Visit to Sea-Gull Watch Factory | Watchmaking Vlog #7 

Thanks Phillip :)

+Alex Smith Thanks Alex :)

+john hendrix Thanks John :)

+Ibraheem Merchant thank you

That’s so cool! I think they make some great watches too! It was amazing to see just how much! All made in house which I really respect ✊👍🏼

I'm glad to hear Arbiter 😀

Thanks for your reply precision! That is a path a may have to take, hmmm using a cutter like that supported both ends is a good idea! Thank you so much, and I hope you get to that stage sooner rather than later! :)

+Bill Lightner Thanks Bill! "Head down and spindle on" I like it!

+Drawing watches Thank you! :)

No worries, thanks Scott! I have a couple of ideas. I hope they work better than the ideas I was throwing at my most recent toolmaking failures. But I will have it no other way!!

Okay, I thought about it more. I am believe a carbide burr, single cut, with a much smaller shank than the burr itself. Is that what you were considering?

I believe we maybe on the same brainwave !

Hello, thanks for your comment :) I will try to provide more insight in future videos

Cheers Mitchell! I only know basics bug more than happy to show you whenever you want :)

I wanna get that watch now

🙏🏼 thank uou

Thanks Brian! Appreciate it

Hi Henry, When my lathe was being made I asked Colin at Cowells if I could get a drawbar so I could uae Sherline collets which I use. I will slowly start a collection of high quality Schaublin or Cowells B8 collets. They are expensive though. I'm not sure if Bergeon do have a B8 collet which I think is the same dimensions as the Schaublin B8. They don't say where they are made, and from what I have seen Bergeon in some of their tools don't have the same quality as they did decades ago.

Thanks for the detailed insight Turning Point! That is super helpful. I use the centre hole usually under 1mm which is in a sapphire jewel to ensure the work is centre. As the holes are located all over the workpiece I'm unsure how I would use a DTI ? This is because I actually can't think of how it work (my limited knowledge), only because I know of the basic DTI (plunger and ball end). I am always looking for new and easier methods!! Are there ball tips that small? I understand the tailstock alignment will never be perfect, and over time wear will play it's part. I never align it so the cross hair is the middle of the hole. I usually align the jewel hole to touch two lines in one quadrant that the cross hair makes. That way I can see which way to move the piece when it crosses the lines when I rotate the headstock. Once the hole is touching both lines for full rotation I know the hole is centre with the headstock. That's why I choose to bore the holes with a lathe tool now instead of drill, so I hopefully don't have inaccuracies from tailstock alignment affect the hole. I really don't know if this correct, if I try centre the cross hair in centre of hole sometimes its hard to tell when eccentricity is small. What are your thoughts?

