it would routinely engage the base of the regulator, throwing the watch out of whack. When it was in the dial down position, gravity is pushing the hairspring away from the base of the regulator and the watch would run fine. The movement in this watch wasn't something I had worked on before, and I got LUCKY and found replacement 'balance complete', which is the pre-assembled balance wheel, hairspring, balance staff, and roller table. The watch had been cleaned and lubricated, and when the part arrived I disassembled the balance assembly from it's bridge, installed the new one, re-cleaned and oiled the balance jewels, and did a full regulation on the watch. This one was a challenge, but we got it figured out! Here's both OSA member owned watches together. [ATTACH type="full"]322752[/ATTACH] The Benrus was returned to it's owner this morning. The second watch mentioned is being returned to it's OSA owner this afternoon/evening sometime. It was a privilege to get to work on some OSA owned watches, and thanks to both members for entrusting me with these. OK, I'm done! If you actually read all of this and made it to the end, my hat's off to you. [/QUOTE]
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Watch Rebuild – OSA Member Owned – U.S. Contract Pilot's Watch Issued In Vietnam – LONG POST - PIC HEAVY
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