Repivot revisit OR how it turned out…Just so you know

[digitaltripper]

Back in February I posted a cry for help on a re-pivot job involving a tiny verge. That post is here:http://www.clockrepairtips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=553 Since 4 months have past, I will say that this job did not take that long, rather it has taken me awhile to post about it.

After many trials of different things, I finally did it free hand….Yeah I know what your thinking, couldn’t happen. Here are the photo’s to prove it:

And the completed hole:

Now you’d want to see the completed part but alias every time (3 in all) I tried to put the pivot material in the hole, it was just off center. On the third attempt, rather than try smaller pivot material to see what was going on, I tried to bend the pivot…

If you’ve worked with pivots, you know what happened, it broke. Please learn from my mistakes, don’t try to bend hardened steel, it breaks.

I tried a number of things to get the piece out, heat, cold, cursing, more cursing…nothing worked so I sent the part to someone in Texas around April 4, 2013 and for 49.00 it came back finished on April 16, 2013.

The clock was cleaned, barrel bushing replaced, and mostly reassembled to test run it, and all went well. Upon complete assembly, the clock would run with the brass door open, but not closed:

Turns out, using a small compass, I discovered that the pendulum was magnetized. Unlike the cuckoo weights,( a different posting…) I was able to demagnetize the pendulum and the clock has been back to the customer for over two month now running happily.

Thanks to David, Vanhooglesnort, Mahlon, Bob, and Paul for all of your help and support.

Thanks to everyone who joins this forum and participates in the learning and sharing of ideas without bashing those of us who don’t know and are trying to find out…

Jim B.
Grass Valley CA.

[arutha]

Well done Jim,
its nice to see a post like this showing how info from the forum can help
I look forward to more like it in the future.
One thing I would like to ask is why are you having such problems with magnetism? Any idea what could be causing it?
Regards,
Paul.

[digitaltripper]

@Arutha wrote:

Well done Jim,
its nice to see a post like this showing how info from the forum can help
I look forward to more like it in the future.
One thing I would like to ask is why are you having such problems with magnetism? Any idea what could be causing it?
Regards,
Paul.

Yes this forum, and the folks associated with it, along with Bob’s courses, have been outstanding when it comes to clock and watch repair!! I don’t think you’ll find a better bunch online anywhere.

On the subject of my magnetism troubles, I have no idea. I had a magnet pickup tool near the bench stuck to a lamp (in case I dropped a part on the carpet) but I figured it was far enough away not to cause a problem. I have since moved it across the room, just to make sure it is not a problem.

As far as the big weights go, I still have not been able to demagnetize them. I am going to take them to an automotive machine shop that does magna-fluxing in the hope that they might, for a small fee, be able to use their demagnetizer on them. I’ll try to keep ya posted as to how it works out.

Jim

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