Hole drilling is actualy a roughing operation Dean since drills don't and can't drill round, straight, or even on size holes. So you've already got that figured out. Took me years to learn the same. Single point boring like with a lathe will produce holes about as good as your spindle bearings will allow. And with the lathe you spent decent money on they should be pretty good. I've got a set of .375" diameter shank solid carbide boring tools I believe were made by Micro 100. The smallest will bore a hole as small as .047" (imperial) or just over 1 mm metric. Call it 1.5 mm in round numbers. Boring straightens and makes the hole round after an under size drill is used to rough it out and allow access for the boring tool. Generally a reamer in a very good floating holder is then used to size the hole. I know watch maker reamers are sold but industrial quality dimensional reamers are likely cheaper and I can't think of any size even in a watch that a imperial or metric reamer couldn't be found. Shop made D bit reamers are also a traditional watch making tool as well. Either type of reamer will set your finished hole size far easier than boring can if the reamers are tested for what hole size they actualy produce in your chosen material. To do better for hole finish and size then lapping is needed after reaming with either barrel or needle laps in the sizes your looking for. Reaming should be good enough I'd think. There's at least two types of indicators in use today, the usual plunger type with normally 1" or 25 mm of travel and called a dial indicator for the analog type. Then there's a much more accurate very short travel dial test indicator or dti. It has what looks like a lever as the probe tip and that's how they work. My Mitutoyos have only about .030" total travel. In use there generaly a null setting device and by that I mean your trying for the minimum of needle movement or zero and not an actual distance measurement. While I haven't checked on various probe shapes for the dti's I'd imagine someone makes them somewhere. But they screw in place so any size or shape could be shop made with the correct taps to fit whatever dti make is obtained. Mitutoyo gives thread sizes for there dti's on there website so I'd guess most others do as well. Accurate metrology equipment is 100% linear in what your willing to pay for it. And if you can't measure it then you can't make the part if the required accuracy is very tight. That B & S I mentioned in metric would be high on my list, but Mahr, Mitutoyo, Starret are all good as well. A Starret last word indicator isn't a good one though. A second dti in .0005" or it's metric equivent would be very useful to get you close before moving to the far more accurate ones. Easier and shorter to answer the rest with an extremely good book recomendation I own that you need to hunt down. It was first published in 1907 by the American Machinist Library and titled Tool and Gage Work by Goodrich and Stanley. That was well before proper jig borers were in common use yet. In that book they detail how master gages were built for a typewritter manufacturer by aligning each hole position on a lathes faceplate using hardened and ground shop built tool maker buttons, a micrometer and a shop made indicator quite a bit different than what we now use, but the drawings for it are in the book. Those master gauges were aligned by hand on those faceplates to far far under 1/10,000th of an inch for position and then bored. Hand built watch making is a little different, but a lot of the same techniques could be adapted. It's a very interesting book with information I've not seen elsewhere so even getting one shipped to you from Ebay in the U.S. would be well worth it. My guess is the shipping will cost more than what the book usually sells for. There's also some very good information in that book about what I think were the very first set of Johannson gage blocks to enter the United States and what they thought they might be used for. The information in all those very old machinist books does not go out of date. What worked a 100 years ago works just as well today. I'd be willing to bet that the top hand built mechanical watch makers today will ALL have extensive library's not only about watches but machining as well. Despite it being mostly about building tooling for and using a Myford Super 7 lathe the very best information I've ever found out of all the books I own about machining is in the George H. Thomas book The Model Engineers Workshop Manual. Not having a copy will only slow your learning curve down. A bit expensive perhaps, but worth 10 times it's price. Tee Publishing in the UK will have it.

Thank you for your very informative reply. I will definitely try to hunt those books down, and read! I really appreciate it Turning Point !

+Kolie Kay Thank you Kolie :) you will see a lot more soon :)

I'd love to see your methods in more detail -- perhaps a behind the scenes look at your technique used in this video? You have a unique perspective of someone beginning on that road of machining your first movement. The other videos gloss over many of the why's and how's because they are produced by someone who takes the basics for granted...

I will try to incorporate more in future videos. In the meantine if you have any specific questions I am more than happy to answer. :)

Thanks Matt! I am using a Skoal centering scope.

Thanks Karl! I used the existing jewel holes to center. I do want to make my own movement. That is where everything is going to lead. I just think I should walk before I run. So the first is being to be able to make new bridges for an existing movement amd make it exemtremely well. But it is not where I will stay, everything is for the end goal :)

Dean DK Good thinking! Sounds like a reasonable approach. Just don't tie yourself in a knot trying to replicate the results of Swiss CNC machines. The pattern of production will be different depending on the tooling available. Remember Occam's razor!

Thanks Karl. It is great advice, I hadn't heard of Occam's razor, but I read up on its meaning. Thank you very much, it is a great point. :)

Haha indeed! It's pretty awesome to see in a mechanical watch

No.199,HUAN HE NAN ROAD,Tianjin Airport Logistic and Industrial Park

+Xenophon Ruet Thank you. No I only visited from Dec 2016 - jan 2017.

Dean DK I was in China too : )

I've got one great watch!

100% I would

Thanks for reaching out, I am a bit behind in responses sorry. Expect to hear from me very soon via Instagram