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Fitting loose minute hand


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Hello,

I have a lovely antique cylinder escapement pocket watch that I've serviced and got running beautifully but now I have a problem with the minute hand falling off. I think it's known as a pin hole fitting hand. On measuring the hand it shows approx. 0.40mm, and then on measuring the arbor diameter with the vernier guage, it's also 0.40mm so it's very near but won't even grip when mounted. Photos provided of the job.

Does anybody have a technique I can use to get the hand to fit?

20200509_164753800_iOS.jpg

20200509_170446185_iOS.jpg

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If a flat hand, I peen the hole, lay a piece of paper on a flat surface, place the hand on it, face down on the paper, you are to peen the back face of the hand, The art of this is to peen without scratching the face of the hand, bending or otherwise damaging it. If the hand is not flat, you should peen each flat side of the back seperately. The paper is obviously to help preserve the plating on the hand. Good luck.

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Thanks Nucejoe, I shall try that. To be fair I have nothing to lose. The hand is relatively flat so that’s good.@Watchweasol, I do have a staking set so could try peening gently with one of the larger domed punches.@Rodabod, I’m not 100% sure what the hand is made of. Looks like it could be steel though.

Thanks for the tips!


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