Movement spacers...

[automatico]

Everone knows that since 'Stilty' left town there has been a shortage of precision movement spacers.

I tried the 'run of the mill' brass spacers from eBay etc and they usually work Ok but what I really needed were spacers that are a very close fit to the movement on the inside and to the case on the outside.

 

I needed close fitting spacers because I use quite a few dials with dial feet removed on projects with Eta movements and the regular spacers might or might not be a good fit depending on the ID/OD of the spacer and you need a good fit to hold everything in place if there are no dial feet. I looked around and finally found some brass flat washers that are 31.6mm OD x 14.25mm ID x 2.3mm thick so I made a couple spacers out of them to see how they would work. They worked fine.

 

The first one was used for a tutone '16233' DJ with Eta 2836 and I had to cut grooves in the case for case clamps because the case did not have a groove in it to start with. I cut two short grooves inside the case with a cut off wheel mounted on a Dremel tool this time and did not take the time to cut a groove all the way around the inside of the case in the lathe. I used this particular case because it came with a super nice dial and will accept oem crystals and case tubes although it originally came with a Seagull ST6 movement.

I finished it with some aftmkt goldtone tudor/Eta hands, aftmkt case tube, aftmkt sapphire crystal/gasket plus genuine 18k fluted bezel and gold crown. I used an all steel jubilee bracelet and replica '555' hoods with soldered tubes because I did not want to use a bracelet with plated center links as the gp wears away or an aftmkt ss with 14k or 18k gold center link jubilee bracelet because they cost so much now.

 

I ground a slot out of the spacer to clear the stem and slightly rounded off the top edge so the case clamps would not be resting on a sharp edge. I used the regular Eta calendar spacer and applied 'dial dots' to the dial where it rests on the brass spacer...this spacer basically clamps the dial to the top of the case so the regular calendar/dial spacer is only a 'spacer' as intended and does not have to be stuck to the dial. The case clamps supply enough tension to keep everything in place and since the spacer is a close fit to the case and movement everything stays in place when the crown is pulled out to setting position etc and there is no dial scuffing or movement because of a loose fitting spacer.

 

On the next spacer I am going to cut a very slight rim around the top of the spacer so the dial fits down into the spacer and can not move at all (there was about .5mm slack between the dial and case). The rim in the spacer will only be about .1mm or .2mm high so the dial will still be pressed against the top of the case as before. Because the dial is about .5mm smaller than the spacer there is a slight possibility the dial could shift a little and cause the hour wheel to bind against the edge of the dial hole...this will also cause the date to get out of whack in the dial window. The slight rim around the spacer will prevent this.

 

This is relatively easy to do IF you have a lathe or know some on who does. The only problem I had was that it took a lot of cuts to enlarge the center hole in the brass washer because my lathe is small (Sherline MM). I bought a step bit and enlarged the center hole in the second spacer in a drill press and it went a lot quicker.

 

I would advise anyone who plans to stick with this hobby in any form to invest in a small lathe because there is simply no way around it when you need one. A 'watchmaker' WW lathe is Ok if you have a three or four jaw chuck but they are really not powerful enough for jobs like this. The Sherline is a good choice at a little over $500 and they have many accessories to go with them. I have a WW lathe but went ahead and bought the Sherline 'WR Smith tool rest' kit to go with it so I can use hand held gravers and WW collets. It uses standard 8mm WW collets same as most WW lathes...my WW lathe is an old Marshall probably made in the 1950s with a leather drive belt and does not have much power.

 

I do not take in any work at all because it is too easy to get covered up with projects.

[tomhorn]

With all of the franken projects going on I was a bit surprised that no one took up the project of custom spacers after Stilty stopped doing them.

 

I wish I had the skills to make them, but it seems like everyone is going the raffles-time route. I know PBdad had to modify mine during the DateJust build. Wish there was an easier way. The Stilty rings took a lot of the difficulty out of the builds.

[1680]

Personally I never had any problems with that, I have a box full of movement rings and always find what I need maybe it's just luck...