Interesting stuff

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ray_parkhurst
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Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
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Re: Interesting stuff

Post by ray_parkhurst »

lothman wrote:
Mon Dec 14, 2020 1:41 pm
ray_parkhurst wrote:
Mon Dec 14, 2020 11:54 am
Indeed I am still puzzled by these wires. For now they will remain a mystery.
hardened and then blued steel, I'm rather sure it was made for replacing worn pivots, but I wonder of the fine steps in size and the large quantity. That's enough for 10 watchmaker careers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p6yjtDA99E
Indeed, this must be the case. In fact I used your key word "pivot" in a web search and it came up with some good hits:

https://milehiclocksupplies.com/catalog ... evised.pdf

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/pivot ... el-by-size

I think this is the answer, though these go smaller than what I see in these refs.

ChrisR
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Location: Near London, UK

Re: Interesting stuff

Post by ChrisR »

I've been offline a while, and missed this. My uncle was a watchmaker, his workroom had a lifetime's collection of materials like Ray's. He used his "set of turns", which I think he'd made himself, rather than a full lathe. I made a couple of replacement pinions and bushed a couple of tiny watch plates as a challenge. If the hole in the plate has worn elliptically or off-centre, it's tricky to drill for a bush as you have to work out and hold the centre you want.
This bush supplier lists them with pivot diameters down to 0.1mm.
https://www.hswalsh.com/sites/default/f ... System.pdf
I also tried to cut the teeth for a cannon pinion (the gear which drives the hands) - and messed it up completely.

One of those trade/crafts which is almost extinct. HIs storage system seemed to revolve around "baccy tins", another endangered species.
Chris R

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3402
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Interesting stuff

Post by ray_parkhurst »

ChrisR wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2020 3:01 pm
I've been offline a while, and missed this. My uncle was a watchmaker, his workroom had a lifetime's collection of materials like Ray's. He used his "set of turns", which I think he'd made himself, rather than a full lathe. I made a couple of replacement pinions and bushed a couple of tiny watch plates as a challenge. If the hole in the plate has worn elliptically or off-centre, it's tricky to drill for a bush as you have to work out and hold the centre you want.
This bush supplier lists them with pivot diameters down to 0.1mm.
https://www.hswalsh.com/sites/default/f ... System.pdf
I also tried to cut the teeth for a cannon pinion (the gear which drives the hands) - and messed it up completely.

One of those trade/crafts which is almost extinct. HIs storage system seemed to revolve around "baccy tins", another endangered species.
Thanks for the further info Chris. It seems the mystery is solved. Now I need to figure out what to do with 10lbs of pivot materials...

lothman
Posts: 951
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:00 am
Location: Stuttgart/Germany

Re: Interesting stuff

Post by lothman »

ray_parkhurst wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2020 4:39 pm
Now I need to figure out what to do with 10lbs of pivot materials...
sort them in small sets and sell them on ebay :-) if you could find a convenient plastic box or zip bag which could be labled with the wire size this could work.

Such work can only be done in Covid Lockdown :lol:

tubes
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3298176 ... hweb201603_

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