I have a Client's Chelsea Marble cased Mantle Clock with a balance escapement. I corrected a horrible beat situation, corrected a rubbing hairspring and uprighted the roller jewel (was at about 20 degrees). Now it's running great. The regulator however, will need some work also. At some time in the clock's history the regulator was pushed the wrong way and the pins were sheared off. I stoned the back side of the regulator arm to remove the remaining "stubs". Next, I'll attempt pressing the stubs back out. However after reading Fried on making new pins, I need to ask has anyone done this? What material did you use...brass or steel. Did you turn them on a lathe? It's one thing to read a "how to" and something altogether different to actually do it. Just want to hear this procedure has successfully been done before and how you did it before I begin. Thanks for your support, Bill

Well..... I'm not proud of this but.... yes.... once!

I forgot which watch it was but it was a fairly inexpensive one and one that I had already put way too much time into.

After a number of problems, I noticed that one of the regulator pins has slipped and was far too short. We pulled that pin out and (gosh I'm embarrassed) we used one of those little brass sliver-pins (intended to hold very old dials). The are tapered and very tiny. One fit into the hole and we pushed it in until it was held tight by friction. We then cut it to the same length as the other pin and cut the end sticking out of the balance bridge. A little filing and stoning and the watch timed..... ok (but not great).

We then declared it "finished," cased it and forgot about it.

It was not a very elegant fix but it was very fast for a watch that (as I recall) was nothing but headaches.

Bill,
I have had to replace curb pins in watches numerous times. I used brass taper pins like the ones used for studing and colleting hairsprings. Just pick out a pair that are the same size and that will fit in the holes on the regulator.Press them in tightly with your staking set and break off exess and stone smooth. I then cut them to length with a finger nail clippers. TA-DA you have new curb pins.

Well Peter, elegant or not...it worked...and was a lot simpler than trying to make my own pins. Without the pins, the rate was 20 BPH slow. Now, I can adjust it to the mark. Gentlemen, Thank You! Bill

Shucks!

After I wrote that post, I went into my collection-database and found the watch. It was a 21J Bunn Special and I noted that after the repair it timed, perfectly, in all positions. I guess regulator pins either work or not. If they do.... they do.... and then you move on to the next problem!

Peter -

This is is not particularly surprising since a regulator pin is essentially nothing more than a pin tapered in a particular shape and cut to a particular length.

Ideally, the surface that the hairspring touches (on both pins) will be perfectly parallel to the surface of the hairspring, but in practise it might be hard to tell the difference.

Today I just finished making two regulator pins for a 18s Rockford. I used the same method that Lawrence described, and they are working fine, with no problems. It was a pretty straight-foward procedure.



Frank