Troubles with staking set and balance staff

[dralexmv]

I have been practicing using my K&D staking set to become proficient in replacing balance staves. During tonight's practice, I tried to rivet and drive out the same staff from the same balance wheel a few times. After the the second iteration of this process I started to have a few troubles. I was able to drive the staff out (using K&D's No 50 staff remover), but I struggled to rivet it back in for some reason. It is almost as if the shape of either the wheel or the staff had changed. Once I riveted the staff into the wheel, I had a very, very hard time removing it. A bit perplexed I hit the staking punch with the brass hammer much harder than I usually would, this drove the staff out of the wheel but jammed it into the staking anvil's hole (took me a solid hour to remove the remains of the staff by using a shaped piece of pegwood). 

This left me wondering if on every iteration of setting in the staff, I was changing the shape of the balance or the wheel. I also noticed that the balance staff was getting stuck in the punches (domed punches) themselves (also after the second iteration). Could anybody help me out here in understanding what sort of mistakes I might have been making tonight? My guess is that I was not choosing the right size of domed/flat punches to rivet the staff.

[clockboy]

In my experience removing a balance staff just by punching it out can sometimes distort the original hole. This then makes fitting the new balance difficult if not impossible. Also it is important that the balance wheel is securely held when removing a staff because it is very easy to distort the balance itself. The method I use now is I remove some of the rivet using my lathe and then punch the staff out with a Platax tool.  

[wls1971]

By punching a staff out you are breaking the rivet this usually removes metal from the staff it is then not possible to reuse the same staff a new staff is required to form a decent rivet and secure it  unless they are friction fit. Staffs are a one use item.

[khunter]

You can only rivet a staff once.