Damaged ratchet's brass pin removal

[Dzwiedz]

Hello,

Simple question - how to remove a brass pin holding ratchet's pivot? The pin has been distorted and damaged, cannot be pulled out with tweezers. The pin is also slightly stuck within the bridge itself. Since it is brass it is pretty "soft", so how to get that ratchet's pivot free without causing any damage to the pivot itself?

I thought to grind it down with sandpaper, but it is too small for such operations unfortunately.

Thanks.

[Dzwiedz]

Hello,

I managed to remove it from plate by cutting the excess of brass pins from the pivot - there was no other way, I tried.

Now I have a pivot with brass filled hole and I am stuck at this since it's so small I cannot find a way to push it through, the part is so delicate I worry about damaging it. Anything that comes to your mind I can try?

[clockboy]

My thoughts is to drill out the brass pin. Then replace with a new pin..

[Dzwiedz]

On 10/30/2022 at 7:26 PM, clockboy said:

My thoughts is to drill out the brass pin. Then replace with a new pin..

Seems the only reasonable way, I tried but cannot push remaining brass out. Ordered 0,2mm drill and I hope that it will be small enough.

[Dzwiedz]

On 10/30/2022 at 7:26 PM, clockboy said:

My thoughts is to drill out the brass pin. Then replace with a new pin..

I have received 0,2mm drills - steel, although made for scale models primarily, could not find anything other that size.

 

I was drilling for 30, maybe 40 minutes slowly with my pin vise and I am not sure if I drilled more that 0,1mm/0,15mm... Small hole enough so the drill keeps its place, but not enough to see the difference on x10 loupe. Am I doing something wrong or this will actually take weeks to drill through? First time doing anything like that.

[Neverenoughwatches]

9 hours ago, Dzwiedz said:

I have received 0,2mm drills - steel, although made for scale models primarily, could not find anything other that size.

 

I was drilling for 30, maybe 40 minutes slowly with my pin vise and I am not sure if I drilled more that 0,1mm/0,15mm... Small hole enough so the drill keeps its place, but not enough to see the difference on x10 loupe. Am I doing something wrong or this will actually take weeks to drill through? First time doing anything like that.

If it is a brass pin which it does look like, it should drill out quite easily. Have a look at the end if your drill bit it maybe has no end. Some of these cheap model drills are flat and have no cutting end. It is possible to sharpen them but you would need a scope to do that. A sharp carbide bit would make short work of this .

[Dzwiedz]

15 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

If it is a brass pin which it does look like, it should drill out quite easily. Have a look at the end if your drill bit it maybe has no end. Some of these cheap model drills are flat and have no cutting end. It is possible to sharpen them but you would need a scope to do that. A sharp carbide bit would make short work of this .

I bought 2 more drills and finally made it through after a long battle! Feels so satisfying after efforts!

End of my drills were not flat, but not arrow pointy either - they did a good job at the end after some changes on their installment into pin vise and of course bigger one made things easy at the beginning but was too big to go through.

 

If anyone would be interested I used 0,2/0,3 and 0,4mm Tamiya steel (HSS) drills - I can recommend for those of you that do not have special equipment or are just starting like me.

 

Thank you guys for helping me out, I do really appreciate your help. It gives a lot of joy.

[Neverenoughwatches]

9 hours ago, Dzwiedz said:

I bought 2 more drills and finally made it through after a long battle! Feels so satisfying after efforts!

End of my drills were not flat, but not arrow pointy either - they did a good job at the end after some changes on their installment into pin vise and of course bigger one made things easy at the beginning but was too big to go through.

 

If anyone would be interested I used 0,2/0,3 and 0,4mm Tamiya steel (HSS) drills - I can recommend for those of you that do not have special equipment or are just starting like me.

 

Thank you guys for helping me out, I do really appreciate your help. It gives a lot of joy.

Well done, what is your next step of the repair ?

[Dzwiedz]

4 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Well done, what is your next step of the repair ?

Thanks, next I plan to:

1. Clean the parts - mostly in warm water with dishwasher as degreaser, plus some gentle strokes of a brush to remove any grease, for some more difficult stubborn dirty places I plan to use wooden sticks not to scratch parts like mainplate etc. After that rinse in IPA 99% except for pallet fork and balance wheel. To be honest I do not know what to do with pallet fork and balance wheel after warm water with dishwasher... I read IPA dissolves shellac, so...

2. Straighten some parts like ratchet's pivot above with pliers - will have to be careful

3. Polish acrylic glass so I do not just have to replace that (easy way?) but to learn how to bring existing one to glory

4. Clean the case, as it is silver will try some vinegar/baking soda/tin foil combo

5. Put all parts back on their place and lubricate them

6. Hope to do everything above without breaking stuff

If I manage it I should have nicely running pocket watch - that would be my first.

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, Dzwiedz said:

Thanks, next I plan to:

1. Clean the parts - mostly in warm water with dishwasher as degreaser, plus some gentle strokes of a brush to remove any grease, for some more difficult stubborn dirty places I plan to use wooden sticks not to scratch parts like mainplate etc. After that rinse in IPA 99% except for pallet fork and balance wheel. To be honest I do not know what to do with pallet fork and balance wheel after warm water with dishwasher... I read IPA dissolves shellac, so...

2. Straighten some parts like ratchet's pivot above with pliers - will have to be careful

3. Polish acrylic glass so I do not just have to replace that (easy way?) but to learn how to bring existing one to glory

4. Clean the case, as it is silver will try some vinegar/baking soda/tin foil combo

5. Put all parts back on their place and lubricate them

6. Hope to do everything above without breaking stuff

If I manage it I should have nicely running pocket watch - that would be my first.

Just be careful to quickly and thoughly dry any steel parts after being in water. Or shake and straight into the ipa, rust will take on very quickly. Personally lighter fluid would be a safer option than water and degreaser. I did make this mistake with my first repair. The balance and pallet will be perfectly safe in there as well. Just a cheap safe option to get you started. For the crystal if you can feel the scratches with your nail, use diminishing grit grades of wet and dry and then autosol to polish up. I normally start with 400 grade and work down to 2000. 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Neverenoughwatches

[Dzwiedz]

3 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Just be careful to quickly and thoughly dry any steel parts after being in water. Or shake and straight into the ipa, rust will take on very quickly. Personally lighter fluid would be a safer option than water and degreaser. I did make this mistake with my first repair. The balance and pallet will be perfectly safe in there as well. Just a cheap safe option to get you started. For the crystal if you can feel the scratches with your nail, use diminishing grit grades of wet and dry and then autosol to polish up. I normally start with 400 grade and work down to 2000. 

I read couple of threads about cleaning in water+degreser, IPA, gasoline (lighter fluid I believe) and people used to say that lighter fluid is highly contaminated by many things as its main focus is to evaporate and burn, not clean things, hence I decided to stick with water and degreser? I don't know, I guess time will tell.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Dzwiedz

[Neverenoughwatches]

9 minutes ago, Dzwiedz said:

I read couple of threads about cleaning in water+degreser, IPA, gasoline (lighter fluid I believe) and people used to say that lighter fluid is highly contaminated by many things as its main focus is to evaporate and burn, not clean things, hence I decided to stick with water and degreser? I don't know, I guess time will tell.

Apparently lighter fluid does have additives that help it to burn, i have yet to find out what these additives are. The evaporatation would help besides . Lighter fluid contains mostly naptha that will clean effectively. As far as i know lighter fluid has no ingredient that will harm watch parts and has been used for decades by watchrepairers.