Watchmakers Lathe Or Mini Lathe

[jdm]

8 hours ago, david said:

That is a rare find. If you can get it at a good price, jump on it. I have only seen three come up for sale in the past 40+ years.

There are two Boley F1 for sale on Ebay right now. The image the OP posted appears to be from a Brazilian listing, but I couldn't find it.

[oldhippy]

I have just had a look on ebay. There are some wonderful lathes in super condition, but expensive.

[jdrichard]

I have swung a deal with Uncle Larry that includes a 3x Cross Slide. A Boley with a stand to attach the motor. I now need to live with what I get until i get competent and think I need better. Under $1K


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Geo]

Sounds good JD!  Uncle Larry is great to deal with,  and I'm talking from personal experience. :-)

[jdrichard]

Sounds good JD!  Uncle Larry is great to deal with,  and I'm talking from personal experience. :-)

He is setting me up with a Boley and the slide tools as well and plenty of advice. I also have the book Modern Lathe and how to Use It


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[oldhippy]

On 13/09/2017 at 6:21 PM, Geo said:

Sounds good JD!  Uncle Larry is great to deal with,  and I'm talking from personal experience. :-)

Who is uncale larry? if he has a web site could you give me the link.

[Geo]

OH, I've sent you a message.

[jdrichard]

Who is uncale larry? if he has a web site could you give me the link.

Just Google Uncle Larry Watch Repair


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[oldhippy]

Than you Geo, I now have the link.

[david]

After watching the video of the friction drive in action, it looks like Boley added it to sort of duplicate the  rotational movement you get from using turns and a bow. This would give a little more feedback to the graver  which could help avoid breaking off the pivot in the turning operation.

david

[jdm]

45 minutes ago, david said:

After watching the video of the friction drive in action, it looks like Boley added it to sort of duplicate the  rotational movement you get from using turns and a bow. This would give a little more feedback to the graver  which could help avoid breaking off the pivot in the turning operation.

Do you mean that it would turn in the two directions alternatively? 

[david]

JDm,

That is why it is "sort of" instead of "exactly".  This is just speculation on my part and there may be no one alive today who really knows Why Boley added this feature to their lathe. At the  time the F1 came out there were probably a large number of watchmakers who made pivots exclusively on turns. This is again speculation on my part,  but Boley may have viewed this as a potential market  and tried  to  entice  the old school 1930s watchmakers to move up to the 1950s technology; who knows.

david

[jdm]

If the piece turns in two directions, wouldn't you need to angle or flip the graver each time? Sorry for the dumb questions.

[david]

JDM,

No, you still cut the same way as in a lathe but with a bow you can only cut on the forward stroke. Lathes were invented long before motors and the bow was the initial way to power them.

david

 

[oldhippy]

Interesting reading about making balance staffs. It is one of the hardest things to master if you want to become a watchmaker. I learned on a Boley lathe with a foot control. You need to be very good with your grave and have complete control and bags of confidence. I had disasters lots at first, but my master would explain where I went wrong, many times, it was down to me making the wrong cut or not holding the graver at the correct angle and sometimes speed, you do not need high speed to make the final cut. .    

There are a few videos on YouTube showing how to make a balance staff.

 

[david]

Patek  Phillippe put out a YouTube video showing their guy who makes pivots. According to the video, this guy spent more than 20 years of his life doing nothing but making pivots on a set of turns.  Personally I don't think that Patek Phillippe makes all of their pivots this way as they crank out over 46,000 watches a year. It is however an interesting video. Maybe someone could post the link.

david

[jdm]

3 hours ago, david said:

Patek  Phillippe put out a YouTube video showing their guy who makes pivots. According to the video, this guy spent more than 20 years of his life doing nothing but making pivots on a set of turns.  Personally I don't think that Patek Phillippe makes all of their pivots this way as they crank out over 46,000 watches a year. It is however an interesting video. Maybe someone could post the link.

david

Spot on. Typical Swiss Marketing going after an easy buck after they realized that their income is based on exclusiveness and "craftmaship", LoL. But unlike  Dufour and few others, in their basement, far from the gullible buyer's eyes, they have the multi-million CNC machines spouting out thousands of small perfect parts every day.

