Tascione – Review post #3
Tascione – 3rd. post
In the previous post I mentioned the cleaning solutions, oils, rodico and
some other materials and simple hand tools that I had ordered. Received
them a couple of days ago. I had my jars all ready to go as Bob showed in
his courses so when the supplies got here I was ready to give cleaning a
try. I logged into the Tascione course and did some quick reviewing before
jumping in. I decided to start with the Elgin watch movement first then
the Seth Thomas time and strike clock movement. I dissasembled the
movement carefully separating the parts and prepared them exactly as Bob
shows in the course. Cleaning and lubricating the mainspring went easier
than I had expected. Putting it back into the barrel was a challenge. As I
had no mainspring winder I had to wind it back in by hand. Not the best
way to do it but I learned a lot through the process. I’ll get a winder
soon. I then proceeded to clean, rinse, oil the balance and pallet jewels
and then assemble the watch up to the point of putting the balance back
in. Assembling the watch was fast and easy now. Since my last post I’ve
practiced assembling this and the clock movement many times with each
attempt being faster and easier. I placed the balance into position,
aligning everything wp correctly and began to slowly tighten the balance
screw down. The balance started vibrating before I even had the screw
tightened down. It was running beautifully. I finished oiling the jewels
and then just sat there staring at it for a few minutes. I had
successfully cleaned and oiled my first watch!
The clock movement was also a success. The mainsprings were the tough part
for me here too, but I got through it ok. The strike went together with no
hitches because as I mentioned above I had practiced assembly and set up
of the strike many times until I understood it much better. The clock
movement seems to work well but I know that with 3 or 4 new bushings it
would run better. I feel confident enough now to try replacing some
bushings. I still need to order the materials to do the job but looking
forward to the challenge.
Also a little about the online aspect of the course. The video and
animation players are all custom designed. These are not generic or
purchased players but were designed specifically for running these
courses. The ability to jump to a number of topics displayed in the
control panel while viewing the videos live is unbelievely helpful. Bobs
interactive clock animations are not only powerful teaching aids but are
works of art as well. There is also an active members forum and a recent
twitter post on his site claims that some or all of the Tascione course
materials and videos will be downloadable as well as viewable online.
Needless to say I’m extremely satisfied with both the Tascione watch
repair and clock repair courses. There’s still so much more to learn in
these courses but I never imagined that I would get this far this fast. I
have plenty of time to keep learning. The Tascione courses are in my
opinion an Excellent value and get a big Thumbs Up!
