Tid-Bit 23 - Horological Tool Time
Folks who visit my shop often comment that I seem to have a lot of tools. This can be a bit daunting for someone who is considering getting started in clock repair. Fortunately many of the tools I have are focused on very specific aspects of mechanism restoration, tools that are not needed most of the time. This Tid-Bit discusses the tools I use most often – the tools that I think are needed to do good work.
Thinking about tools takes me back to when I decided that I wanted to get serious about clock and watch restoration – when I concluded that I needed to learn to use the watchmakers lathe.
I signed up for a 2 week lathe course taught by Roy Hovey. A week later a list of required tools showed up in my mail box. Fortunately (or perhaps not) I had already discovered a couple of clock supply houses so it was an easy thing to go down the list and order all the things needed to attend the class.
Funny thing was, attending the same class was a truly wonderful couple, Harry and Peggy Blair. I don’t remember the whys and wherefores, but they had with them box after box of old tools. Which they were more than happy to pull out and let the members of the class pick through and buy. At truly wonderful prices.
I saw immediately was that the older tools were better made, elegant even. And, for me, the patina of age only made them more attractive. Don’t get me wrong, not the patina of abuse (like marks where someone had used a pair of pliers on a pin-vise), but the wear that results from a tool being used hundreds of times.
A set of Starrett pin vises I bought from Harry are in the top drawer of the small cabinet in front of my bench. The new ones I bought for the lathe course? They were given away years ago.
Which in a roundabout way brings me to why I chose this as the next subject for a Tid-Bit – I was using my pin vises to clean up the heads on screws from a wonderful miniature Viennese mechanism and realized just how much I really like those pin vises.
Figure 29 – Dremel Tool with a very fine brass wire brush wheel
Folks who view my “Fantastic Clock Mechanisms” gallery often ask how I get the gears on my restored mechanisms to look so good. While much of the credit has to go to the classic-recipe cleaning solution I use (“Clock Cleaning Solution” in my Tid-Bit Gallery) I also credit the way I lightly polish each side of the gear when it is in my jewelers lathe having its pivots restored. Figure 29 shows my rechargeable Dremel tool with a very fine brass wire brush wheel. I also use this combination to clean pinions and gear teeth. I will have to write a Tid-Bit about these techniques.
When visiting others’ shops I come away with at least one idea I can use in my shop. I hope this view of my tools and some of the layouts will perhaps help you find what works best for you in your shop.
I referenced a number of the Tid-Bits that have been previously published in the NAWCC Bulletins. Perhaps the easiest way to find these articles in an easy-to-access format is on my website – http://www.snclocks.com – under the Technical tab at the top of the pages. You will find the 23 Tid-Bits published to date along with a number of others that have not yet been published.
Lastly, I love to get feedback on what I write – I have so very much to learn and each of you likely know something that would benefit me. If you have comments, suggestions, questions, send me an e-mail at steve@snclocks.com.
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