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Safety Cap Jewel Cleaning Tool created from peg wood

VWatchie

By VWatchie
in Watch or Horology Related Videos

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VWatchie Distinguished Member

VWatchie

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I have seen and heard of several variants of this cap jewel cleaning method, but none of them have felt really safe so I invented my own variant and was so happy with it that I recorded a video of it. Hope you like it and get use of this "safe" method for cleaning cap jewels.

 

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Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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On 11/27/2021 at 3:06 AM, LittleWatchShop said:

I like it. What I have done is to just hold the cap jewel with my finger. This is not so elegant...peg wood is better.

I also like taping down the watchmaker paper. A few times I have nudged the paper and my jewel went flying. Taping is good.

Like you, I hold the cap jewel with my finger, spray a bit of lighter fluid on the paper and scrape the jewel over the wet part of the paper, you can press on the cap jewel as hard as you like. this is a lot less risky compared to the pegwood tool. ya taping down  paper is good idea I'll try it.

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Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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On 11/27/2021 at 3:06 AM, LittleWatchShop said:

I also like taping down the watchmaker paper. A few times I have nudged the paper and my jewel went flying. Taping is good.

 I tape a one mm thick chipboard on flat glass . I think its called chipboard , not sure, the type of cardbiard shoe boxes are made out of. less chance of the jewel go flying.

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VWatchie Distinguished Member

VWatchie

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As I mention in the video, I tried with regular printing paper, but on closer inspection (40X using my stereo microscope) I noticed printing paper acts a bit like sandpaper creating tiny scratches on the jewel. So tiny that I'm not sure it would impede staff pivot performance. Using watchmaker's tissue paper from Cousins I couldn't detect any negative impact on the jewel so I'll be sticking to that.

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Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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17 hours ago, VWatchie said:

 Using watchmaker's tissue paper from Cousins I couldn't detect any negative impact on the jewel so I'll be sticking to that.

The paper shown in above link looks to have suitable surface, only a thicker sheet like 1.5 to 2mm thick so It wouldn't easily shrink as you rub the jewel on its surface and I am sure you like the results more if you pour some lighter fluid on the paper. 

Regs

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spectre6000 Distinguished Member

spectre6000

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I've typed up a half dozen responses to this since it was first posted, and I'm going to commit this time! This is not a criticism in any way of the method/tool there. Just genuine discourse, engineer to engineer. Please consider it in the spirit it is intended.

I place cap jewels flat down on a piece of watch paper (so far so good), then fold a corner over, and just rub it around with my finger tip wearing the requisite finger cot. Not sure where I picked this up, but it's such a simple solution to a task that can go so horribly wrong that I'm sure I got it from somewhere else. Mark or some other youtube person, most likely given the fundamental nature of it. What is wrong with that approach?

The only thing I can think of based on the above discussion is that it might go flying if I were to crinkle the paper or something. I've had that happen to where the jewel jumps, but never very far. I know better than to discount my own clumsiness and relative naiveté though...

What about that is this addressing, and what other issues might be being introduced?

The paper being taped down solves the fly away crinkle problem, but the stick seems like an abstraction from the manual manipulation that could (and in the not discounting clumsiness paradigm, will) result in equally annoying unplanned flight. Additionally, the tendency to apply additional force through the tool without its own escape prevention feature seems to magnify this, compared to the finger method having all that squishy finger enshrouding the jewel on all sides, prohibiting any possibility of escape during manipulation.

A simpler solution, if we allow/agree/accept/whatever that the paper being taped down is a mandatory practice to avoid Alcatraz-esque exploits in escapery, would be to replicate the cotted finger and a second sheet of watch paper over a second, taped piece of watch paper. You have the required manual control over pressure and position, the escape prevention of the finger flab, and backup escape prevention in the form of the captive second sheet of paper, combined with the sproing mitigation of the taped piece of paper.

Again, consider this in the spirit it's written AND consider the source. I'm not quite two year into learning this stuff, and that's on a as-can-find-time basis with work and a baby/toddler in a pandemic.

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