Seth Thomas 120L issue

[stevefitzwater]

Ok I am stuck on this Seth Thomas 120L movement, what is causing the issue is replacing the mainsprings, if you have worked on one of these, you will understand it, I will get pics later.

The MS arbor sits inside a cup, I have the Ollie mainspring winder, but I am unable to wind the spring up and capture it so I can place it in the cup, which has the peg for the hole in the mainspring..

I will work on the pics

[willofiam]

Steve, have to use a different arbor, I use one from a old movement and made it so it would catch in either winding direction, otherwise you would have to make one. William

[bernie weishapl]

I am like William. I take the arbor in there out. Once out I use another just straight arbor without a wheel on it. Wind it up with Ollie and capture it. I do this also on ST 124’s.

[stevefitzwater]

Ok, that is the direction I thought I would have to go, but want confirmation from those in the know…

as always, Thank You for your help

[stevefitzwater]

is it weird that I am having issues sacrificing another arbor for this?

Been doing some searches for MS arbors, not finding much, gonna keep looking, I do not want to destroy a perfectly good MS arbor to make this tool, and I do not have the tools to make one.. >sigh<

Bernie, maybe you can answer this question, I found a lot of 400 day clock Mainspring arbors on ebay, will those work?

[bernie weishapl]

No they won’t work. Diameter to big. Have Bob send you my e-mail address. You can e-mail me your address if you want and I will send you a couple of spares I have.

[stevefitzwater]

Thanks for the offer Bernie, but I had already started the process of de-constructing the arbors, and to be honest, I am sure at some point I will need parts for clocks, and this sessions movement is the first of many to be added to the “parts” group. Being a lover of history and the back stories that accompany history, it just felt weird parting out an old movement when the main reason I got started in this hobby was to preserve those movements.

William, you said that you had modified yours so it will catch the spring both ways, I have two arbors, and I am going to make one of each, the problem is both are currently winding in the same direction, so now I will explore the way to convert it to the opposite wind. I have an idea, just need to find the free time to work on it.

[bernie weishapl]

Your welcome. Are your arbors stamped or do they have a pin. If it has a pin you can remove it although it may be a little harder without a lathe. I generally drill them out holding the arbor in my milling vise and put the jacobs chuck on the headstock and drill. They can be punched out while being held in a vise then a new pin installed. Problem I have is the punches that will fit the hole don’t hold up well when pounded on hard. 😆 Once installed I leave them slightly proud and don’t file them so I can wind either way. The ones I have just happen to be able to go one way with one and the other way with the other.

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