Hairspring Removal

[chris mabbott]

Whenever I service a watch, I always remove the jewelry from the balance wheel, the roller and hairspring (HS)
A tricky job at the best of times. Fortunately I’m like an old ad the went like this….,

Wanted: person with long thin fingers for taking things out of long thin jars 😆
But if a person has large hands, holding the balance is difficult and removing the HS is even more difficulter 😆

I’ve tried the few methods available,and there aren’t many, in removing the HS but my preferred method is a tiny 0.35mm screwdriver that I made up especially for that purpose, in fact, that tiny screwdriver is my staple for many different little tasks.
Yesterday I decided to mess around and make a HS removal tool that I saw on a video a long time ago, which was my reason for using the screwdriver initially..
It consisted of two small pieces of brass round stock that I fashioned into pry bars.
This was brought about by a Waltham that had the tightest HS ever, and I struggled with it, almost disastrously, until eventually getting the thing off.

So I tried my bars on a 16s HS afterwards and VIOLA off the spring came as slick as **** 😆
It was a good test because it was a smaller HS and it was tight..

What do you guys use for this fragile job?

[gerene]

I use the tool I made according to Bob’s description in the staffing video’s.
Chris, can you show us a picture of your tool?

Jan

[chris mabbott]

I will Jan, when I get back home a little later..

[bernie weishapl]

I also made a tool like Bob shows in his video’s. It works pretty well for me. Be interested in seeing your tool.

[tmac1956]

All:

I too made one like Bob’s. But I also made three as described in the Chicago School of Watchmaking. They are made from old mainsprings of various thicknesses and widths. They work pretty well – a drop of oil and a twist and off comes the hairspring. Adjustments are easy too. I’ll admit that they aren’t very attractive.

Later,
Tom

[chris mabbott]

Guys I didn’t forget about this but I’m away until Thursday and the only image I have is a HUGE one on my pod, which needs to be edited down a piece or two 😮

I’m sorry to admit but I can’t remember the type our Bob shows in the video 😳 I always was a poor student 😆
Can someone post an image please..

[chris mabbott]

By the way Tom, those babies are lookin good my brother nice job. Things don’t have to look perfectly pretty to work well, dang, I have lots of scary looking but useful bits and bobs

[chris mabbott]

Here’s one of two of the little brass HS removal bars, for me they works great..

[randy]

I don’t have a pic..but I’m spoiled in that I have my Dad’s set of hairspring tools…the kind that came on small clear plexi rods. The removal tool looks a bit like what Tom fashioned.
I take the balance,.set it into a hole in my bench block that accommodates the roller, and then whilst ( notice that I’m working on my queen’s english ), holding it with my fingers near the rim,..I gently insert the tool and twist / lift until it releases.
The key here is patience, and I like Tom’s idea of adding a bit of oil…..

Chris..nice looking levers you’ve crafted ….

[chris mabbott]

Randy, I did notice your very correct usage of “whilst” and I am impressed Have you been slipping over to Van 😆

[tmac1956]

Chris:

That’s a great idea of using brass you won’t scratch anything that way.

Later Tater,
Tom

[randy]

It’s a linguistic hold-over from when the wife and I spent a month in the Midlands a few years back…..lovely place…..

[chris mabbott]

That’s where I’ve spent the past week visiting the fam, except my queens has degraded into something that sounds like
EyeYAHH Aw’right 😆 no idea where that came from

I thought with you being next to Van , or little England as we used to call it, you might have been influenced 😆
It was always funny to see lines of people going into Vancouver from the US side while we were going to buy cheap products from your side. Communal border hopping 😆

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