Is there a method used to replace a seconds hand that has come off its pipe. Whomever put the seconds hand on really forced it down.In lifting it off,I parted the hand from its pipe.



Frank

Frank Juchniewicz

Hey Frank, You know my universal cureall. Superglue--works for this too. Work under the loupe, use a needle tip to apply the glue and set it together. This will hold it while on the watch, but when you attempt to remove it the next time, the bond will break.

Tom

Framk, What is the hand for? Maybe I can help. I dont know any way to repair it.

Aaron

Insert a round "smoothing broach" into the hole in the tube to keep from crushing it, and then insert the tube into a lathe collet of the proper size. Shoulder the tube to fit through the seconds hand about twice the thickness of the hand, then remove the tube from the lathe, place the seconds hand on the tube, and swell the extended end of the tube (carefully) with a sharp pointed punch. Once it's swelled a bit, tap it lightly with a flat-faced stake to finish the rivet.

A new tube can be made in essentially the same way. On occasion, I've had to make extra-long ones from hypodermic needles, etc......

That's all there is to it (the sketch below should help).

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Steve Maddox
Past President, NAWCC Chapter #62
North Little Rock, Arkansas
IHC Charter Member 49

Aaron, the hand is off of a Waltham 18s,model 83,A.T.@co.

Tom and Steve, thanks for the two diffrent approaches to solving this problem.I will let you all know how I made out.


Frank

Frank Juchniewicz

Lindell writes: "We are to the point where we must preserve and repair these increasingly difficult to obtain second hands."

Agreed!

Never throw away a nice seconds hand just because the tube is ruined or detached. The hand itself is the essential part, and new tubes can always be made and fitted.

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SM

The seconds hand has been repaired,and is now holding on to the end of the fourth wheel,happily going in a circle. Upon close inspection,I found that the pipe originally must have been to big; the cure used, was to pinch it closed. But in doing so the pipe was inadvertently bent slightly.
Then forced on. The cure involved the use of: smoothing broach,flat faced stake,and one of my wife's hand sewing needles. Those little pipes are hard to work on.


Frank

Frank Juchniewicz