Why do I keep buying junk broken watches at auction to take apart rather than just buying all the separate pieces online?
I've successfully dissected three old watches. The first watch I bought from Salvation Army and in the process of taking it apart, I stabbed myself with an exacto knife, a thumbtack, and a screwdriver went under my fingernail. I gave up at that point and came back to it a few days later, where it seemed to fall apart like magic.
Last night I picked up two matching old broken watches at the auction. (AND 60 SKELETON KEYS! OMGGGGGGG)...but in taking those apart I got the exacto blade down my cuticle. And of course, this was about 15 minutes after I finished cleaning rust off the previously mentioned 60 skeleton keys. Do I need a tetanus shot? Well if my thumb falls off, I guess that would be a yes. Anyway. At this point I just smashed both watches with a hammer, and they fell apart quite nicely. Actually...they didn't, I had to cut the un-interesting faces off ( trust me if they looked like normal watches, I wouldn't have), and access the gears of the watch, and then pry the sections apart by ripping off that knob thing you use to change the time. When all was said and done, I was pleasantly surprised that a--these weren't battery operated and b--they had a lot more nicely shaped gears than the last watch.
But I smashed them with a hammer! There has got to be a more efficient way.
And vinegar to clean rust is a decent solution, but it really wrecks your hands in the morning. Off to make more jewelry, I'm pretty far behind on my 10-a-week goal but then again I had a pretty busy week.
I started incorporating coins into my work as well. weeeeee!
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