Wednesday 26 May 2010

Adjusting end shake on a centre wheel

A post on the watchuseek forum reminded me of my J W Benson pocket watch. This watch dates back to 1892. It has a sterling silver case & an english lever escapement. It also has Geneva stopwork, an alternative to the fusee. Unfortunately, the finger piece is missing. I shall have to make it at a later date. What I love best about this watch is the loud, laid back pace at which it beats (14,400 bph). I have been fixing it's problems for two years now (as my knowledge & skills improve). The centre wheel was stripped off it's pinion when I got it. I tried re-staking it but it did not work for too long. Finally I found a replacement wheel from a junk movement. This replacement wheel was a fit but it was not as free as one would like it. There wasn't enough end shake. Finally, I was in a position to fix it. Since I was a little bored with turning all those dial markers, I decided to do this little project. Here, you can see how the end shake was adjusted on the turns. I had to turn a special turning arbour for this job. The wheel is friction fit on the arbour and this assembly is turned by a split ferrule. Admittedly, the ferrule does not fit the arbour well. But I did not find it worthwhile to make adjustments for such a small job. Also, the ferrule is one I made a long time ago. When I compare it to the one below (in the post about the winding shaft) I realise that my skills have improved marginally :-) What I will do in future is use 3mm stock to make turning arbours. I have made a split ferrule that fits 3mm stock perfectly & that way I will also be adding to my arbour inventory. Aditya