Hi Guys, was tinkering round with a Elgin Pocket watch this weekend and i ran some of the parts when disassembled through the ultrasonic, the bridges were fine but the rachet wheels have all tarnished and look awful now.
Whats the reason behind this so i know not to do it again.
Will do when i get back home, this also happened to the click spring an the other springs for the movements, this happened once before with the pivots for the wheels <- they all went
Currently i run them a few times in the ultrasonic machine with the water diluted with the maplin solution and then dunk them in alcahol so they dont rust.....
Brasso would do OK, probably. Autosol and/or Goddards silver polish would also be good. Just as long as you do it 'off the watch', and put it through the ultrasonic afterwards.
BTW Is your's a James 7000 Ultrasonic cleaner, by any chance? The timer thing is bit of a bind, isn't it?
i'd say the problem is with the fluid , if you are going to polish the wheels with any cutting compount (brasso /autosol etc) , be aware it will probably remove the spiral finish on them or part bugger it up.
*what cleaning fluid are you using? , it should be non corrosive (something like rubisol )
im talking about the fluid used in the ultrasonics water and the sea salt stuff i mentioned earlier.... right now i do this to most of the parts but that seems to be making them black, if i clean it up with brasso, wouldn't putting it back in the ultrasonic just make it black again?
Perhaps after cleaning the parts with the damaged finish, you could apply something similar to bluing. A cold finishing compound, there are quite a few available.
you should be using a proper watchmakers solution like the one i mentioned , i'd say the one you are using is 'general purpose' for things like rings etc and is too corrosive.
Jnash, have a quick Google for cousinsuk (links aren't allowed on this forum) and then look at their watch cleaning solutions. I just has a quick look myself and it states, certainly on the ones I looked at, if they are suitable for an ultrasonic cleaner.
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