Stuck Cannon Pinion

[meep1999]

Here's a small gallery of the problem I have: http://imgur.com/a/MSY2D I've tried to remove the pinion but have had no luck yet. I need to change the mainspring but cant get to it without removing this pinion. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Also if you know how to find the correct mainspring for watches please let me know.

[sstakoff]

What kind of watch is this? Many times you can remove the mainspring barrel without the need to remove the center wheel/cannon pinion. But that is not always the case. Regardless, how are you trying to remove it? Do you have a proper removal tool? If not, you may end up damaging the cannon pinion or the center wheel pivot.

As far as mainsprings, you need to know:

o The end type - there are several and they can be found here:

You also need to know the width, the strength (thickness) and the overall length. If you have the calibre number you can often just lookup the correct size online. The width and strength can be measured in mm or if you have the correct gauge, in Dennison units.

 

[JohnR725]

The Canon pinion isn't stuck it's just that you don't grasp what you're trying to do. It's not a conventional Canon pinion at least conventional for a modern watch.

So older pocket watches many times do not have what we perceive to be a Canon pinion. The Canon pinion itself is driven on to a center shaft that goes through a hollow tube of the center wheel. In the case of yours we can see the center pins sticking up. Then a course you can look on the other side and see the square part. Others like the image I attached of a watch I'm doing doesn't stick up beyond the top of the Canon pinion. Then just because you don't have the square doesn't mean it's one of these can and pinions as an example I have. Then recently I saw one that was rounded on the other side making it look just like the  conventional pivot of the center wheel only a little crack revealed that it was a separate pin then of course there's the visual difference of the Canon pinion they look different.

So staking set is ideal bench block with care and a hammer. You need to put the square part with its washer into an opening into a bench block or a staking set hole so it can fall out. But you definitely have to support the plate around it. Then flat punch on the protruding part carefully tap it should just fall out..

 

[szbalogh]

I had the same problem here 

The solution was to wrap the pinion in soft copper sheet and pulling down with pliers.