Bent hour hand

[Hampusf]

I recently bought this Seiko Crown on a trip to Japan. And I absolutely love the looks of it. But after buying it I noticed that the hour hand is bent to the side. 
 

I’d like to straighten it but am afraid it will snap of. I’m quite new to watchmaking so I thought I would ask the gathered expertise here before doing something foolish. What do you think?

 

[rehajm]

..verrrry carefully. …and only if I know there’s replacements about…

..I’m placing the pivot end in a snug hole on my anvil holding that end and slowly and gradually rocking the hand back into place with tiny presses. Brass tweezers or equivalent…this is about as ambitious I’ve been with that technique..

Edited March 30 by rehajm

[AndyGSi]

Hands aren't original and should be Dauphine shape.

[rehajm]

many of them have dauphine hands but others have your needle hands. I suspect they’re original..

Edited March 30 by rehajm

[AndyGSi]

40 minutes ago, rehajm said:

many of them have dauphine hands but others have your needle hands. I suspect they’re original..

Needle hands come with pointed dial markers and are still not as thin as the OPs.

[rehajm]

for comparison…

 

…there were variants…

Edited March 30 by rehajm

[Neverenoughwatches]

16 hours ago, Hampusf said:

I recently bought this Seiko Crown on a trip to Japan. And I absolutely love the looks of it. But after buying it I noticed that the hour hand is bent to the side. 
 

I’d like to straighten it but am afraid it will snap of. I’m quite new to watchmaking so I thought I would ask the gathered expertise here before doing something foolish. What do you think?

 

As rehajm said straighten it carefully. The tricky bit will be keeping the head still while manipulating the hand back to its original position. Don't be tempted to stick anything in the hole to grip it , you'll risk deforming or enlarging it. Find the best fitting hole in a staking block and clamp it down with something like a lollipop stick under finger pressure. If you can warm the position where it's bent that would make it a little more malleable. Not a flame, for a heat source I use a plug in wax melt warmer. Just some rubbing action at the point of the bend with a tiny piece of soft leather will introduce some heat to it. Then tease it slowly back with a piece of pegwoog, nudging it back a bit at a time, don't go for it in one.

The metal will adapt more readily to small adjustments ( bend and then relax )  rather than a big one that will surpass its shear point. 

Pencil hands,  no idea what the originals might be

And my first cuppa and toast are more important to me at this moment in time to even try to find out....

Edited March 31 by Neverenoughwatches

[Hampusf]

8 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

As rehajm said straighten it carefully. The tricky bit will be keeping the head still while manipulating the hand back to its original position. Don't be tempted to stick anything in the hole to grip it , you'll risk deforming or enlarging it. Find the best fitting hole in a staking block and clamp it down with something like a lollipop stick under finger pressure. If you can warm the position where it's bent that would make it a little more malleable. Not a flame, for a heat source I use a plug in wax melt warmer. Just some rubbing action at the point of the bend with a tiny piece of soft leather will introduce some heat to it. Then tease it slowly back with a piece of pegwoog, nudging it back a bit at a time, don't go for it in one.

The metal will adapt more readily to small adjustments ( bend and then relax )  rather than a big one that will surpass its shear point. 

Pencil hands,  no idea what the originals might be

And my first cuppa and toast are more important to me at this moment in time to even try to find out....

Thank you so much! My first instinct was to do everything opposite to what you suggested, so it was definitely worth to ask!

[Neverenoughwatches]

13 minutes ago, Hampusf said:

Thank you so much! My first instinct was to do everything opposite to what you suggested, so it was definitely worth to ask!

No no.....hitting it with a lump hammer will definitely introduce more bends that will then need straightening,  in which case you'll be on your own with that one fella.

[Hampusf]

8 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

No no.....hitting it with a lump hammer will definitely introduce more bends that will then need straightening,  in which case you'll be on your own with that one fella.

I will try you method first before going at it with the hammer

[Neverenoughwatches]

Let us know the result, how you felt about it , good or bad. The thing to remember is to maintain control over your actions. Accidents happen always through lack of concentration, as with any type of manipulation, you have to focus on what you want to achieve and feel what you are doing to get there. 

[Hampusf]

1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Let us know the result, how you felt about it , good or bad. The thing to remember is to maintain control over your actions. Accidents happen always through lack of concentration, as with any type of manipulation, you have to focus on what you want to achieve and feel what you are doing to get there. 

II agree and have noticed that I can’t do things like this when feeling stressed or tired, because there is a higher likelihood that I’ll feel impatient and rush the process. 
 

I’ll make sure to give an update!

[Hampusf]

Update!

So I was thinking about how to do this in the best way possible without breaking the hour hand. And i decided to build a little rig specifically for this. So I 3D-printed a small block with a hole that created a snug fit for the hand. I made a small support for the base of the hand which it could bend against.  I made a small red dot to mark the starting point to easier see when the hour hand had moved. 

Since the bend in the hour hand was very close to the base of the hour hand, my idea was that the support also had to be very close to the base to make it bend at the correct spot

After this i used the advice from @Neverenoughwatches and @rehajm to push it very gently and slowly with a piece of pegwood. I mostly pushed close to the base of the hand, but tried to vary it slightly not to create stress at the same spot all the time. I gently heated the hand holding it close to a very warm lamp I have, but I've got no idea how much of a difference that made.

Every time i made a significant move of the hand i took a break to let the metal relax. It took me an afternoon of small movement of the hour hand and doing some house work in between. It actually worked out great, and helped me to not rush the process. Every red dot is a spot where i stopped and took a break. And i did not even make a red dot every time i took a break. I let it rest somewhere between 5-20 min, just going by feel. But eventually it got fairly straight, and I'm with happy with the result! You can probably see that it has got a slight bend right at the base. But i would say that it's almost only visible in a microscope.

 

Thank you so much for the tips! And i hope this can help someone in the future. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

Well done, patience paid off.