Double Flee A

the week thus far in watch school

So last week I turned in my ETA 6497 to have its guts inspected for proper lubrication, end-shake, etc. Now it is Tuesday and it remains ungraded. No big deal. After the school had to close down for two days, then a fire because of some janitor smoking in the closet, and now the elevator not working, I should probably feel lucky the place hasn't exploded or something.

So we're back to work on our school watches, which is fun. My 3/4 plate part 2 milled out quite nicely, which is on the order of miraculous, because the spacing between the index pins makes it almost impossible to use them; I wound up holding my piece steady by hand. Of course, the mill wants to do the things to my plate that toddlers want to do to birthday cake, so I had to hold it tightly, and as a result, my arm got tireder than it's been since we filed our steel cubes. After that I cut out the balance recess, and am ready to take down the plate to its final depth. There remains to be done a little shaping of the plate on the side facing the balance wheel with its back to the stem; the balance bridge we're going to be using is different from the one we started with because we can plate the new ones better. Raw brass or somesuch. I'll know what that's supposed to look like tomorrow when I get a new bridge, but tracing it is going to be difficult, and largely luck. It's hard to trace a line on metal, and impossible to do with precision with what we have to work with, and cutting it at a specific angle with what we're using is almost impossible as well. What I'm going to go for is a look of intentional curviness, because it's all I can think of. A nice straight line is out of the question because of the dial screws, and because of the aforementioned. I just don't want it to look like shit. If the watch works I'll be pleased. The lathes we're using are the most basic lathes that can possibly turn out a watch, so we're not going to wind up with anything like the sexy watches you see in the catalogs.

So tomorrow, we're going to learn jewel placement, and then I have to go to work, because Friday night I have a wedding rehearsal for a wedding Saturday. Jackie and Beege are next in tying the knot, which I'll be going to Saturday night. It's a wonderful weekend for a wedding.

posted by dale @ 8:32 PM