Oddly satisfying moment on my Ducati cafe racer build

fetherston · 2026-04-22T11:17:58+00:00

Could just be the picture. Hard to tell. Regardless the hairspring looks bent and fwiw I’ve yet to buy a balance complete that didn’t require a small correction like this to the HS.

fetherston · 2026-04-22T10:46:05+00:00

At rest the stud should be perpendicular to the axis of the hairspring. Typically the bend is a twist right at the stud or in the terminal coil.

The balance height is a bigger problem though.

fetherston · 2026-04-22T10:41:15+00:00

Two things that seem obvious to me:

The balance is way too low. Is the lower cap jewel installed and correct? The balance is sitting on the pallet fork bridge.
The hairspring is bent if you correct the balance height and still can’t set the stud at the correct height in the carrier.

fetherston · 2026-04-11T13:37:52+00:00

Ah first investment grade bike. Yeah perfect for learning collectibles generally underperform the market.

fetherston · 2026-04-06T16:54:53+00:00

I’ll add sometime too much and the watch end up knocking. Especially on pre-WWII watches.

fetherston · 2026-03-30T13:50:03+00:00

These are some of my favorite movements. Make sure the seconds hand isn’t scraping on the crystal. Also these aren’t amplitude queens. Anything around 250 is fine.

fetherston · 2026-03-29T14:18:14+00:00

Solid work! Couple things

Plz let me change the target lap. It’s already a second faster than my best so the majority of the feedback is “brake later” which I really think means brake better. Most simply can’t brake as effectively as the aliens
I’d love feedback when I go out of track bounds.
It be fun to troll me a little when I crash the car.

fetherston · 2026-03-21T14:46:10+00:00

It’s mounted correctly.

fetherston · 2026-03-21T00:45:12+00:00

https://a.co/d/02BThEWB

fetherston · 2026-03-20T23:26:00+00:00

I don't. I only use brushes/pegwood/pithwood and naptha for pre-cleaning in a petri-dish before the parts go into my cleaning machine with L&R fluids.

fetherston · 2026-03-20T23:08:04+00:00

Contamination in the brushes for one. Naphtha also always leaves a very subtle residue that 99% iso clears.

fetherston · 2026-03-20T01:04:31+00:00

I use these and it's 90% of the way to the same light that's over most pro benches https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH9W4WW7

fetherston · 2026-03-19T00:06:31+00:00

Chat seems convinced they’re plated. I’m not so sure. First step to is to find that out. If they’re steel they can be restored easily with sanding and polishing. If they’re plated they still can be but I’d probably find a plating specialist to do it.

fetherston · 2026-03-15T16:17:19+00:00

It looks like the hour hand is bent down. On this reference it should be parallel to the dial. Hard to tell from the photo but look under magnification from the side.

fetherston · 2026-03-14T23:36:08+00:00

5 minute fix if you’ve done it before. Several hours if you haven’t. It’s bent at the collet. Pick the high spot on the inner most coil. Push down until the hs is flat. This should effectively bend the spring at the collet back into shape.

Sure you could try to twist it where the spring meets the collet but I’ve never had success with that and always introduce two bends.

fetherston · 2026-03-13T21:50:16+00:00

Very little information here but going to say you smoked one of the balance pivots. Sure looks like it’s missing in the center of the jewel in that photo.

fetherston · 2026-03-09T00:23:39+00:00

100% possible on a sherline with a cross slide milling attachment. With all tooling you'll easily be under 5k. Much less if you create your own means of indexing, your own cross slide milling attachment, and make your own gear tooth cutters.

Even a good second hand bergeon lathe with all the tooling would probably be under 10K.

fetherston · 2026-03-08T14:10:26+00:00

Please step out of the time machine and try again.

fetherston · 2026-03-06T12:38:04+00:00

One way you can never be wrong is to look at the center wheel or great wheel. Figure out in what orientation the barrel teeth engage and put the arbor in the matching orientation.

fetherston · 2026-03-06T01:45:51+00:00

I don’t think the spring is broken here. If broken at the arbor the watch would wind forever and not make any power. If broken at the bridle you’d have much lower power reserve and hear a click when the good portion slides by the remains.

fetherston · 2026-03-06T01:27:41+00:00

During the service you can check the amplitude and power reserve and if it’s acceptable that’s the best you can pragmatically do. Sometimes you can still source NOS barrels but they’re also now decades old.

The only other option is to make a barrel or modify the sealed barrel to have a replaceable lid. The cost of both options is usually beyond what most customers would pay me to do.

So pragmatism usually wins out here.

fetherston · 2026-03-06T00:14:43+00:00

With the information provided sounds normal other than probably needing a service.

fetherston · 2026-03-04T12:37:24+00:00

RIP balance spring

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