No I didn't check the poise statically after replacing the balance staff and I should have since it would be a quick way to identify a large imbalance.
a lot of things in watch repair require you to follow the procedure if you're going to have success. For instance in between putting the staff in and poising by whatever method you do need to verify that the balance wheel is round and flat. In other words with a truing caliper you half to do that if you do not poising will be a nightmare. This is because the arms are bimetallic if you squeeze them they will bend. so for success in restaffing procedures must be followed an understanding of what you're doing helps immensely. Otherwise you're going to go down a bad path that leads to confusion and has endless problems.
Before you make any irreversible changes, (as Skutt has advised against already), I strongly recommend that you read this
document on dynamic poising by DeweyC.
a new
There are several oppinions on this matter but in general it is suggested not to remove material but to change the screw for a lighter one. T
both of the comments above are good and the PDF is good but they all have a problem? The problem is how did you learn watch repair? Even your reference books start comparing reference books they all agree. What happens if you put a group of watchmakers together it asked simple basic questions is everyone on the same page and if not who actually is right and who was wrong or they all right were even all wrong that's the problem.
let's start off with PDF above specifically near the bottom of page 4. do watches have no value or perceived not the value and get played with by children? Or as a kid did you ever find your great-grandfather's watch stuck someplace and look at it conceivably all of that is correct. Now the problem with children and pocket watches typically are there are easy to get into and that is a problem. For instance currently on my bench somebody wants to restore the family peace it's missing the back. It unscrewed and is now somewhere else in the universe. What else happened when somebody was in this watch well the screws are not entirely right and it seems be missing its hairspring and the roller jewel and of course the pivots are broken. So handling by unskilled individual at some point the time in the past weather was children or not is not good for watch. So I'll go with children playing with the watch.not good but it's not always children either that have done that it's basically anyone that has no idea how delicate a watch can be.
Then we get the really interesting statement Used by practice by unskilled workers possibly. We get a different problem here or a different point of view American pocket watches were made in quantity they were made for how many years? This means that between then when there were made and now more than likely they've gone through quite a few hands of people labeled as watch repair people. Where exactly did these watch repair people learn their skills from that becomes the problem. The so-called unskilled workers practicing conceivably are watchmakers in the field right now or their past generations.
one of the problems for past generation watchmakers his education this means conceivably you do stuff because you perceive it's the right thing to do until someone comes along and suggests that maybe it's the wrong thing to do providing you can accept that may beer not doing things correctly otherwise we can end up with multiple of generations of watchmakers not necessarily doing the right thing.
Now let's toss in some additional PDFs at the link below scroll down until you get the section titled Joseph School of Watch Making. This is a training manual for the school they had a school they taught multiple generations of watchmakers I don't know how long the school was in existence but this is their training manual.
You probably want to download the entire thing but let's start off with unit number two truing the balance wheel. At the very minimum verifying that the balance wheel still is true in particular it is round. Bimetallic balance wheels are very easy to get out of round. Typically when you're staffing them and holding them in your fingers you can squeeze the arms moving the arms around totally screws up poise and timekeeping. A lot of times will be out of flat more likely that was caused by somebody inappropriately staffing the watch. So ideally before going on in balance staff work your balance should be running flat and round.
now let's go back to the watch adjustment PDF the very bottom of page 4 all the way through page 5 is it correct? in the section I just quoted several problems occur first we find out that balance wheels get mutilated for variety reasons mutilating watch parts for whatever reason is not desirable. so were all in agreement mutilating the balance wheel is bad. We learn that they were all butchers who did this static poising is the work of the devil but yes I'm exaggerating when it really is is what happens when unskilled workers work on watches. Workers who did not grasp what they're doing static poising is not the work of the devil and unlike the authors point of view static poising can get you really really really close. Static poising is taught in schools even modern schools it's in books probably every single book I have one watch repair comments on static poising.
Let's look at unit five at the link below what does it cover? it covers static poising and it shows the balance under cutter this is preferred as you do not mutually the screw heads. But you will see on cheap watches that well people will file the slots exactly what it shows here. There even was a tool made that will drill out the visible screw head. But not just done by people who read the book every book even done by the factories. Some of the early pocket watches if you look at the screw heads the screw slot is of different depths to correct for poise. So static poising does and can work.
But in an ideal perfect world where no one has ever touched that balance wheel you shouldn't really have to do much for static poising other than verify that the watch is poised. You most definitely should not have to haul out all the screws attempting the poise the balance wheel. This is where for instance putting a timing washer on a screw even though you can remove it later is where you should a slowed down and thought about what you're doing and why you're doing. It's because people either had no idea what they were doing and embraced the teachings of the books or they're just idiots mutilating the watch is not good static poising does work and despite the author's opinion that it's a work of the devil my opinion is you can get really close to you don't have to dynamically poise providing somebody didn't mutilate the watch before you. Also sometimes static poising is a must if you have to start swapping screws and things it gets you really really close even if you are going to dynamic poise because you cannot dynamic poise your way out of a gross mutilation.
Let's look at page 6 notice the references to timekeeping. If you look at timekeeping specifications of American railroad watches yes they exceed Rolex timekeeping specifications. But most important number six on his page you cannot do anything related to timekeeping adjustment until the watch is working very well. in other words if you look at the title of this discussion you cannot do dynamic poising silly you fix whatever the problem is you can statically poise just don't mutilate the watch doing it. But you should be doing any of the poising and tea figure out why are having a problem because all of the poising will be a waste of time anyway.
then I went back through and read the original posters comments and things I assume now that this discussion is come to an end? as the watch is now running perfect or at least the person thinks so and.
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