How long should winder “hook” be?

[Yokespring1]

I have an old K&D 123 bracelet watch mainspring winder. The arbor is double ended with tiny hooks meant to grab the end of the mainspring. But to me they are not extending far enough…does anyone use such a winder and, if so, can you give me an idea how far the hooks should protrude?

[GPrideaux]

Not specifically about that kind of winder, but there was some discussion about hook length recently here:

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

44 minutes ago, Yokespring1 said:

I have an old K&D 123 bracelet watch mainspring winder. The arbor is double ended with tiny hooks meant to grab the end of the mainspring. But to me they are not extending far enough…does anyone use such a winder and, if so, can you give me an idea how far the hooks should protrude?

Can you add a picture of handle Glen ? I think have the same ones but made by Star.

Lol my mistake , I thought you started the thread Glen

I'll  start again.....Yokespring can you add a picture of the handle please

[caseback]

We're not seeing the back, but perhaps you can press them out a bit further if they're pressed in a hole that's drilled completely through?

[mbwatch]

What sort of mainspring are you using these with? In their original unmodified form, they work pretty well with old steel wristwatch mainsprings but do not work well at all with more modern alloy mainsprings having smaller holes for the hook.

A photo of what the mainspring looks like when hooked onto the arbor would be good too.

[Yokespring1]

Here are pics of handle and spring

[caseback]

I found a picture online. It seems the hook on that one protudes more than on yours. I also think I see a hole where the arrow points. Does yours have that? If so, you could perhaps drive the hook further out from there.

Edited January 23 by caseback

[Neverenoughwatches]

18 hours ago, caseback said:

We're not seeing the back, but perhaps you can press them out a bit further if they're pressed in a hole that's drilled completely through?

The hole for the hook does go all the way through Cees, so yes it is possible to push it further out as you suggest for the OP.

17 hours ago, Yokespring1 said:

Here are pics of handle and spring

I have a couple of sets of these, just a different brand. The hooks do stick out a bit further on mine, there is one that has broken off...needs pushing out and reshaping.  Handy that they wind both ways. They are my goto set when nothing else fits, and if the arbor size works. They come in a set of 3 which gives a range from memory 7ish mm up to around 14mm, though there is a short gap in the range between the medium and large one around the 10-11 mm requirement. There is a bit of a technique involved when using them, the spring has a tendency when the bridle is fed in...to slip around to the next slot and poke back out. Let off on the winder before you feed it in so as to reduce the tension. But apart from those little idiosyncrasies, they're ok.

[Geotex]

I have some of these that need a bit of work as well. They are handy – I sometimes use the arbor piece in combination with the barrel/handle from another winder set when it doesn't have quite the right arbor for a good fit to the spring.

If these were 10X as large I'd just take them out to my general workshop and find a punch/vise/hammer combination that works, but this is micro work. What would be the recommended approach using watchmaker-scale tools? Are there purpose-made tiny hardened punches that are thin enough to drive in that small hole?  Or can you generate enough force to slide them out a bit more just by pushing with a rod/wire held in a pin vise?

[Neverenoughwatches]

I bought this a while back for something car related, lets see if it has another application.

[AndyGSi]

7 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I bought this a while back for something car related, lets see if it has another application.

New Timing Chain

[Neverenoughwatches]

The pins are too big for pushing out the hook, but with some lathe modifcation and making a different platform to hold the arbor there is no reason this wont do the job.

11 minutes ago, AndyGSi said:

New Timing Chain

Haha not any more , its rare for me to tinker with engines these days, sealed black boxes have me scratching my head. The lock release on one side of the rear doors of my van broke. A new one was over a hundred quid so i thought I'd have a go at repairing it. Just needed a biggish friction pin driving out to seperate the lock to get inside it. Pretty much spot on though Andy it's sold as a chain breaker .

[Yokespring1]

I read that someone was able to drill out the pin with a .5 mm micro bit held in a pin vise…I’m trying that approach which is SLOW X 10. I’ve already broken 1 of 5 bits in the kit. I like the press out idea but the hole is tiny.

[Neverenoughwatches]

12 minutes ago, Yokespring1 said:

I read that someone was able to drill out the pin with a .5 mm micro bit held in a pin vise…I’m trying that approach which is SLOW X 10. I’ve already broken 1 of 5 bits in the kit. I like the press out idea but the hole is tiny.

The pin might be hardened steel, drilling it out by hand... the hole could end up being quite a bit bigger and not uniform. Size isn't so much of an issue as the hook can be shaped to whatever you want on any size of a new pin.