What is the best to clean the complete balance and pallet fork durring rutine cleaning? I am concerned with disolving the setting on the roller jewel and the pallet stones.
What do you all use?
Thanks,

Aaron,
The Troop-Balas Co. of Tarpon Springs, FL makes a product called "One Dip" Hairspring Cleaner and Rinse that works very well. Just dip the complete balance and pallet fork assembly in a small bottle, swirl it around for a minute or two, remove the parts with tweezers and let it air dry. It will not affect shellac. "One Dip" is distributed by Vigor and most major watch suppliers should carry it.

...Aaron, what I do, and you may want to wait on more experienced advice, is to avoid rinsing the fork or balance in denatured alcohol as it will, as you likely suspect, tend to dissolve the shellac over time...no, after cleaning the fork and balance in the L&R tank I soak them in naptha for a time, clean the pivots in pith wood and then blow dry...

Aaron,

Like Ed, I'm a fan of One-Dip. For balances, I clean them with hairspring attached (if they aren't too filthy), then dry them in warm boxwood sawdust. It seems to impart a nice shine to the balance. The balance is then removed and any of the loose sawdust is blown off with the bench blower.

I don't know what others think about using the jeweler's sawdust. But my old watchmaker mentor has been doing this same practice for 50 years and seems to think it is good practice.

For the pallet fork, a simple dip and bench blower is what I do.

A note about One-Dip... S LaRose doesn't cary it any more. I just got some from Jules Borel. Grobet distributors have a very similar product called "Dip Once." But I haven't used it.

Aaron, the "one dip" is carried by Merritt's clock and watch supplies. Their website is:http://www.merritts.com



Frank

I, too, use one-dip for the balance and pallet fork, but not as the sole cleaning effort. The "dip" is the last step after pithing the pivots and wiping the pallet stone faces (on pith or with Rodico) to remove any old oil residue.

I use One Dip too, followed by a nice warm sawdust bath. A word of caution about blowing sawdust off--go GENTLY! Nothing like watching with horror as your too strong"puff"of air tangles the hairspring into a hairball!