Balance Bridge Jewel Hole Dilemma.

[Geo]

Now that 's interesting Mark! :)

[Mark]

Now that 's interesting Mark! :)

 

Indeed - it's something I would dearly love to learn but nobody has ever shown me.

 

Surely someone on the Interwebs can make us a nice Youtube vid??? :)

[Geo]

I know that you can bore a hole through glass with diamond paste and a copper rod in a vertical drill. Possibly a miniature version of this using steel pinion and diamond paste may work, as copper would deform too easily? It would have to be done in a watchmakers lathe and the drilling done by hand using a tailstock runner.

This is just my rambling thoughts on the subject.

[anilv]

Did you check the balance pivot with a high magnification loupe? They can bend and also 'mushroom' the tip giving the impression that its too tight in the hole..

Anil

[Len33]

Another fine and very welcomed suggestion, thank you. (This forum is better than brilliant!)

I have a Brunel Long arm Stereoscope with various eye pieces and can confirm that the pivots are, by far, much straighter than any politicians promises will ever be.

I am on the lookout for a Jacot tool, but the one's on Ebay etc either have something missing, or are damaged.

Len.

[Mark]

Did you see this one on eBay? 291440368973

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Maurice]

I have recently enlarged a jewel hole. I achieved this by using engineers pin gauges in a pin vice coated with diamond paste I then slid the jewel onto the pin gauge and gently spun it whilst sliding it back and forth. It didn't take very long and the watch now runs very well. I think a similar method could be employed here using diamond paste in the jewel hole and gently working the balance back and forth whilst slowly tightening the cock down!

[anilv]

Hi Maurice.... I'm attracted to this idea but won't using this wear the balance staff first? This may achieve the desired result with more clearance between pivot and jewels but you may not achieve an even surface on the pivot and this will cause wear down the road.

Anil

[Mark]

Just a little side note - there should be an amount of side shake as well as end shake. When reducing the pivot make sure it is taken down around 1/100th smaller than the jewel hole.