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Watchmakers Lathe Or Mini Lathe

jdrichard
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jdm Distinguished Member

jdm

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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.

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Geo
Geo

For the high precision required for making watch parts I would recommend a watchmakers lathe.  If buying second hand try to ensure all is  correct regarding condition. A mini lathe is indeed a ve

clockboy
clockboy

I was advised that the ideal is to have both. Unfortunately I just do not have enough room.In my opinion for watch repair the watchmakers lathe but for clocks the mini or bigger lathe.

oldhippy
oldhippy

You certainly can make watch parts on a mini lathe. I would recommend Cowells Super Elite. Very expensive, not sure, if they are still made if not they would have an equivalent. Do not expect to be ab

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david WRT Addict

david

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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

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jdm Distinguished Member

jdm

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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? 

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david WRT Addict

david

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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

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oldhippy Distinguished Member

oldhippy

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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.

 

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david WRT Addict

david

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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

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jdm Distinguished Member

jdm

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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.

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david WRT Addict

david

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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

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jdrichard Distinguished Member

jdrichard

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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.


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szbalogh Super WRT Addict

szbalogh

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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  :D

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szbalogh Super WRT Addict

szbalogh

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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 by szbalogh
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oldhippy Distinguished Member

oldhippy

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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.  

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szbalogh Super WRT Addict

szbalogh

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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. :D

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