Home Forums General Discussion Forum Bent Pivot. Reply To: Bent Pivot.

#52298
arutha
Participant

    Hi Alan and welcome :)
    Good job its not a French clock as the pivots are very hard and will snap 9 times out of ten. Bending escape wheel pivots was a problem for me when I first started, I was so worried about gears popping out I used to apply just a bit too much pressure when putting the mechanism all back together and would end up having to take it apart as I had bent an escape wheel pivot. The easiest way to do this is if you have a watchmakers lathe, put the bent pivot in the collet and use the pointed end on the tailstock runner as a guide to gently bend, a little at a time until it runs true. If you dont have a lathe then you can try to do it by eye, hold the arbour in a drill chuck and use a cheap small pair of pliers with the inner jaws polished to again gently, a little at a time bend the pivot until it looks true. Once you think it is true just try it on its own in the plates to see if the wheel runs ok and is not binding. The pivots are normaly soft enough that you can bend them back without fear of breaking them. You do not need to use heat. Worse case scenario, if you do break the pivot off, send it to me and I will re-pivot it for you if you dont have the equipment, I too live in the UK in sunny Weston super Mare.
    Good luck and let us know how it goes.