VSF rotor noise

[melody]

Thanks guys for the comment about grease. Lubricating parts in ways they weren’t meant to you can get a lot of conflicting information but you made the right choice.

Oil not grease. Grease is great for bearings with heavy loads but this is like a skateboard or fidget spinner.
greased bearings, counterintuitively, do not decrease friction. Their only purpose is to do away with sliding metal on metal contact and replace it with rolling friction along with grease to keep metal-metal contact to minimum. Its only purpose is to last longer, but the energy wasted as heat is slightly higher at least while everything is brand new and cold.

in watchmaking this means when greased your rotor cannot build up as much speed to wind against spring power. The grease sucks away the energy you worked so hard to create.

In some applications d5 and 1300 are interchangeable. 1300 is the same thickness but synthetic. D5 will in theory gum up after 5-10 years. But i have seen watches with natural lubrication keep running.

 

[Snil]

Thanks guys, I will see if I can get my hands on some good oil.

 

[Rupert Fripp]

Thanks guys, I will see if I can get my hands on some good oil.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes as I could use a quieter rotor!

 

[Orev]

Thanks guys, I will see if I can get my hands on some good oil.

Any updates?


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[Snil]

Any updates?


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Not yet, still struggling to find oil that is not $50 or more

 

[mech500]

Not yet, still struggling to find oil that is not $50 or more

Think I said this earlier today as well but using expensive oil designed for £3000 gen movements on a £30 rep movement is completely unnecessary imo. Rep and gen movements are not built and assembled to the same tolerances - so kinda pointless using the spec spec precision oils on reps.


For rotor bearings I simply use a decent smear of silicone grease. Think seiko recommendation it. I’ve never had an issue. Does a better job at silencing reps than oil designed for gens

 

[mech500]

Not yet, still struggling to find oil that is not $50 or more

Think I said this earlier today as well but using expensive oil designed for £3000 gen movements on a £30 rep movement is completely unnecessary imo. Rep and gen movements are not built and assembled to the same tolerances - so kinda pointless using the spec spec precision oils on reps.


For rotor bearings I simply use a decent smear of silicone grease. Think seiko recommendation it. I’ve never had an issue. Does a better job at silencing reps than oil designed for gens

 

[Snil]

Think I said this earlier today as well but using expensive oil designed for £3000 gen movements on a £30 rep movement is completely unnecessary imo. Rep and gen movements are not built and assembled to the same tolerances - so kinda pointless using the spec spec precision oils on reps.


For rotor bearings I simply use a decent smear of silicone grease. Think seiko recommendation it. I’ve never had an issue. Does a better job at silencing reps than oil designed for gens

Nobody would be happier than I, but I get insecure when some people in this thread strongly disagrees.

 

[Orev]

I saw a YouTube video of someone using beard trimmer oil. That should work right.


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[mech500]

Nobody would be happier than I, but I get insecure when some people in this thread strongly disagrees.

Meh. People just over think things. They Want to use 50£ oil on rep movements that are covered with pubes, swarf and are either bone dry or covered in oily finger prints...that just makes no sense to me. Ok, if you’re doing a complete movement clean and overhaul, then yeh, knock yourself out, use gen spec oils but if yours just looking to silence the rotor but do nothing about the pubes in there, then just stick with seiko spec silicone grease.

 

[mech500]

I saw a YouTube video of someone using beard trimmer oil. That should work right.


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Don’t see why you’d want to risk oil getting all over the place when silicone grease (being thicker) does a better job at silencing and it wants to stay within the the
Bearing race better than oils which want to escape (being thinner)


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[Snil]

Meh. People just over think things. They Want to use 50£ oil on rep movements that are covered with pubes, swarf and are either bone dry or covered in oily finger prints...that just makes no sense to me. Ok, if you’re doing a complete movement clean and overhaul, then yeh, knock yourself out, use gen spec oils but if yours just looking to silence the rotor but do nothing about the pubes in there, then just stick with seiko spec silicone grease.

Makes sense, I’ve been converted lol. I’ll get to it

 

[viper420]

microscopic amount of Molykote Dx applied with smallest size oiler has worked well for me, but when I say microscopic i really mean smallest amount possible on the tip of the oiler.

 

[Snil]

Today was the day, I got silicone grease and removed the rotor and applied ever so little grease on the bearings and put it back together and voilà it’s almost completely silent.
super happy!
only problem now is the 904, I don’t have the tools for that snap on caseback

 

[Bignasty59]

I’ve had good luck with both oils and greases. It’s not so much the product as it is the amount. More is not always better!


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[Daytofan]

May I ask what kind of grease you use? Type or brand and how do you apply it? Do you unscrew the parts or do you put it in the gap with a fine tip as shown on the first page?

 

[mech500]

May I ask what kind of grease you use? Type or brand and how do you apply it? Do you unscrew the parts or do you put it in the gap with a fine tip as shown on the first page?

Press in some cheap silicone grease. I think it’s unnecessary spending £££ on precious oils when the rest of the movement is a warehouse built unserviced rep that is dirty in all probability


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[Daytofan]

Press in some cheap silicone grease. I think it’s unnecessary spending £££ on precious oils when the rest of the movement is a warehouse built unserviced rep that is dirty in all probability


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Okay, thanks. Is there anything else to consider? Viscosity or anything else?

 

[mech500]

Okay, thanks. Is there anything else to consider? Viscosity or anything else?

People here will discuss it to death like we’re assembling a perfect clean, pube free, precision made swiss movement....it’s all academic really. I just use eBay searched “silicone grease” and press it into the bearing race. Does a great job of silencing. Been doing it for a decade, no issues.


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[Daytofan]

People here will discuss it to death like we’re assembling a perfect clean, pube free, precision made swiss movement....it’s all academic really. I just use eBay searched “silicone grease” and press it into the bearing race. Does a great job of silencing. Been doing it for a decade, no issues.


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Ok Perfect, thanks again