I made an impulse purchase. Now what?

[VWatchie]

Up for discussion a while back was how to determine the diameter of jewel pivot holes (the inner diameter of the jewel), and among the tools and methods suggested @nickelsilver mentioned ”the Seitz 'straighteners'”. Well, I eventually paid a small fortune for a Seitz jewelled pivot gauge in great shape and although expensive it has served me well and I’m happy I got it.

Anyway, a few days ago as I was browsing watch tools on tradera.com (Swedish eBay). A Seitz straightener was up for auction and it had only two minutes remaining. The asking price was $102 and no one had so far placed a bid. Remembering I had seen these on eBay going for somewhere between $250 and $350 I was sure there would be snipers lurking to get it. As I had no urgent need for it (not even knowing how to use it), I was hesitant to get into the anticipated shootout. Anyway, I could not resist, but only for $125, feeling greatly confident that I would be “killed” and get to keep my money. Two seconds remaining and I pulled the trigger, and two seconds later I was asked to pay $102 for a Seitz straightener (Seitz depose no 3609 A1) that I was now the owner of. As I understand it, I got a great deal? Auction images below. Please let me know what you think.

So, now what?  How do you use one of these straighteners to actually straighten a pivot balance staff? Can it be used to straighten wheel pivots as well? Anyone having instructions that they can share? The Bergon PDF for this tool says: “Detailed operating instructions delivered with each tool.”, however the PDF does contain “Instructions for use” (not all that easy to follow at first glance), but I’m thinking that they might be less detailed and/or less clear than the “instructions delivered with each tool”, no?

 

[nad]

I've never owned or used one but found the attached on the NAWCC site which hopefully will be useful to you.

There's also a few threads on it's use on that site as well so I'd consider joining.



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[watchweasol]

Hi  Vwatchie I think you did well on the price and if used sucessfully a few time will have paid for its self,   good luck.       keep safe        Cheers

[spectre6000]

"The movable ruler is only used to control the flat of the balance : it must not be used to press on the rim or on the top pivot."

You drop the wheel with the bent pivot into progressively smaller jewels and lightly straighten it in each one until you're back to the size of the pivot itself. Got it. I'm not sure I understand what the "movable ruler" is for here... I may be lacking in terminology. Is "the flat" the outer perimeter/ring? Then what is "the rim"? Don't press on "the top pivot" makes sense since the force vectors would obviously just bend the lower bent pivot more badly...

Edited May 13, 2020 by spectre6000

[nickelsilver]

The "flat" is the flatness of the rim of the balance wheel. When the pivot is straight the balance will turn with no visible high or low area of the rim.

 

I personally prefer straightening pivots in the lathe with nickel tweezers that have been heated in an alcohol flame until almost too warm to hold. This tool is excellent when used as a gage for very small pivots, as the usual Seitz gages are either in 0.01mm steps, or 0.005mm. When dealing with really small stuff the 0.0025mm steps are great.

 

I don't remember if I mentioned this in another thread on these, but I know a guy who put his in the ultrasonic and it ate into the metal and all the jewels fell out. The flat Seitz gages are (I think) aluminum, these are some other castable alloy which apparently doesn't like certain cleaners.

[HSL]

Now when you got the trigger finger in shape you need to read and learn about the next find, I too was looking at that one until I realized i already had a couple.
Here you go.. the world is full of treassures ..seitz.pdf

[jdrichard]

I've never owned or used one but found the attached on the NAWCC site which hopefully will be useful to you.

There's also a few threads on it's use on that site as well so I'd consider joining.



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Hey thanks. I have one of these as well.


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[nad]

My pleasure.

There was a further PDF on the site as well which I confess I didn't read. May be worth your while registering with them to see if the other document was of any use to you.

Cheers

NAD

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[VWatchie]

Thank you all for your input and links. Greatly appreciated! 

Does anyone know if it can be used to straighten train wheel pivots as well? Not that I so far ever needed to, but I'm curious.