I had hoped to get more done today, but the weather was so nice and the scoot was crying out for a ride so that wasted a few hours of watch time.
But I got back to the bench to start re-assembly, and then remembered there was a broken KIF style shock spring.
To a professional like Al, Doug or Chris, this isn't a problem, they just go to their spares drawers.
However my "spares" are located in donor movements.
In a sealed container.
In the garage.
Up on a high shelf.
So after getting the ladder, getting the box down and starting to look for a spare, and after about 10 watches, it dawned on me that I could ignore anything marked "Incabloc" and just look for shock proof or antichoc etc. After about 10 minutes I found one in a movement, got i out without it pinging off into the distance , gave it a clean in the US bath and got ready to fit it.
I don't know what lunatic designed the three aperture mount for the shock spring, even the Seiko style with a tri-lobe spring only uses one hole so setting the spring does't need you to hold one lobe down with your left hand, one down with your right hand, the third down with your other hand, and use your other other hand to rotate the spring .
Maybe the designer also had shares in the factory that made the very expensive tool you needed to install these little horrors (I guess there must be such a tool?).
Not having a tool, I used a fine spring bar fork to hold two lobes down, and my tweezers to push and turn the spring.
It's a "hold your breath" job as you can't use a probe or pegwood to keep things under control in case there's a slip.
Enough moaning.
Here's a pic of the Seiko system where you push one lobe in and turn it until the next lobe aligns, and repeat until all three are seated correctly, all the while having your other hand spare to hold a stick in the centre of the spring in case of "pinging".
And here is the culprit, you can see the break in the spring at about its 3 o'clock.
Damn! I'm slow today.
It just dawned on me that I could have tried a Seiko spring from one of the ten movements I have.
In my bench drawers.
Right under my nose .
Oh well, next time.
Edited by a mod Jul 12, 2021