[david]

That is assuming that these companies make all of their watch parts in house. The SWATCH GROUP  manufactures a lot of watch parts that are supplied to the Swiss  watch factories. There are also companies that supply items such as jewels and hairsprings but as far as I know SWATCH has been buying these companies in order to monopolize the Swiss watch part business. To me the whole thing looks like a marketing scam. When you think about it, a part cut out with a wire EDM in Switzerland and  a part cut out with a wire EDM in any other country is still a part cut out on a wire EDM. Watches are produced in these quantities using engineers, toolmakers, set up technicians, inspection departments, assembly lines etc. They are not produced by watchmakers. Roger Smith is a watchmaker, as are his employees, and he can only produce 10 or so watches a year. The major Swiss watch factories are cranking out around 150 or so watches per work day.

david

[jdrichard]

Interesting reading about making balance staffs. It is one of the hardest things to master if you want to become a watchmaker. I learned on a Boley lathe with a foot control. You need to be very good with your grave and have complete control and bags of confidence. I had disasters lots at first, but my master would explain where I went wrong, many times, it was down to me making the wrong cut or not holding the graver at the correct angle and sometimes speed, you do not need high speed to make the final cut. .    

There are a few videos on YouTube showing how to make a balance staff.
 

I will look foe the video. The main reason i bought a boley lathe was to make balance staffs. I dont care how long it takes to learn, i will eventually master the art. of course i may ask you guys a question from time to time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[szbalogh]

5 hours ago, jdrichard said:

I will look foe the video. The main reason i bought a boley lathe was to make balance staffs. I dont care how long it takes to learn, i will eventually master the art. of course i may ask you guys a question from time to time.

Find me on FB! Just turned the staff in the gallery in online stream ... 4-5 hours of joy  

[oldhippy]

24 minutes ago, szbalogh said:

Find me on FB! Just turned the staff in the gallery in online stream ... 4-5 hours of joy  

Do you mean face book. I don't use that. Can you put it on Youtube?

[szbalogh]

7 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Do you mean face book. I don't use that. Can you put it on Youtube?

Cant find any option to download from facebook.

But lets try the link

There was an error in the stream in parts 4 and 5, noticed later.

Part1:

https://www.facebook.com/szabolcs.balogh.336/videos/1581287458655778/

Part2:

https://www.facebook.com/szabolcs.balogh.336/videos/1582601088524415/

Part3:

https://www.facebook.com/szabolcs.balogh.336/videos/1585023948282129/

Part4:

https://www.facebook.com/szabolcs.balogh.336/videos/1586231778161346/

Part5:

https://www.facebook.com/szabolcs.balogh.336/videos/1586255011492356/

Part6:

https://www.facebook.com/szabolcs.balogh.336/videos/1586645694786621/

 

 

Edited September 18, 2017 by szbalogh

[oldhippy]

Thanks the link worked for me.

The first thing that you are doing which with practice, is you are moving the graver up and down, not just from side to side. The graver needs to be tidied up, it has round shoulders, these need to be squared off and the cutting edge is not straight, blow away the cut metal more often, at the moment it is becoming in the way causing a rough cut.  

[szbalogh]

7 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Thanks the link worked for me.

 

The first thing that you are doing which with practice, is you are moving the graver up and down, not just from side to side. The graver needs to be tidied up, it has round shoulders, these need to be squared off and the cutting edge is not straight, blow away the cut metal more often, at the moment it is becoming in the way causing a rough cut.  

 

Thank You very much!

Just practicing and still dont have a good tool post and every time i am improving my gravers. 

[oldhippy]

I didn’t know you were without a tool post. In that case you are doing very well. They do come up on ebay.