Making my own watch

[Ophiuchus]

Paul, looks fantastic so far. Endmills are really not that expensive, cheap ones are only about 8$ USD each, and can go up from there. The smaller they are, the cheaper.
If you did a high quality endmill, solid carbide or even polycrystalline diamond, I can't see you spending more than 25$ each for a bit small enough for normal use in
watchmaking, more realistically 15$ or so for super high end stuff in that size. Really, you don't need that high end stuff- for brass in watchmaking, a good HSS (high speed steel)
or solid carbide bit would be excellent. Normally, you get the best finish from high RPM and slow feedrate, but that creates a lot of surface heat that could warp small or thin parts
in watchmaking- I'd say try a medium RPM with a low feedrate, and multiple back passes for best surface finish with minimal heat distortion.

I'm impressed that you made your own endmill rather than buy one- a nice touch, it looks like it works well.

Sorry I didn't catch your post asking about the ken nagasa- I'll PM you when I get a picture of them- I don't want to disrupt your wonderful thread, but I do like that I found someone
else with a keen interest in Japanese cutlery.

[Paul Loatman]

[Paul Loatman]

I'm currently working on the barrel bridge. This bridge will also hold the second center pinion which will ultimately hold the cannon pinion and show the time, while the actual center wheel which connects with the rest of the train won't have a cannon pinion at all.

Start off with the steel, this is precision ground O1.


Then drill the holes.


Then machine all the recesses.



Then Harden and temper. I don't know why it looks green in the picture, but it was blueish purple in person.


Now, shaped out a bit and fitted on the watch with the barrel. That particular pillar in the picture is too low and is going to be turned down and will be replaced by a steel pillar of the correct height. If you look the bridge looks tilted towards the pillar, but that's only because the pillar is shorter than the other side, when i have the new pillar on it'll fit perfectly.



All that's left is beveling and polishing.
_________________
-Paul

[Paul Loatman]

Made the set lever spring today.

From the precision ground O1 again. Drill some holes, cut it out, shape it a bit, harden and temper it.


Grind it down perfectly flat to the correct thickness.


Finish the shape.


All it needs now is to be polished.
_________________
-Paul

[Paul Loatman]

I was working on various bits and pieces today, i didn't complete anything since everything relies on everything else. I don't design things on a CAD program, or even on paper really, i just do it all in my head as i go along so it's not as simple as making a part and moving onto the next. Right now i only have a vague design of the keyless works setup in my head, i'm pretty positive the design will all fit since most of the difficult stuff has already been done in the "canvass watch", i just don't have all the little details so i have to do various things before other things to make sure it all works properly in the end.

Anyways, enough of my rant, below are some pictures.

The ratchet wheel recess was done a few days ago when i was milling, i went ahead and milled the recess instead of turning it for convenience since i had my lathe already setup for milling and needed to mill some other things later.


Now with the wheels in place, the crown wheel hasn't been placed yet because it won't actually be connected directly to the pillar plate.

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-Paul

[R_Belanger]

Hey Paul, I've been enjoying your post. It's nice to see someone forging ahead with there ideas and succeeding with them.

What did you use to shape the set spring after it was tempered. Diamond files?... what did you use to secure it while you were working on it?

Love the barrel bridge. The design is going to complement the delicate look of your carriage.

[Paul Loatman]

[Paul Loatman]

I've been working on the keyless works and haven't really had much to photograph, but i'll post an update.

Now, since my watch is really quite different from the canvass watch (Unitas 6498/7) the keyless works has an apparently odd setup, but is fundamentally the same. Since my watch has all of the train components visible from the dial side, the pillar plate is on the opposite side compared with the Unitas movement, so in order to keep things simple and easy for assembly and disassembly i made the keyless works pretty much the same way as the Unitas, the parts are held in the same manner, but since the pillar plate is on the opposite side, as i've already mentioned, there had to be something to go under the wind and set pinions to hold the crown wheel, so this is what i came up with.







Note: The set wheel does not rest on the small pillar under it on the picture. That pillar will have a small hole drilled into it for the stem, the set wheel will be held by another means which i will explain in another update.

So far all it needs is the crown wheel recess and it'll be done. One thing that i will add to the keyless works that the Unitas doesn't have will be a steel bridge for the winding stem, this bridge will hold the stem at the right position from just above the set lever, a stem bridge would have been used on high quality pocket watches where wear on the stem area of the plates wanted to be minimized.
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-Paul

[Paul Loatman]

Quick update:

I've been working on engraving.

I've been practicing here and there for the past 2 days.

I just did this, this morning on a brass tweezer.





Would anyone here by chance have any hand engraving experience with any practical advice? I'm using a palm-pushing method which means i don't use an engraving block or vice, i just held the tweezer with my left hand and engraved with my right.
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-Paul

[Paul Loatman]

I just finished shaping the click.

Started with O1 flat stock again.

This is pretty much how they looked after getting cut out of the flat stock. I'm figuring out the positioning of the click first; which you can see on the pillar plate.


Now here's the click being fitted against the ratchet wheel.


Once i got the important part of the click finished the rest was pretty simple. Now here's the click spring being fitted. I gauge the dimensions of these parts by eye so i had to make some brass pins to hold the parts in their exact place while still being easily placed onto the watch and removed.


The important parts of the click spring have been shaped, so after this i hardened them.


Now after hardening, i grind them perfectly flat to the exact thickness i need, then i finish the shape of the click spring.



All they need now is beveling and polishing.
_________________
-Paul