Servicing a VR3235 movement (my first attempt at servicing a movement).

[dogwood]

i finally got this bastard re-assembled. It only took several hours, but I think I have a method that’s repeatable.

1. put the bottom Jewel with the hole through it into the brass insert in the main plate.
2. apply a little bit of lubrication to the hole in the jewel.
3. muse rodico (because my skills with tweezers are lacking) to move the cap stone jewel into position and then use an oiler to push it into position on top of the oiled hole jewel.
4. Use rodico to move the spring from the parts tray to the movement.
5. cover the movement with cling wrap and use Pegwood and an oiler poked through the film to maneuver the spring into place. This part takes many iterations to get it to work. Take breaks. Remember to breathe. Shake out your arms if they’re getting tired.
6. once the back of the spring / pivot end is as close as possible to where it should be, use the Pegwood to hold it in place and the oiler to get one arm and then the other to hook onto the brass rim of the setting.

i know this is probably easy for people who’ve done it a bunch of times. But this took me days of failures and hours of trying today before I got it. (This is probably why I’m not a surgeon in real life.

 

[RobSe1]

i finally got this bastard re-assembled. It only took several hours, but I think I have a method that’s repeatable.

1. put the bottom Jewel with the hole through it into the brass insert in the main plate.
2. apply a little bit of lubrication to the hole in the jewel.
3. muse rodico (because my skills with tweezers are lacking) to move the cap stone jewel into position and then use an oiler to push it into position on top of the oiled hole jewel.
4. Use rodico to move the spring from the parts tray to the movement.
5. cover the movement with cling wrap and use Pegwood and an oiler poked through the film to maneuver the spring into place. This part takes many iterations to get it to work. Take breaks. Remember to breathe. Shake out your arms if they’re getting tired.
6. once the back of the spring / pivot end is as close as possible to where it should be, use the Pegwood to hold it in place and the oiler to get one arm and then the other to hook onto the brass rim of the setting.

i know this is probably easy for people who’ve done it a bunch of times. But this took me days of failures and hours of trying today before I got it. (This is probably why I’m not a surgeon in real life.

I feel 100% with you with that paraflex spring! I have a VS3235 Movement waiting for last parts to replace the Balance jewel (upper). I also lost a paraflex spring, this thing jumps out of the orbit !! And there is NO way to get a rep part...i ordered a gen shock system to get the clip!

The tip with the cover plastic is fantastic !!!! Will try it too. Good work Mate Hope you can mount the bastard into the case soon and enjoy the watch again.

 

[dogwood]

Oh boy... update... One of the pallet stones came out when I was trying to apply Moebius 9415 grease to it. I literally just touched the stone with the oiler and the stone stuck to the oiler when I pulled it away. This tells me either the shellac was weak from the start, or I did something to degrade the shellac as part of my cleaning. My cleaning procedure was 10 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner in a bath of naphtha (lighter fluid), then drying the parts, then another 10 minute bath in a fresh solution of naphtha in the ultrasonic cleaner. Then I removed the pallet fork and balance (the two parts with shellac secured jewels), and placed the dried parts into a 99.9% alcohol solution for another 10 minutes in the ultrasonic bath. I was pretty sure that naphtha was safe for shellac, but maybe not for that duration? Or was it the length of time I left it in the ultrasonic cleaner? Or did I just get a poorly secured pallet stone?

Some pics:

Here's the pallet fork before cleaning (I don't have a pic showing the shellac side)

Here's the pallet stone that came away stuck to the oiler:


A close up of the pallet fork showing the shellac... does the colour seem right? Or does this look like my washing solution destroyed the shellac?

 

[dogwood]

Does anyone with experience doing such things know if a generic 3135 pallet fork (e.g. something like this from Ebay) will work in a VR3235? I've seen several people have swapped in gen 3235 escape wheel + pallet fork onto VS3235 movement, but since the VR3235 is much more like the gen 3135 movement (and the pallet fork looks very similar), I'm hoping that a gen 3135 pallet fork could be a replacement part for this movement.

Tagging Nikz19 and oascom for help (see post above about the pallet jewel coming out of my VR3235 movement's pallet fork).

 

[Oascom]

3135 pallet fork works.

 

[Plaasbaas]

Sorry to read this. Ultimatively it might have been the alcohol solution, although some people would even avoid putting parts with shellac into an ultrasonic cleaner altogether.

 

[dogwood]

Sorry to read this. Ultimatively it might have been the alcohol solution, although some people would even avoid putting parts with shellac into an ultrasonic cleaner altogether.

Re-reading my post, I wasn't super clear. I made sure not to put the shellac parts into the alcohol solution. The shellac parts only got exposed to 10+10 minutes in naphtha in the ultrasonic cleaner. But good to know that some people avoid putting these parts in an ultrasonic cleaner at all. I live and learn... And it does look like the 3135 pallet fork will work. I've also put a query out to Peggy at DBFS to see if she can source a VR3135 pallet fork for less than the Clark's one (or whatever generic version) that I found on ebay. This has been a hell of a lot of fun so far, even though I've made a ton of mistakes. This is a really fun hobby.

