My First Staking Set Advice

[Birbdad]

47 minutes ago, Jon said:

Well done! A good looking staking tool

That's good to hear. Was talking about it in another group and some pros were sorta acting like nothing is worth owning other than boley and K&D. Then i see pros here talking about how marshall and K&D are some of the best. I just keep bidding on good looking ones and finally won one. I can't wait to mess with it and hopefully i can figure out what stakes are missing and replace them.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Birbdad

[GuyMontag]

2 hours ago, Birbdad said:

That's good to hear. Was talking about it in another group and some pros were sorta acting like nothing is worth owning other than boley and K&D. Then i see pros here talking about how marshall and K&D are some of the best. I just keep bidding on good looking ones and finally won one. I can't wait to mess with it and hopefully i can figure out what stakes are missing and replace them.

Yeah, that's a really good price, well done. I have a Marshall set and I paid $550 for mine, and that is before the buyers premium, tax and shipping.

Edited March 25, 2023 by GuyMontag

[Birbdad]

Just now, GuyMontag said:

Yeah, that's a really good price, well done. I have a Marshall set and I paid $550 for mine.

Do you like it? Is it a solid precision tool?

[GuyMontag]

1 minute ago, Birbdad said:

Do you like it? Is it a solid precision tool?

It's been great so far for what I've used it for, but I'm a beginner and have barely scratched the surface of the full use of the set. But I'm confident that I won't regret the purchase, it seems a really high quality product.

[Birbdad]

Just now, GuyMontag said:

It's been great so far for what I've used it for, but I'm a beginner and have barely scratched the surface of the full use of the set. But I'm confident that I won't regret the purchase, it seems a really high quality product.

Cool. I guess i'm just looking for validation haha. THings said in another forum are sorta filling me with uncertainty and this is the brand i know the least about.

[LittleWatchShop]

There appears to be some rust on the stakes. Easy fix. Clean them up with 1000 grit sandpaper.

What I do is chuck them on a drill motor an hold the sandpaper to the stake and spin! Don't chuck them too tight as to score them.

[RichardHarris123]

18 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

There appears to be some rust on the stakes. Easy fix. Clean them up with 1000 grit sandpaper.

What I do is chuck them on a drill motor an hold the sandpaper to the stake and spin! Don't chuck them too tight as to score them.

You could wrap some tape around them for protection. 

[Birbdad]

10 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

There appears to be some rust on the stakes. Easy fix. Clean them up with 1000 grit sandpaper.

What I do is chuck them on a drill motor an hold the sandpaper to the stake and spin! Don't chuck them too tight as to score them.

was gonna try to take the whole thing apart and soak it and the stakes in evaporust and do a little light restoration.

[LittleWatchShop]

9 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

evaporust

I don't know.  I would be very selective about what I put in evaporust.  I have never used it, but somewhere I saw a thread about caution.  Start with rubbing everything down using a cotton cloth soaked in wd40.  See what you get from that.  Do the stakes like I said earlier in this thread.  For the dia plate, I have done mild polishing with 2000 grit sandpaper, but frankly, that is not really necessary...it is only cosmetic.

Bottom, line...go slow.  You cannot undo what you do.

[watchweasol]

Hi. An alternative to 2000 grit paper is wire wool and oil cleans and polishes.

[Neverenoughwatches]

37 minutes ago, watchweasol said:

Hi. An alternative to 2000 grit paper is wire wool and oil cleans and polishes.

0000 wirewool and a little oil, then i use autosol to give a final polish to them. 

[SpringMangler]

As others have said, be careful with Evaporust. I've had mixed results with it, and cosmetically parts don't look great after they've been sitting in it.

A fibreglass brush also works well on surface rust, followed by a high grit paper (I use up to 3000 grit), or fine wire wool. 

Edited March 26, 2023 by SpringMangler

[oldhippy]

Emery cloth or emery sticks are best you can get different grit. If you have a lathe even better. After removing the rust wash out in petrol and wipe with a clean cloth. Make sure the stakes that have various holes in are clear and not clogged up. 

[Birbdad]

Ok thanks for the advice guys!

[rehajm]

I dropped my stakes in the ultrasonic with some evaporust. 6 minutes did no harm and got out all green dried out oil in the crevices. Some emory on the rustiest stumps- gone.

