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Start of a journey Making a Blance staff

Tmuir

By Tmuir
in Your Walkthroughs and Techniques

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Tmuir Distinguished Member

Tmuir

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For the last few weeks I have been sorting out my BTM lathe, shaping and honing my gravers, making and fitting handles to them, replacing the motor that drives my lathe and I'm now ready to start my journey towards making a balance staff for a Unitas 235 pocket watch.

I wasn't happy with the finish I had been getting with my graver so have spent the last couple of weeks just practicing parallel cuts on my lathe. Though I still have a lot of room for improvement I feel its good enough to start making a balance staff.

I'm pretty sure this staff will be a failure and it will be several more attempts on before I get a workable result, so still lots of time to improve my lathe skills, and I will try and share my journey here.

Just one photo tonight showing the 3.2mm blue steel rod turned down to 2.9mm and then the end turned to approx 1.25mm so the balance is a good fit onto the shaft.

Tomorrow I will attempt to turn the parallel section for the hairspring, rough in the pivot on the top end  and do the undercut for riveting on the balance.

I will post some photos showing my lathe setup and a couple of tips I've recently be shown later.

 

staff1.jpg

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Pip

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Very timely, and I shall be watching your progress and hopefully picking up some tips. About to start my lathe journey too and will be attempting a staff from a Seikosha which I think is 1940’s, haven’t dated it properly yet.


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jdrichard Distinguished Member

jdrichard

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I have now been cutting balance staffs for over a year and have 11 lathes, four on Borel stands with countershafts and the remainder standing on traditional stump. The single biggest tip is to have five gravers. One traditional triangle for removing material fast, two that have oval tips 2 mm and 4 mm wide and two that have square ends 2 and 4 mm wide. They all need to be carbide. Then go on AliExpress and buy two 2000mm grit diamond sharpening sheets of metal.

You will meet the technique. I bought the videos. You also need a seitz jeweled ruler to measure the pivot size when you do the ends. Use the gravers to about .5mm then use a stone to do the rest. Take your time.edf4b61f2fb6a5afc0e686926e053540.jpg85bf38bff99f6a942af76081558805f3.jpgc5a7593bc238879a1637176eb538c372.jpg


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