How to remove mainsprings

[khoward279]

Hi everyone,
It’s been awhile. I have a new shop and things have been hectic. I have recently taken on a couple of clocks for a customer that have presented problems for a newbie. I’m attaching a photo of a Seth Thomas no.124 movement. My question is if the mainspring barrels are riveted to the plate how do I safely remove the springs? So far so good but I think I picked a movement that is awfully complicated for me. It needs 6 bushings and a good cleaning and hopefully a problem free assembly. Thanks for any help.
Kevin

[stevefitzwater]

going to tell you how I would proceed, you can decide if you would, or wait for others advice..

get a blank mainspring arbor ( I used an old Sessions movement that I had designated as a parts movement, I turned the hook around on one arbor so I could do both left and right wind (used a propane torch, and heated it up, it turned very easy, do not overheat it).

Using the blank arbor, wind the springs up so you can get a retention spring on the edge, then reverse the procedure to re-install.

– make sure you leave a tab sticking out of the ring for winder tool to grab the tab.

[Author]

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