3D Printed Hand Press Guide

[Saldog]

I bought my son-in-law a 3D printer for Christmas, never having even seen one myself. He went on vacation and left it with me to play with for a week. I'm an old machine designer so I have no problem with designing things using 3D CAD software. I had seen someone else's idea for this and I didn't like their design, which used way too much plastic in my opinion and was too bulky.

It took me a couple of hours to design it and 8 hours to print it. I had to chase the holes with a 1/4" drill bit afterward. It works the same for my Bergeon and Horotec pressers.

I already have numerous things I want to do to change the design, but at 8 hours per copy, I don't think I'll make many more than this one. Let me know if you would like the STL so you can print your own.

[jdm]

Very good! What about uploading on Thingiverse and link here. That's the place where personally I look first, most often I am well rewarded and always grateful to creators.

[Kalanag]

Well done!

That‘s the version you can find already on thingiverse. The advantage is that you can rest your hand on the hunch back. I‘m happy with it.

[Saldog]

3 minutes ago, Kalanag said:

Well done!

That‘s the version you can find already on thingiverse. The advantage is that you can rest your hand on the hunch back. I‘m happy with it.

That one was my inspiration, but I didn't like it. Plus, I just wanted to do it myself. I also have a bunch of movement holders I have printed and been playing with. It's fun and I enjoy creating things from scratch.

19 minutes ago, jdm said:

Very good! What about uploading on Thingiverse and link here. That's the place where personally I look first, most often I am well rewarded and always grateful to creators.

Will do, but I need to make some changes to the design. I accidentally made the storage holes all the way through the part! Dumb ass. I was thinking of rounding the corners a bit as well. This one also has a boss on center that I planned on using with a movement holder with a matching hole, but that might be problematic with other movement holders that have a flat bottom, so I probably will remove that boss for a model that will be published on Thingi.

[Saldog]

Ok, I made changes to the design and I started printing it. It will take all day to print it on my slow machine.

What I didn't mention before is another issue with the previous design. The bottom of the trunnion had a mess of plastic that I had to clean off. This is because there was no bridge to that surface and the printer couldn't get a clean surface. I still need to learn more about 3D printing. You must design shapes that can build on a surface from below or close by from below, so if you want a piece that overhangs, it should probably have some draft. This new design has that and I've cleaned up some things. The holes are made a little bigger in hopes that I won't have to chase them with a drill bit and the storage holes are blind now. This picture shows an assembly with one of my movement holders. I put a 40mm spotface in the base so my movement holders will stay put, but that recess should be large enough for most other movement holders not to interfere.

The dumb thing is that I don't change hands that often like modders do. I spend most of my time overhauling movements and restoring cases and crystals. Putting hands on a watch takes me about 5 minutes out of several hours of other work. But, I will say that I have had to re-do hand installs because I didn't press on right. This tool should help me do it better and more efficiently.

 

[LittleWatchShop]

Nice work.  I have done lots of 3D printing for my watch hobby. I have a parameterized movement holder in FreeCAD, so I print them as I need them. 

You designed the holes for which set of hand pushers?  Or did you print the pushers as well?

[jdm]

34 minutes ago, Saldog said:

It will take all day to print it on my slow machine.

I'm now setting 500% speed on my Ender 3 and found that quality is pretty much the same, but at least it takes much less to finish - altough not 5 times less.

 

34 minutes ago, Saldog said:

The dumb thing is that I don't change hands that often like modders do.

I have found since the very beginning that personally I do just  fine with cheap hand setters. However each tools has its meaning and many things are a matter of preference. So again well done, and thank you for sharing.

[Saldog]

14 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Nice work.  I have done lots of 3D printing for my watch hobby. I have a parameterized movement holder in FreeCAD, so I print them as I need them. 

You designed the holes for which set of hand pushers?  Or did you print the pushers as well?

Thank you! The Horotec and Bergeon pushers that I have are close enough in diameter that they both work fine with a 1/4" hole. I don't think it's critical that the hole be a perfect fit anyway. We just need a guide that mostly holds the tool straight. Even if the hole was sloppy, one could bear down on one side of it to keep vertical.

