How To Hold A Pallet Fork

[chris mabbott]

Gents, I need to reduce the pivots on a pallet fork, any suggestions on how to secure it in the jacot tool?

This is the type..

[randy]

Chris
If one of the pivots will fit into the center on the driver side, and you can find a bed that will accomodate it on the other,..it may work ?
I’m thinking that you’ll have to work a bit to get it to steady in the bed once you have a file/burnisher on top of the pivot, and of course you may have to bend the driving fingers to hold it from both sides….

[chris mabbott]

Thanks Randy, yes the pivots fit fine, but I will probably have to make a hair pin type driver for the pulley as there is only a single driver at present.
Kinda tricky with pallet forks, not my favorite to work on but I’m yet again… forced

[tmac1956]

Chris:

Here’s a dumb question. Could you hold it in a balance chuck just to work on the pivots? If you have one for wrist watches it might just fit.

Thanks!
Tom

[randy]

I think that Tom’s onto something…

[tmac1956]

Chris:

Clearly, you’d have to use your lathe but you could just roll the pulleys on the head stock using only your hands.

You give me much such good ideas, I just had to TRY to return the favor.

Later my brother!
Tom

[chris mabbott]

That’s a good idea Tom, I’m not sure how I could adapt it to the Jacot and I don’t have the lathe pivot setup.
I need to reduce the pivot diameter by 0.02mm so freehand is a little dicey..

My concern are the stones touching the drive pin, I think without the lathe attachment ill have to stick with the Jacot..
Please keep the ideas flowing … PLEASE :geek:

[tmac1956]

Chris:

If the pivot is long enough, could you use an old wheel as a carrier in the Jacot? Here’s one of Pahlow using an old turning lathe but the set-up might be similar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6svZzTBIeM

Thanks,
Tom

[chris mabbott]

Steffen is a god 😯

The staff on this fork is very close to the body of the pallet, yet another issue to overcome. This is another reason why I’m having a difficult time getting it secured, then turning it without hitting something, you can see the screws are also reducing the workable area. So I have a short staff, jewels projecting out and two screw on the other side.
I’ve considered taking it apart but it’s a royal paints get it back exactly in position,more so than trying to hold the damn thing 🙄

I’m sure we have the technology to figure it out

[Bob Tascione]

Hey Chris,
Many of these levers can be disassembled and have a locating pin to assure proper placement when replacing. Also it’s often the case that the arbor is threaded into the pallet assembly. I usually just unscrew them to do any work on the pivots then just screw it back in when finished. Also, cotter pins make great dogs/carriers and usually hold well enough for polishing small arbors. You can buy assorted cotter pins that have small radius bent in one arm for a few bucks.You can also make a set of dogs from clock bushings by drilling and then pressing a pin into the edge to allow for driving and then cut a slot to allow a small amount of expansion…kinda like a hairspring collet with a pin sticking out of it.

Enjoy,
Bob

[chris mabbott]

Thanks Bob, I’ve been trying to get away without disassembling the lever ( thanks also for reminding me its a lever as I can never remember lol)
These early series of Hampdens unfortunately don’t have locating pins but they do have just enough play to throw out the alignment

I would like to use the lathe but I don’t have the corresponding rest to work on the free side so I’m trying to adapt a method to the Jacot tool to reduce it from a size .12 to .10 pivot using the file…
I might try to make another pulley and attach two clip type drivers to it rather than the single type I already have, which works well for gears…

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Chris,
Yep, without those locating pins it probably would be a tiny bit out after assembly. I would think that the arbor is threaded but not positive on that model. You can usually see the threads under magnification. I have some old Hampden movements that I can take a look at in the morning to check it out a little closer. If removable the arbor can then be setup in the Jacot tool with the hardened cotter pin dogs that I mentioned earlier or just thrown in the lathe and pivots ground down and polished. If not removable and you want to use the Jacot tool and those screws are in the way maybe you can get some clearance by putting a dab of shellac or even a touch of crazy glue to hold the lever in place to maintain location and then remove those screws?? I wasn’t sure what you were saying about driving it. My Jacot tools have pulleys with double driver prongs that can fit on either side of the lever to drive it back and forth. Does yours use a different driver setup?

Bob

[chris mabbott]

Thanks Bob,maybe you have the lever I need 🙄 Hmm

[Bob Tascione]

I wish I had one for you Chris,
I did have similar levers to check out and some of the assemblies with the two screws didn’t have threaded arbors. So..your assembly may not have a removable arbor. I’ll take a few pics in about 10 mins and will put them up here.
Bob

[Bob Tascione]

Here are a few pics Chris. You can add a dab of crazy glue or shellac (to be removed later!) to secure the pieces together if you want to remove those screws to get them out of the way.

Adios for now,
Bob

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