Any Machinists here?
 

I'm probably too easily impressed. This video of carving a watch wheel blew me away..

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My dad was trained in Germany to be a watchmaker . I remember as a kid watching him make parts on his watchmaker lathe . His hands were like a catchers mitt but he could do such small and intricate work .

His profession in the US was a tool and die maker for IBM . But he was always working side jobs fixing watches .

I'm an amateur. Making chips is addictive. When you learn the metal lathe, all of a sudden you're using the drill press much better. An so on.

I'm not, but there are a few on line that I like watching, and just seeing how the smart people attack a problem really helps with my remarkably amateurish projects in the garage.

Learning to hold the part seems to be the key to everything. Learning how to do common tasks quickly and without overthinking is next. Tools can be learned, skills can be honed, but I think patience is in the DNA, and it's patience that separates the Clicksprings from the maddening crowd.

They used an index head to cut those teeth.

When I first saw it I thought they for sure would have used a gear hob. Video is annoying but it does the job as to giving you a mental picture.

I worked for a couple years next to the hob machining center at Joy Manufacturing in Franklin, PA while running a radial arm drill press and a big (ass) hone.

Here's the hob vid. The watch gear is so small, I wonder if they ever used this angle?

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Excellent video, Paul.

Check out this guy.

Btw, what's up with the fingernails of those machinists? Ain't scratching anything with those.

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My wife has an addiction to old antique clocks, and an antique husband fortunately. ;)

Anyway she had a "clock guy" that fixes and keeps them running. On occasion he has to make a clock part. He says watches are just too frigging small for him, so he does not do watches. His workbench always has some cool clock part he is making to fix an client's clock.

I own an 50+ year old stick welder, and a torch. I have done a few simple projects, but I am a total bodge welder. One of my buddies is a professional welder, and owns his own business making custom trailers for oil field and boring equipment. He welds constantly every day, sometimes 16 hour days when he has a short deadline, and the customer keeps throwing money at him.

For the few welding projects I have needed I find it 1000 times better to take it to him, in seconds it looks like a robot weld, just perfect. I take him to dinner or lunch on occasion as a payment because he refuses any money.

I'm pretty sure you guys all know about clickspring. I've watched him for years. This is a video of him building a tool using tools and cutters he previously made to create a "watchmakers faceplate". The effort he gives to just some coil springs is amazing.

He's got more patience than Job, plus, his editing and camerawork are on a whole 'nother level than most video content providers. (I always wonder who HIS inspiration is if he's this good)

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