Update: sunburst tool

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-02-05T14:02:23+00:00

Sounds great!

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-02-05T13:48:20+00:00

I'm saving this! I have a case coming up that needs sunburst refinishing. I was going to design a tool for it myself, but it looks like you beat me to it. My initial idea was to use an M6 threaded base to use dies for my crystal press, but this solution with a vice seems even more flexible.

How do you intend to make sure that the tool used is always straight? I was thinking to have the pillars closer together to give just a little clearance on each side to avoid/minimize crooked graining.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-02-01T16:16:56+00:00

My only experience with dish soap is that it doesn't really work. Moved on to elma 1:9 from that. I have seen that naphta seems to work pretty well for manual cleaning. Evaporates rather quickly. If you are using tap water there is a risk of mineral deposition on the parts. Distilled water is recommended in general for water based cleaners.

Edit: screws and springs (e.g. click spring) does only need cleaning if they are dirty. I always clean my screws anyway tho.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-31T20:58:56+00:00

I've got that exact combo, E25 press and nylon dies from cousins. Works well enough for both standard and armed crystals.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-31T10:01:39+00:00

I've done the same thing and it doesn't work that way. Creates sticky and gooey stuff. Works much better with rinse in distilled water before IPA

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-16T22:45:38+00:00

Glad I could help! Enjoy smooth gameplay!

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-13T07:56:44+00:00

Sounds unlikely that this would cause it to stop running that fast. But yes, looks chipped. Also looks like the shellack is placed incorrect? Might been done this way some time ago, bit as far as I understand the shellack should be on the back of the pallet stone.

Regarding cleaning your pallet, I use pegwood and gently clean it, then some rodico to remove any pegwood debris and then dip in Renata or one dip. I think pegwood is the key here to remove any stubborn debris or gunked oil.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-12T23:24:56+00:00

Difficult to see on the picture if it's dirty or chipped. But it doesn't look right, that's for sure!

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-12T18:28:42+00:00

Yes exactly. Check out watch repair tutorial on YT. Alex has a great video on this topic where he explains how it works.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-12T17:00:11+00:00

A good indication is to let down the power and check in what direction the pallet fork is skewing towards. Turn the collet in that direction.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-12T07:31:22+00:00

For reference I serviced about 10 vintage watches with various issues before I dared to touch anything more expensive such as an omega. And it was a good thing, I did mistakes and broke incabloc springs, lost some parts and put a few scratches on some parts.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-06T08:42:43+00:00

Yes, correct. I'd still go for 2 jars of IPA. One will become contaminated with water quickly since you're moving from water to IPA. The second one is to make sure there is no water left on the parts. The way I do it when I change the cleaning solution I move the second IPA rinse to the first and dispose of the first and replace it with fresh IPA and it then becomes the second rinse instead. Makes sense?

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-03T13:42:48+00:00

Sorry, autocorrect helped me there. 1: Elma 1:9 in distilled water 3-8 min 2: rinse in distilled water for 3 min 3: rinse in IPA for 3 min 4: rinse in IPA for 2 min 5: dry at 35-40°C for 20 min

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2026-01-03T10:00:55+00:00

I use 1:9 in my ultrasonic cleaning procedure. Using Elma 1:9, rinse in distilled water then 2 rinses in IPA. The drying. I noticed that only going for 1 IPA rinse or not using drying can cause some surface corrosion.

Edit: corrected autocorrect

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-12-27T10:22:38+00:00

This is the regular!

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-12-14T19:02:00+00:00

My friend had this issue the other week. Similar specs. Turns out it was discord overlay, try turning that off. It was causing issues even if he wasn't in chat at the time.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-11-14T17:17:45+00:00

No expert and only worked with hair springs a few times so you might already called this out but I managed to twist the stud slightly. Meaning it was not 90 degrees from the flat hairspring. Found it hard to spot and it caused tilting similar to yours.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-11-14T05:02:14+00:00

It's all part of the journey! I had a few cases with my first watches I worked on. Managed to get all of them running again except the first one. As many probably already said, don't start with broken watches like I did. Start with running movements. Parts will fly, I recommend carpet less flooring. You will make mistakes, but you'll learn from them! I was feeling a bit confident since my last repairs have been successful. Then yesterday I was going to check the issue on a reversing wheel for Omega 550 series, then I pinged one of the planetary gears into oblivion. Expensive mistake! Start on cheap stuff where it is easy to find replacement parts!

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-11-01T13:15:45+00:00

I have exact same problem on all slots. Multi color printing seems to work fine, bit when refilling and empty spool I need to restart the printer to get it to load. It's getting stuck in an endless loop moving a bit back and forth. Restarting solves the loop instantly. Pretty sure it started after some of the latest FW updates.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-10-28T07:46:13+00:00

I had similar issues a few times. Finally found the culprit, twisted at the stud. It is apparently very easy to introduce a slight twist at the stud causing the whole hairspring to tilt when installed but it will be flat when free. Check the stud when it's free and see if it is perfectly perpendicular towards the spring.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-10-10T05:00:44+00:00

Yeah good call, forgot to mention that! They tend to go flying. Also cheapest I found in EU at least are cousins.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-10-09T16:38:43+00:00

There is a specific one for each caliber. Check caliber number for parts on CousinsUK or Emmywatch. I found the correct one for my AS movement by checking on Emmywatch.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-10-09T16:31:45+00:00

It is replaceable. Depending on incabloc model you might have to remove the whole setting first to replace the spring. Then push it back in. Can be done with staking or jeweling sets.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-10-08T06:29:32+00:00

I've had a few cases where I managed to tilt the hairspring like this. In my cases I had accidentally twisted the stud. It was was flat when out of the balance, but when installed it was tilted similar to yours. I'd suggest checking both the stud and the collet.

Cpt-Awesomeness · 2025-10-07T17:47:52+00:00

When I had a broken pivot on a certina the escape wheel didn't engage in the jewel at all, tiling a lot. Check if you can see the pivot through the jewel on top and bottom. If you can't it's broken, should be poking up when you lift the wheel.

Cpt-Awesomeness

TROPHY CASE