I was thinking of a design that used a V-groove and spring loaded clamp instead and that could use any diameter pusher.

But your suggestion of printing my own pushers has really got my head spinning and makes me think I could just make my own complete device with my own tips and everything. I could make a turret style unit like the fat city Bergeon one! Maybe I'll think about that some more.

I have printed a half dozen movement holders and I'm trying to dial in just how much clearance the mainplate should have. I always remove the rotor before working on a movement and that makes it simpler to have one diameter for either side of the movement. I have made some that have a "spring" like part that puts a little pressure on the movement to keep it still, but that takes a lot of trial and error and these PLA plastics are weak so I keep breaking those tabs off. But a proper fitting holder doesn't need to clamp the movement down. I have overhauled a couple of movements in the last week using one of these homemade holders and they are by far superior to a "universal" type Bergeon holder. I can't tell you how many times I pressed too hard on a screw to have the whole movement come out.

I'm thinking the best thing is do like you are doing and just print one up of a certain size each time you need one. You'll notice in my model that it says "27" in it. That means it is for a 27 mm casing diameter (as Seiko puts it). I suppose I'll eventually have a set that looks like a set of press dies, maybe with 0.2 or 0.5mm increments.

Speaking of press dies, sometimes I struggle with a bezel that I don't have a match for and the crystal sits up too high and bottoms out on the regular crystal presses. I know I could buy a set of dies but maybe I'll just print a few instead.

FreeCAD is a good program (there are very few choices for Mac users), but I haven't mastered it yet. I need to do something real with it to learn it. I use OnShape, but since I'm on the free version, my designs are public. But I'm not doing any rocket science or trying to sell any of these so I don't care. My professional experience is with Autodesk Inventor and Onshape works a lot like that program as well as SolidWorks, so it is very natural for me. FreeCAD has a totally different way of creating models. It's super powerful though and I really should start using it.

15 minutes ago, jdm said:

I'm now setting 500% speed on my Ender 3 and found that quality is pretty much the same, but at least it takes much less to finish - altough not 5 times less.

That's interesting. I will play around with smaller parts at higher speed to see what the machine's limitations are. Thanks for the tip!

[LittleWatchShop]

I would post my freecad paramaterized file, but the file type is not accepted.  Maybe I could uuencode, convert to rtf and then upload but...ugh

[Saldog]

34 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I would post my freecad paramaterized file, but the file type is not accepted.  Maybe I could uuencode, convert to rtf and then upload but...ugh

That’s cool. I would want to do it myself anyway to learn how to use the software. I wouldn’t mind seeing a render though. I am still struggling with the best ledge dimension to use. Too much and you can interfere with components on the movement side such as the balance. Not enough and it is not stable. How much clearance do you like for the main plate fit? I shoot for .05-.10mm. Also, I’m not sure if it’s good to have lots of inspection windows or not. One thing I like is that if a part falls down inside, it stays there, so I only have a cutout for the crown/stem. In fact, you can use that space to store parts for work in progress. That concept has me thinking about designing a movement holder that doubles as a parts tray. I would make it compatible with the ones with the cheap clear cover you see everywhere so you could have a complete watch project in progress with all parts stowed under a cover and not taking up much space. I’d have a special place to store the balance too. 

[LittleWatchShop]

Here it is.

Open in microsoft word.  Select all and copy (^a ^c)

Open a blank notepad file and past in (^v).  Save as mh.uue

Open a command window in the directory where mh.uue exists.

Run the following:

certutil -decode mh.uue mh.FCStd

Should work.

mh.rtf

Edited June 17, 2022 by LittleWatchShop

[Saldog]

1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Here it is.

Open in microsoft word.  Select all and copy (^a ^c)

Open a blank notepad file and past in (^v).  Save as mh.uue

Open a command window in the directory where mh.uue exists.

