# About Watchmaker's lathes and balance staff turning



## nevenbekriev (Apr 21, 2019)

Very often happens that someone buys old pocket watch with the intention to start restoration project, then He finds that the balance staff is broken and gives off…

Yes, the price of making new parts is high and buying watchmaker's lathe is expensive thing. But, if one have enough enthusiasm and time, nothing will stop Him to build his own lathe, good enough to make good quality balance staffs, screws, winding stems and some other things, and learn how to do this things by himself.

And, having lathe doesn't mean that one will ever learn how to use it. Actually, the old watchmakers often have lathes, but they don't use them. May be they have tried once few times and realized that it is not easy to learn and will not pay off easy, and since then, they said that they don't have time for this…

That's why I decided to start this project. The main aim is to show, that turning parts is not so complicated and is absolutely possible without having sophisticated high precision and expensive tools.

I choose to make a simple t-rest lathe with spindle. Yes, the lathes with still centers are even more simple, but using them for turning balance staffs, especially the pivots, is a bit harder for a beginner.

I decided to make the lathe directly out of an electric motor, thus simplifying construction - no belts, spindles, etc… The motor has two sides, each will have a permanent chuck: the front side with 8-screw chuck, and the rear will have wax chuck. Thus construction is further simplified - no collets. Wax chuck is something forgotten long ago, but has great advantage - it is simple, and with some experience - easy to use, and gives perfect centering.

I choose a motor from a not big vacuum cleaner. This is a brush type motor. They are easy to control, but this will need a special topic.

The motor has two ball bearings (in my case 608).This is important, as they will give perfect performance and no need of constant oiling, adjustment of free-play and so. But, the bearings must be in perfect condition. If worn, better replace them - this is easy, use bearings with rubber covers to prevent filling with dust and shavings.

I made the lathe and took a lot of pictures of the making process. Hope that pictures will make all clear, but I will try to explain everything and answer all questions if needed. The problem here is my English…

Here are videos with the pictures and the process of forming both ends of the motor shaft (the chucks).
















Here is the link for the gallery with the pictures

https://postimg.cc/gallery/5CxbkFX

Here is a video of real time balance staff turning on my new lathe.






I must say, that making good video appeared to me to be harder than turning the staff… And doing both things together is twice harder. So, please excuse me for the quality and speech missing… The quality is the best my mobile phone can do. It has good resolution, but focusing on small objects is real problem… I just hope that it is clear enough to understand how the staff is turned…

Also excuse me for this Filmora water mark! I am a beginner in video making and I didn't find so long beter and free software to prepare videos...


----------

