Watch Repair

[Tomc938]

I got myself a Taig micro lathe about a month of so ago.

When visiting my Dad me brought out an old watch where the stem had broken off. The watch is cheap, but has sentimental value to him. I told him "I think I can fix that."

I brought the watch home and made a stem and knob that slips over the old stem. I locktited it in place and it works great!

Technically it took two tries, because as I was polishing up the face of the first part I dropped it in the garage - gone.

I made the part out of a piece of bracing rod.

Here's a couple of poor quality/bad lighting photos of the finished piece.

 

[gerritv]

Nice work.
The Taig is an underrated lovely machine tool. I bored my spindle to MT1, added a Sherline WW adpater and now have an almost 0 runout watchmaker spindle. Smallest part so far is 0.8mm threaded screw.

Gerrit

 

[Tomc938]

That's a small part to thread!

I've seen small parts done on these lathes, but I have to admit - it wa easier than I thought.

Guess the right tool makes the job easier.

 

[Susquatch]

Awesome work!

I'm jealous!

I've never really thought about getting a tiny machine, but now you have me wondering. I imagine most of the challenges of using a big 14x40 machine like mine are related to work-holding. What does a chuck for a watch stem like that look like?

 

[gerritv]

8mm WW collets, from 0.1 to 5.0 in 0.1mm increments. They are like 5C, nominal size stock only. But can grip on a .75mm long feature, like the screw head.

Gerrit

 

[Susquatch]

8mm WW collets, from 0.1 to 5.0 in 0.1mm increments. They are like 5C, nominal size stock only. But can grip on a .75mm long feature, like the screw head.

Gerrit

That's impressive! I imagine that keeping stock aligned is a fairly big issue when the grip is less than a mm.

 

[gerritv]

Thx, centre drills are also useless in those sizes. You have to 'pick up the centre' using a graver (special shaped 1/8" square hand held cutter). Pretty easy after one or two attempts. That gives a dimple in the centre, then you can run your 0.5mm drill in

I have to make a graver rest fo the Taig, you can with practice get turning to 0.01mm accuracy by hand. Steel as well as brass. Its a different world.

Gerrit

 

[Susquatch]

Thx, centre drills are also useless in those sizes. You have to 'pick up the centre' using a graver (special shaped 1/8" square hand held cutter). Pretty easy after one or two attempts. That gives a dimple in the centre, then you can run your 0.5mm drill in

I have to make a graver rest fo the Taig, you can with practice get turning to 0.01mm accuracy by hand. Steel as well as brass. Its a different world.

Gerrit

Yup, I'm impressed!

 

[Tomc938]

I was a little more ham-fisted. Held the 1/4" piece of brazing rod in the 4-jaw chuck. Faced off. Touched on the centre with the smallest centre drill I had and then drilled with the 0.040 drill bit. Faced the piece to get rid of the centre drill portion that was too wide. After that turned the two diameters and then parted the piece off. Polished up the face of the part, and viola!

I had lots of fun doing this. I am thinking of making a brass "cannon" about an inch or so long.

You are right, a small machine like this has specific uses a larger machine could likely do, but this does it easier. 7000 RPM top end also helps remove metal and get a nice finish.

I just bought this and am very impressed. Like Gerrit said, seems like a quality piece of equipment.