Run the following:

certutil -decode mh.uue mh.FCStd

Should work.

mh.rtf 91.8 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks but I'm a Mac user so it's a bit different. I opened the RTF in Word and copied the text, then pasted it into a plain text file with a .UUE extension and ran the Unix command uudecode on it and I got the error "missing or bad "begin" line". I don't have my Windows PC handy at the moment so I'll bust it out later and give this a try using certutil.exe.

I really appreciate your willingness to share so thank you very much!

[LittleWatchShop]

Pm me your email address and I will mail it

[gbyleveldt]

Speaking of 3d printed pushers, it looks like the various sized pins on my Horotec are 3d printed white. I found that curious.

Anyway, I have a 3d printer that I hardly use because I simply don’t have the desire to learn yet another piece of software. That being said, I have a whole bunch of 4205 movements I need to work through, any chance someone know of files available to print a movement holder for these?

[jdm]

13 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I would post my freecad paramaterized file, but the file type is not accepted.  Maybe I could uuencode, convert to rtf and then upload but...ugh

Again, I recommend that you upload these files on a sharing platform, so they can be accessed with a single click. Even Google drive is fine for that. File format manipulation is boring for the computer savvy, and straight confusing for the rest.

[Saldog]

12 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Speaking of 3d printed pushers, it looks like the various sized pins on my Horotec are 3d printed white. I found that curious.

Anyway, I have a 3d printer that I hardly use because I simply don’t have the desire to learn yet another piece of software. That being said, I have a whole bunch of 4205 movements I need to work through, any chance someone know of files available to print a movement holder for these?

I made up a quick model, using my standard design as a basis. Getting the fit just right can take some trial and error and this one has a clearance that has worked on other Seiko movements. The 4205 is a ladies size caliber with a 23.4mm casing diameter so a fair amount smaller than I'm used to. Try this out and let me know if it needs tweaking. Here is a link to the STL file on my Google Drive: LINK

 

My printer automatically replaces large solid regions with 15% density honeycomb voids, making the total plastic mass much less. So this won't use much plastic. I like the large diameter base for stability and it is 15mm high, which I think is a good height. But let me know if you want anything changed.

[gbyleveldt]

10 minutes ago, Saldog said:

I made up a quick model, using my standard design as a basis. Getting the fit just right can take some trial and error and this one has a clearance that has worked on other Seiko movements. The 4205 is a ladies size caliber with a 23.4mm casing diameter so a fair amount smaller than I'm used to. Try this out and let me know if it needs tweaking. Here is a link to the STL file on my Google Drive: LINK

 

My printer automatically replaces large solid regions with 15% density honeycomb voids, making the total plastic mass much less. So this won't use much plastic. I like the large diameter base for stability and it is 15mm high, which I think is a good height. But let me know if you want anything changed.

Wonderful thank you very much! I'll dust off the printer tomorrow and give it a go. Yes that 4205 is tiny and a pain to clamp in my 4040 type movement holder.

[Saldog]

Published on Thingiverse here.

[gbyleveldt]

14 hours ago, Saldog said:

I made up a quick model, using my standard design as a basis. Getting the fit just right can take some trial and error and this one has a clearance that has worked on other Seiko movements. The 4205 is a ladies size caliber with a 23.4mm casing diameter so a fair amount smaller than I'm used to. Try this out and let me know if it needs tweaking. Here is a link to the STL file on my Google Drive: LINK

 

My printer automatically replaces large solid regions with 15% density honeycomb voids, making the total plastic mass much less. So this won't use much plastic. I like the large diameter base for stability and it is 15mm high, which I think is a good height. But let me know if you want anything changed.

