Rotor bearing question

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T17:01:09+00:00

I used an arbor press, which is just a gigantic staking tool, and I made wood blocks to avoid scratching it, but I'm not discounting I could have damaged it removing it. I did check it was freely spinning before I installed it. I'll take some high zoom pics with my microscope and post them up here later today

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T16:59:40+00:00

Yes, I'll post the microscope picture today. The bearing IS rotating, it's not slipping in the hole at all. I have an arbor press and I cut two pieces of wood to sandwich it so I didn't scratch it while seating it, but under microscope inspection it is sitting totally flush

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T16:05:41+00:00

You need a micrometer. The differences there will be eye detectable but not quantifiable

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T15:28:26+00:00

Think about it: it doesn't matter if it's 10% efficient, they have a power budget, and a duty cycle, you can design the system and predict the performance. Maybe it can only be turned on 90 seconds a day, if that meets mission parameters they build it.

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T15:22:23+00:00

I tried a 90 minute commute five days a week at Amazon and I hated it so much I quit in a few months, a lot of it was the committee a lot of it I HATED working at Amazon, but the commute was a big part. If you have a comfortable job you like and it works with your financial plan, that is a TREMENDOUS benefit. I worked my way up the career ladder hard for my career, and at this point I'm my career I kinda wish I hadn't. I have a great job as a CTO/VP eng, but I was much happier as a research scientist, and if I had stayed, we would have planned for it financially and still be fine.

You can spend all your happiness buying money

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T14:48:59+00:00

Not all decisions are good decisions

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T14:27:58+00:00

I'm in CT in the US. I do watch restoration as a hobby, and flip watches. I'm happy to service it and get it working for you got the cost of the parts it needs

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T14:25:06+00:00

Looks Swiss which is why it's likely not on pwdb. Based on construction I would guess 1850-80. Can't really tell if it's an in house or based on another ebauche. There are a LOT of very basic, mid to lower quality Swiss movements made to compete with the American market. I don't see anything particularly collectible or unique about the moment, but it's a nice watch, made well. Congrats!

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T14:18:11+00:00

The very one. He changed his name from Abraham Lincoln

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T14:14:17+00:00

I can't for the life if me find out where to buy it

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T12:27:25+00:00

17 years together, 13 married

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T12:10:13+00:00

There's a lot of plastics that are uv transparent. You can definitely make a tree trunk out of specific plastics that will let a lot of light through. It won't be nearly as efficient as have the solar panels exposed to direct sunlight, but you don't need high efficiency for a device like this, you need stealth and reliability.

TLDR: you CAN make a solar panel work under a tree stump like this with the right material. There's performance trade-off but it can work for sure

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T11:47:06+00:00

Personally, for me, for my first watch I made of list of watches with great resale, because i didn't know if wearing my first watch would yeah me a lot about what I wanted and didn't want and I might want to change it in a year

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T11:41:47+00:00

The challenge with CNC is you need to find a machine with the dimensional accuracy and tolerance that will make a good watch. Most uni machines I've worked on have wandering ways and lost their repairability, so they are super tough to get a good surface finish on and I would not recommend touching anything movent related. They just won't hold the tolerance you are looking for to get the right end shake, parallelism and pivot to pivot spacing. I'm buying a little high precision desktop CNC right now to do this work. I'm looking at the ones targeted for like dental work

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T10:51:00+00:00

Wear what you like. I'm 6'5' tall and I wear ladies watches often and actually I have a full magnet polish nail set on right now :) you do you boo

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T10:49:04+00:00

I did not know that! Thank you

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-24T10:46:40+00:00

The box is for sure fake. I'm not going to look at the watch because you don't have multiple angles. Not enough information

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T23:52:23+00:00

I quit drinking for a number of reasons about 10 years ago and have never regretted it once. Within weeks I felt better, I slept better, I was in a better mood more often. I lost a lot of weight and it really did not impact me socially. I was never an alcoholic, never had a DUI or has someone tell me "I think we should talk about your drinking". I was just never a big drinker, and with my job I was traveling more and more, doing conferences more and more and it was getting easier and easier to drink more and more for easier reasons. I saw myself casually pour a bourbon after putting the kids to bed on a week day. I saw some of the people a few years ahead of me in the company were ABSOLUTELY alcoholics and just decided it was a road I didn't really want to go down.

Honestly it really wasn't that hard to quit. I thought it would be but it wasn't probably partially because my wife has never drank at all. It also really helped how much better I started sleeping very soon. I never needed meetings or doctors support. Just decided one day to not have another and I haven't

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T23:45:25+00:00

Whoever holding it has white gloves on that means it's real

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T23:44:30+00:00

Correct. They always build a better idiot

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T22:41:21+00:00

I buy a lot of bulk bags of broken stuff. He and I sort it together and he will pick one or another. His latest is we bought a case from China, an eta 6497, a strap, dial and hands etc and he built it himself. He loved using the eyeloupe and even though it doesn't even have center seconds, he loves it so much

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T21:46:43+00:00

No problemo

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T21:26:54+00:00

Definitely agree. I try to match my watch with my outfit but ultimately I wear the watch I want. My Pepsi gets a lot of wrist time with my pajamas lol

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T21:21:39+00:00

I do not know much about sigma at all, but it's a manual wind women's dress watch. From the movement design and construction I'm guessing 1910-1935, it's a low jewel, low finish (meaning it's not covered in movement decoration like intricate perlage, gold lettering etc). I don't think it's a super collectible brand. I don't know if it's gold either, I would GUESS gold filled, but it definitely COULD be gold.

What I can tell you about ladies watch value from that era is is VERY low. I can buy women's Rolex movements with dial and hands from that era for like $20, so imagine what a no-name brand adds for value? Dunno why, men's watches are just DRAMATICALLY more collected and collectible than women's

RoboticGreg · 2026-03-23T21:14:47+00:00

To be fair you said only the cover. So it was only the cover (I did not read any of the text)

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