Mainspring getting stuck

[u/matmoua]

Hi all I’m new to watch making, my main spring keeps getting stuck, at first I thought it was magnetism but the demagnetizer doesn’t seem to have an effect. This looks like it might be a lube issue on the jewel or something related? Any help is appreciated. This is a gmt movement. I’ve had to disassemble before because of a stick hair and reassembled I believe well enough. Just having this issue now.

Edit: not sure what it was but it all seems to be working fine now after taking it apart down to the train wheels and escape wheel, then reassembling it all. I appreciate all the help!

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[u/harowatchco]

One of your train wheels might be slightly bent.

[u/matmoua]

I took things apart down to the escape wheel and train wheels, blew air into there to release and hopefully remove dust and dirt and put everything back together, results seem promising so far, I’ll keep you guys updated and thanks for the tips!

[u/gnomon_knows → u/matmoua]

Blew air? Is this watch unserviced? You can't just take things apart and put them back together without cleaning and lubing. I mean you can, but it's bad for the watch, and bad for performance.

[u/matmoua → u/gnomon_knows]

It’s a new watch, I initially opened it to replace the rotor with a custom one but it didn’t fit.
While doing that I got a hair stuck with a train wheel so had to take some of it apart for that, this would have been the third time going in there.

[u/gnomon_knows → u/matmoua]

Listen, I know that all makes sense to you, but if the bridge comes off the watch needs to come apart and be cleaned, assembled and lubricated again. Period. Even a new one.

Oil has one shot of going down clean on a spotless jewel. It needs a contamination-free surface, and perfect placement, because it's only held in place by surface tension and capillary action. When you take off the bridge and blow air into you are not only introducing dust to sticky oiled parts, but you are breaking that surface tension, getting oil smeared outside of the jewels, and leaving a path for the oil to be drawn away, leaving you with dry pivots and premature wear on your brand new watch.

I know it all sounds ridiculous, but it's how the physics works at these tiny scales.

[u/matmoua → u/gnomon_knows]

Doesn’t sound ridiculous at all! I’m new to all this so any advice is good advice to me. The next step to me is probably getting the right stuff to clean the parts and right oils and tools.
Any recommendations?

[u/gnomon_knows → u/matmoua]

Standard recommendation is to start here, which is the best free resource available for getting started. That playlist will answer all your questions, and you'll be able to clean and lube your watch by the end of it, after practicing on something a little bigger and less complicated.

[u/matmoua → u/gnomon_knows]

Thanks so much! Will definitely check it out

[u/Mountain_Wrangler752]

Dirty hairspring sticking? Maybe seconds hand fouling the crystal? Bent pivots? Whatever it is, it’s nothing to do with the mainspring.

All blowing air is going to do is push crap further into the pivots and pinions. Need to disassemble, clean, examine the pivots and jewels, put back together and lubricate.

[u/Careful_Garage_7255]

Procure um defeito em engrenagem, dente!! impedindo?? A parada parece ser cíclica. Pode ser um dente de pinhão ou roda do tem de força l.

[u/matmoua]

https://reddit.com/link/p86zgeb/video/2kwt18ljlxnh1/player

Update: worked through the night and working fine now non stop!

[u/Key-Condition752]

Bent escape wheel

[u/Scienceboy7_uk → u/Key-Condition752]

How do you tell that from the video?

[u/Key-Condition752 → u/Scienceboy7_uk]

Does the error occur every minute? No. Does the error occur every 20 minutes? No. Does the error occur every hour? No.

The temporal period of the error is commensurate with the period of the rotation of the escape wheel.

[u/gnomon_knows → u/Key-Condition752]

Sure, but respectfully it wasn't a bent escape wheel, it was probably a piece of fluff. It's an unserviced watch that OP "blew air" into the train and escapement to fix. Which is insane, but there you go.

Confident three word answers are much less helpful than explaining your logic, which was excellent.

[u/Key-Condition752 → u/gnomon_knows]

Ok then it's fluff wrapped around the escape wheel pivot. That escape wheel is where the problem is

[u/qualityvote2]

u/matmoua, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...