Hi Saldog, so I had a quick look and the 4205 mainplate itself is 17.52 mm. In a ladies watch it would come with a spacer ring that is 23'ish mm, but with the divers I'm using it for there's no spacer ring around the movement, it attaches to the dial with a plastic disk spacer sandwitched in between. I've tried using OnShape as you've done (I've even found the model you've made) but I've go no clue how to drive OnShape lol

[Saldog]

9 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

Hi Saldog, so I had a quick look and the 4205 mainplate itself is 17.52 mm. In a ladies watch it would come with a spacer ring that is 23'ish mm, but with the divers I'm using it for there's no spacer ring around the movement, it attaches to the dial with a plastic disk spacer sandwitched in between. I've tried using OnShape as you've done (I've even found the model you've made) but I've go no clue how to drive OnShape lol

Ok, I had the spec sheet from Seiko on that movement and I grabbed the wrong casing diameter. There are two sizes for that one and I picked the larger one. I saved another file. Give this one a try: link

Also, VTA has one on Thingiverse here.

[gbyleveldt]

1 hour ago, Saldog said:

Ok, I had the spec sheet from Seiko on that movement and I grabbed the wrong casing diameter. There are two sizes for that one and I picked the larger one. I saved another file. Give this one a try: link

Also, VTA has one on Thingiverse here.

Holy crap, that was quick!!!! Thank you thank you! I've seen VTA's holder but I honestly prefer your design because of the large base. Seems like it'll be much more stable with your design

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Edit: Forum somehow merges threads and it's driving me bananas

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You, sir, are an absolute legend!! It all fits nice and snug. Brilliant!

In other news, I dusted off the printer for the first time in maybe 2 years and it all went pretty smoothly. I certainly don't remember it being this easy before where things just, well, worked. Maybe it's the new filament I used.

Edited June 19, 2022 by gbyleveldt

[Saldog]

6 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Holy crap, that was quick!!!! Thank you thank you! I've seen VTA's holder but I honestly prefer your design because of the large base. Seems like it'll be much more stable with your design

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Edit: Forum somehow merges threads and it's driving me bananas

************************************

You, sir, are an absolute legend!! It all fits nice and snug. Brilliant!

In other news, I dusted off the printer for the first time in maybe 2 years and it all went pretty smoothly. I certainly don't remember it being this easy before where things just, well, worked. Maybe it's the new filament I used.

Glad I could help. Enjoy!

[LittleWatchShop]

2 hours ago, Saldog said:

Glad I could help. Enjoy!

@Saldogwhat printer are you using?

[Saldog]

1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

@Saldogwhat printer are you using?

FlashForge Adventurer 3 Pro

Just an update on the hand presser model. I actually used it for the first time last night on a Seiko 6117-6410 Navigator Timer watch. It worked perfectly.

My problem is that I wear magnifier glasses that warp my vision so it is hard to see if I am holding the presser perfectly straight. I want to correct for what I think is not vertical and I end up pressing the hand on crooked, either angled up or down but not level. This machine is strange because when I'm using it, my brain thinks I'm pressing the hand on wrong, again because of my glasses. But when I look at it after pressing it on, I'll be damned if it isn't on perfectly! When I trusted the tool, it became more natural. I didn't know how much I needed this tool until just now. I think I can't live without it now.

Maybe I'll work on a tool that has the pressers built-in. Getting the action right will be key as 3D printed parts usually don't slide well. I might have to make a hybrid using an easily-acquired metal part (scratching head and looking into the sky now). Maybe also an easily-acquired bushing so the action is silky-smooth. Need to do a deep dive on the tip designs needed and come up with a turret-style design that has all of the sizes needed locked and loaded. Sounds like fun to work on!

Of course, I will share my models and ideas if they don't suck! See you around.

[gbyleveldt]

If I look at mine it’s not anything special. I’m thinking any smooth steel rod would work as a pusher? Maybe a spring on top between the holder and maybe a knob?

Looking at my actual tips, it does look like they were 3d printed out of something softer than PLA, maybe teflon’ish. They’re certainly not precision tips and look a little flimsy. Which I suppose is good as a sacrificial interface to a priceless set of hands. 

Turret would be cool but wow, that’s like hitting a nail with a ten pound hammer. I personally don’t mind replaceable tips on one pusher, but then again I got the impression somewhere you were an engineer and would probably like to design something OTT