 

[Plaasbaas]

Once again, thanks for sharing your journey in such a detailed manner. This way many of us watch tinkerers can learn along with you

Impressive job!

 

[40mm]

My first attempt at regulating the movement.

What an awesome read. I am on the same path as you, except about 200 metres back breathing your dust. I am considering signing up for Mark's courses as well, my 6497 is ordered as I assume Mark does not provide it. Did you start with the Basic course, or skip right to the intermediate, or repair course?

Starting with a 3235 was a bit reckless but it seems to have worked out. I have been practising on my Mexican Rolex A2824's and launched many a screw across the room as well. I am now starting to get the hang of how hard to squeeze the tweezers.

Please keep us up to date on your progress. So far, I am very impressed!

 

[dogwood]

What an awesome read. I am on the same path as you, except about 200 metres back breathing your dust. I am considering signing up for Mark's courses as well, my 6497 is ordered as I assume Mark does not provide it. Did you start with the Basic course, or skip right to the intermediate, or repair course?

Starting with a 3235 was a bit reckless but it seems to have worked out. I have been practising on my Mexican Rolex A2824's and launched many a screw across the room as well. I am now starting to get the hang of how hard to squeeze the tweezers.

Please keep us up to date on your progress. So far, I am very impressed!

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed reading… I’ve certainly enjoyed the journey. And yes, I’d highly recommend taking all three levels of Mark’s course if you’re just starting out like I am. Level one was great because it gave me a solid vocabulary of all the parts’ names. Level two was great because it was quite a bit more hands on and specific to the 6497. Level three (I’m only half way through) but it gets a bit more theoretical so I’m really liking that.

and yeah it was totally reckless to start on the VR3235… but if push came to shove and I destroyed the movement, it would only be a $200 mistake since I could just buy another one on AliExpress and use the broken on for spare parts.

thanks again for the encouragement, I’ll keep posting updates as they happen.

 

[dogwood]

A few updates on the situation... I've ordered a replacement 3135 pallet fork from Ebay; it should arrive in a week or so. But playing around with the movement lead me to discover something else that seems strange. There's a little decoration plate that would normally sit just behind the pallet bridge / under the balance bridge. I always though that the text "ROLEX + <serial number>" was actually engraved onto the main plate, but it turns out there's actually a little piece of metal that's engraved that's separate from the main plate. When I was pulling parts out of the cleaner I noticed this piece for the first time. I assumed (since it doesn't have any screw holes) that it was held in place / clamped down by the pallet bridge. But it clearly isn't. Is this plate glued into place? Did my 30+ minute ultrasonic bath eat away the adhesive and separate these two parts?

 

[JonasBuskas]

very intersting topic and all the little mistakes that you have done and share with us are very useful to know for us as beginner in this lobby.
I suppose that you can glue it or juste don’t fit it it just cosmetic plate

 

[dogwood]

very intersting topic and all the little mistakes that you have done and share with us are very useful to know for us as beginner in this lobby.
I suppose that you can glue it or juste don’t fit it it just cosmetic plate

Yeah I’m thinking of gluing it in. But I wonder what glue to use. Maybe superglue?

 

[Raddave]

dont use super glue , GS hypo , of dont use it at all

 

[dogwood]

dont use super glue , GS hypo , of dont use it at all

Awesome. Thanks!!! GS Hypo ordered...

 

[Plaasbaas]

dont use super glue , GS hypo , of dont use it at all

GS Hypo, good to know! Thanks OP and Raddave, learning something new here almost every day.

 

[Troklo]

Great thread! Thanks for sharing, I come here everyday to see if there are new updates. It's like waiting for the next episode of your favourite series

 

[WatchSmith.US]

GS Hypo is good stuff but it dries very quickly and is stringy and messy. I hate the damn stuff. I would use a very thin application of 5 minute epoxy.

 

[dogwood]

Update: The Clark 3135 pallet fork arrived a couple of days ago (it came packaged in what looks like a pill case with a bit of sponge to keep it from moving), and today I had the chance to try and install it. The Clark part looks very similar to the VR movement part (see pic below). And when I installed it and got the balance back into the movement it started oscillating nicely. But (there's always a "but"), I'd disassembled the Incabloc shock setting on the balance bridge to clean it and apply new lubrication, when I went to re-assemble the shock setting, I noticed two things: 1) Incabloc shock settings are WAY easier to deal with than KIF settings, and 2) once I had the setting re-assembled and the spring's legs back in the locked positions, the balance wouldn't swing. I'm thinking that I've somehow done something that reduced the end-shake because if I loosen off the screws on the balance bridge then the balance starts to swing. There's a little brass Knurled Nut (for lack of better description) that's under one end of the balance bridge; I'm pretty sure I need to rotate this to adjust the balance arbor end shake, but I'm not really sure how to do so, and I'm not sure if I need a special tool. I tried rotating the thing but it didn't move easily. Does anyone have any experience here? Or is it possible that I've messed up my two shock settings in a way that's reduced the end-shake? Many questions... so much to learn...

 

[dogwood]

I seem to be getting only around 90 degrees of amplitude (like the balance wheel only spins 90 degrees each way). Here’s a slow-motion video of the amount of swing I’m getting: