Save or scrap?

[ramrod]

i did the exact same thing with an elgin movement. i looked at it last night. i can't recall if the thread was marked, either.

i have some alum and i'm gonna give it a whirl.

[Paul78]

9 hours ago, clockboy said:

I think the Alum trick only works with certain metals. I must have been lucky because I have  only had to use the Bergeon tool once & it worked a treat. 

I was most likely using the Bergeon tool wrong, patients is not one of my virtues! i suppose being in the watch repair game was probably not the best idea for me, but it kind of did happen by chance really, we bought the business back in 2010 - however we had staff running it for us, bad idea as it nearly went down the pan! so i stepped in and here i am 3 years later, a much more healthy business bank balance and i'm hooked on repairing watches - and i think i'm becoming addicted to buying tools!

[ramrod]

I have an addiction to LOOKING at tools....Too poor to buy any right now. But, a staking set and mainspring winder are on the list.

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[RyMoeller]

13 hours ago, clockboy said:

I think the Alum trick only works with certain metals. I must have been lucky because I have  only had to use the Bergeon tool once & it worked a treat. 

I believe this is true too.  If I could remember my chemical equation rules for oxidation from chemistry I could probably figure out which metals work and why.  I tried to remove a broken off case screw (brass/gold filled case) but the alum trick had no impact.  I this case I figured the screw was probably stainless steel which contains chromium.  I had to drill out in the end.

[ramrod]

it definitely won't work on stainless. i used it to dissolved a stem in a seiko crown. it removed about 99% of the stem - i'll have to pick out the rest of it. but the crown was untouched.

[Paul78]

It was a Maurice Le Croix case I tried it on, the screws had snapped in the case. Didn't affect the case at all.

[mcass]

I have used tea to remove rust which works very well. I did run into a problem on one movement though where it ate through the ends of the 3rd wheel. I'm not sure what tea would do with a screw stud. I may try it this weekend.


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