Westclox Lubing

[Stymied]

Hi, Folks:

I'm afraid its been a little while but its nice to be back. I am taking on a kind of Fun project just to see where it goes.

 

Most of you are familiar with the WESTCLOX Pocket Ben series beginning in 1917. These are commonly relegated to the "dollar store" category and as we see the construction degrade to ever-simpler manufacturing techniques over the years its not as though the label has not been earned.

 

My challenge is to disassemble and service a 9-67 Pocket Ben since it seems to be pretty close to the cut-off where rivets secured the plates rather than screws. Maybe sometime down the road I might even try drilling out the rivets and reconstructing by tapping the stubs for screws. Who knows. Right now my thought is that common lubing techniques for the gears are not going to work as many of the gears themselves are peened to the plate. Commonly accepted lubing guides are not going to apply here.  If anyone has suggestions for how I might tweak accepted standards and practices to account for this situation I would certainly appreciate it.  Please remember...I'm taking this on just as a challenge for myself and to stimulate discussion, so I acknowledge that these have never been huge candidates for servicing and rehab, 'kay?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[grsnovi]

Bruce,

Have you watched this YT video from 2012?

I assume that you are familiar with this: https://clockhistory.com/0/westclox/series/series-17-1.html

[Stymied]

Thanks so much for the suggestions. 

I have watched "BUNNSPECIAL" before but have some strong reservations about his approach and techniques. I have a kind of rig to photograph my disassembly and did use the second link to load a book reviewing WESTCLOX that I had not seen before. Again..many thanks. 

Best Wishes, 

Bruce 

[Neverenoughwatches]

15 minutes ago, Stymied said:

have watched "BUNNSPECIAL" before but have some strong reservations about his approach and techniques. 

Haha. Yeah he's kind of aggressive and bad tempered

[Stymied]

Agreed.  I think my biggest issue is that when cutting corners I can readily picki-up

on what might be an unsavory practice. However, I also know that many hobbyists

like myself may not do their homework and consider his corner-cutting acceptable

practice. Of course, I will also acknowledge that not a few of many other YT

resources also may promote bad practice so there is plenty of blame to go around, right?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[canthus]

This sounds fun.  I gather the main problem is getting the lube into the bearing areas.  I would tend to go for a lube which incorporates a solid lube such and moly, graphite or ptfe.  The solid lube will plate out onto the surfaces and do the lubrication once the oil has gone.  You could also consider dilution of these oils with say lighter fuel (which will evaporate to leave the oil in place) to get better penetration.   Autowinder reverser wheel lube?  Even a penetrating oil may work.  I would avoid greases and anything that has waxy additives (WD40!!), as these will just collect muck and seizure may follow.  Have fun!!

[JohnR725]

3 hours ago, canthus said:

You could also consider dilution of these oils with say lighter fuel (which will evaporate to leave the oil in place) to get better penetration.  

A forgotten part of a horological history is what you're quoting. I don't have an exact time frame but somewhere in the 60s through the 70s there were a variety of solutions that you could have. One of them was called miracle lube and there are a variety of other names for them. I finally saw material safety sheets for one of them and basically it was mineral oil dissolved in the rinse the final rinse your cleaning that is. So the oils in the rinse it gets everywhere in its stride Larry action pulls the lubrication in to all the cracks crannies and under the plates but it's worked.

Ms. very popular in high volume watch shops where there are doing literally hundreds of watches per week and they're doing M at a very bargain price because typically was wholesale work and go the jewelry store and jewelry store didn't care as long as it was cheap enough. For the most part all of those products are gone except they still have the clock one available. So if you're really desperate you could use something like this you get lubrication literally everywhere that it would evaporate and leave the oil in all the cracks and crannies. I assume because are still making the clock version there must be people out there purchasing it.