The Tools and Materials of the Watchmaker - A Guide to the Amateur Watchmaker's Toolkit - Including How to make your own Tools

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

GOOD tools and an adequate supply of materials are essential for successful watch repairing. Most watches to-day are made on the interchangeable basis so that broken parts can be replaced without having to be turned or machined. It is not necessary usually to carry a stock of such replacement parts unless the watch repairer is an agent for a particular brand. It is, however, necessary to carry a good supply of various types of glasses of the crystal, empire, lunette, hunter, demi-hunter, button, and wrist-watch varieties, as well as a stock of hands of all types including spade, double-spade, cathedral, moon, and straight hour and minute hands, as well as a stock of seconds hands. Also obtain a good stock of first quality mainsprings in various strengths and in various lengths (they are sold according to the number of coils) to suit the general run of pocket and wrist-watches, a supply of hairsprings, small timing washers, assorted screws, transmission wheels for keyless work, winding shafts and buttons, pallet stones, jewel holes, balance staffs, ruby impulse pins, balance screws, hour and minute wheels, cylinders, sticks of blue steel in assorted sizes, sticks of brass in assorted sizes, hairspring collets, taper pins for fastening hairsprings, and a supply of the various sizes of pinion wire. These materials will cover the normal run of repairs. In practice it will be found that the general run of watch repairs comprises new balance staffs, new hands, new glasses, new hairsprings, and new winding staffs and buttons. Dial repairs are best put out. Cracked enamel dials, if the trouble is not extensive, can be repaired by means of a special white enamel which melts at a low temperature, but a badly cracked dial will have to be re-enamelled, and that is the work of a specialist. Metal dials which show a tendency to fade can be re-written and renovated very cheaply. Case repairs are dealt with in a separate chapter.

Tools should be selected carefully, and only the best should be bought, for they are the cheapest in the long run. Tweezers are available in a variety of styles and shapes. A cheap pair of hollow tweezers of the Boley pattern will suit for picking up small parts, but for hairspring work a special set of hand-forged tweezers should be bought and kept entirely for that work. Several pairs of good pliers, a pair of end cutters, a pair of side cutters, a pair of sliding tongs, and a pair of adjustable clamps for holding small work during soldering are essential tools to purchase first. A stock of watchmaker’s screwdrivers in all sizes should be kept.

Figs. 16 & 17.—Watchmaker’s lathe and some of the split collet and stepped chucks.

Fig. 18.—The Lorch watchmaker’s lathe.

Fig. 19.—Concentric self - centring 3-jaw chuck with reversible jaws.

Fig. 20.—Concentric self centring 6-jaw chuck with reversible jaws, for holding bezels, thin discs, etc.

A set of broaches is necessary for opening out small holes in hands and other parts, as well as a collet-jaw broach-holder. A set of drills for use either in the bow-head or the lathe are necessary, as well as a set of watchmaker’s files, a set of taps and dies, set of gravers, carborundum stone