I’d concurr with soaking, however. The finish on parts I’ve soaked aren’t really the same afterwards…

Edited March 26, 2023 by rehajm

[Birbdad]

Heya So the staking set arrived. The punches short of not having a full set and the thing itself appear to be in great condition and just need a bit of derusting. My concern however is that there's a good bit of play in the table on the thing yet the knob on the back does nothing and rotates a little less than 180 degrees.  I have a feeling this thing is so old there's probably stuff rusted and seized up on it and it just needs to be taken apart and derusted and oiled up in a few spots.  Here's a vid of the wobble on the table. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7k86sh2mcv0vdfo/PXL_20230401_024922606.mp4?dl=0 Turning the knob doesn't seem to do much of anything.  People more familiar with this, your input would be appreciated as i gotta leave this guy feedback or decide whether there's soemthing wrong with the thing. I assume it's an old tool that needs a little TLC.


 



There's these two screws on the bottom, I assume i need to adjust these to deal with the table play and disassembly. I tried the larger one and it is totally and uttelry seized up. Guess i'll have to get some penetrating oil. 

One neat little detail is that this came with the original booklet! It has a list of all the punches and the punches are all labeled so it should be real easy to complete this set and keep an eye out for deals on ebay.  

 

Ok this is wild. It came packaged with crumpled up newspaper, really old from  chicago. 
Look at the headline on the day this paper was printed. Not watch related but very interesting.

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Birbdad

[Endeavor]

2 hours ago, Birbdad said:

My concern however is that there's a good bit of play in the table on the thing yet the knob on the back does nothing and rotates a little less than 180 degrees

There are probably different systems to lock the table. I had for a short while a Helios staking set and that one had a different system. For whatever it is worth, I took a picture of my Boley set locking system.

The big knob pushes a tapered pin forwards. The taper pulls the center-pin down, locking the table.

Hope that may help?

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Endeavor

[Birbdad]

1 minute ago, Endeavor said:

There are probably different systems to lock the table. I had for a short while a Helios staking set and that one had a different system. For whatever it is worth, I took a picture of my Boley set locking system.

The big knob pushes a tapered pin forwards. The taper pushes the center-pin down, locking the table.

Hope that may help?

 

Hmm...I think there's a different system for this one. The knob doesn't appear to unscrew

 

[Endeavor]

Yes, the Helios-set had a different system. I never took specific pictures of the locking mechanism, however on one of my pictures you can just see the knob with pin. As you may be able to see, the end of the pin was off-center moving the center-pin up & down. It may well be that your center-pin is stuck?

Edited April 1, 2023 by Endeavor

[Birbdad]

2 minutes ago, Endeavor said:

Yes, the Helios-set had a different system. I never took specific pictures of the locking mechanism, however on one of my pictures you can just see the knob with pin. As you may be able to see, the end of the pin was off-center moving the center-pin up & down. It may well be that your center-pin is stuck?

It could be all seized up.
What concerns me is that the knob turns about 180 degrees yet seems to have no effect whatsoever on the plate, doeesn't make it move but i can hear....something happening inside the thing. Whatever cams forward or whatever from the wheel, i'm hoping it's not broken.

[Endeavor]

I guess we need others to chip in

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

32 minutes ago, Endeavor said:

There are probably different systems to lock the table. I had for a short while a Helios staking set and that one had a different system. For whatever it is worth, I took a picture of my Boley set locking system.

The big knob pushes a tapered pin forwards. The taper pulls the center-pin down, locking the table.

Hope that may help?

 

My star set locks in the same way.

[Birbdad]

Anybody have a marshall set they've taken apart before?

[oldhippy]

I had two complete sets. One had a screw knob locking on one side, the other had a lever locking on the side. Both worked as good as each other. 

[tomh207]

49 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

It could be all seized up.
What concerns me is that the knob turns about 180 degrees yet seems to have no effect whatsoever on the plate, doeesn't make it move but i can hear....something happening inside the thing. Whatever cams forward or whatever from the wheel, i'm hoping it's not broken.

I have the Helios set which I think is much like the k&d sets in operation. The locking knob only moves 180 degrees too. The locking mechanism is a cam system, rotating the knob clockwise 180 releases the table to rotate, fully anticlockwise locks the table.

 

Tom