552 cleaned nicely

sheepdoll

It ticks!

Some rando sweep hand for contrast. Not really pressed onto the arbor.

Sadly the hands sold as 565 hands are too loose on the arbors. I still need to locate a proper sweep hand.

Stem and crown are also from the parts department. Too awkward trying to test with the split stem.

Have not clean the automatic action yet. The rotor rubs, which is what tore up the upper plates.

Amazing I had another inky spring for the lower cap jewel, And a lower ratchet wheel. Probably paid too much for the movement, but at least I had most of the replacement parts.

The watch was really dirty. Not sure it it was dried oil or cheese.


Now I have to put the 550 back together (after cleaning it.) I borrowed the sweep and cannon pinons from that. Have a 560 set which is too long but will work as a placeholder - and these parts are easy to get to.


The 505 is stalled out till I find the missing pallet fork, Or locate a new one. Annoying as that would probably run as well.

sheepdoll

Not really. These watches are fairly beat up, so there are other factors affecting the luster of the plating.

It is not consistent, how it fades from watch to watch. I tend to sort plates and bridges by the plating color.

One does have to be careful. Glass fiber (typewriter erasers.) Can remove the plating with little effort. Especially when dealing with rust. Most likely the water (which is the universal solvent.) reacts with the plating.

If anything the alum brightens things up, since it removes the surface oxidation where the rust bonded to the plating.

Mostly though I use a piece of pegwood sharpened to a chisel to try and scrape the old dried oil and grease off. Sometimes one simply uses a fingernail as a last resort (prior to cleaning.) Other times the discoloration is simply to embedded to remove.

Alum is really the only way to remove rusted hairspring screws,

@Archer was the one who put me onto the alum. He may know more on the risks involved.