This one is a nice looking grade 344 Elgin, 12 size, 17 jewels, made about 1927.
The movement needed a balance staff. I put the balance assembly in the lathe to cut away the broken staff and realized that the wheel was very loose. In fact it had never been correctly secured on the old staff. I just pulled it free. It's hard to believe this watch ran ok like that, even before the staff broke.
Reassembling the balance, properly riveted...
The threads for the balance cock screw were stripped, in fact completely gone. Elgin screws just dropped free into the hole.
I got out a jar of screws and found one with different pitch but a close diameter and length, and cut the head down to fit. I had to reduce the diameter of the head quite a bit, and also under cut it so the screw would reach down further than the original. It grips.
The timing screws on this were not just off but wildly wrong. So time consuming working to pull that sort of issue back into a reasonable rate...
I went to tighten the cannon pinion on this and a tiny flake of what looked like CA glue popped out from inside. Everything worked smoothly after tightening the cannon pinion properly.
I found a stem that would work as a replacement on the case. I did have to shorten the square end a bit though. The case is a pretty compact style.
The case is pretty unique. I'd hate to have to find a replacement crystal for one of these.
See the album for this project here:
I got out a jar of screws and found one with different pitch but a close diameter and length, and cut the head down to fit. I had to reduce the diameter of the head quite a bit, and also under cut it so the screw would reach down further than the original. It grips.
See the album for this project here:
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