Roller Jewel Pin

[Julian Smith]

This is truly a job for a professional watchmaker.
J Smith

[Larry Jones 98326]

The 4th dimension is correct up to a point, this isn't that hard of a task, but Julian's caution is also valid.

If you have never done this, you will want to start with about 1/2 dozen roller jewels on your bench, because you will loose about 5 before you finally figure out how to pick one up and get it into the roller table and get the shellac melted. That is, if you're a klutz like me. With practice, it gets pretty easy....

[mikeh]

I'm not sure exactly what model you have, but since most all of the 7 jewel movements are common, the easiest fix would be to just switch the whole roller table and save the old one for practice. If you provide the serial number from you movement I'll check my stuff and see if I have one. If it's a 16 or 18 size, I probably have it but if not, maybe someone else does.

Regards,
Mike

[Tom Huber]

I have replaced many roller jewels, and I am far from a professional watchmaker. I usually get mine from a like movement which I have in my junk drawer. I do not use shellac. I place the roller jewel into the table to the right depth. I then add super glue around the jewel with the head of a straight pin. I have done this with about two dozen watches, and have never had one come loose. The watches have worked perfectly. It is so much easier than messing around with shellac. Tom

[4thdimension]

Larry,
So right! They are tiny critters. I should
state that having and understanding the tools
is what what makes this job go smoothly. I've got an old pair of roller jewel tweezers and
I love'm t'death! The basic description of these is that they are very skinny at the end
and have a tiny notch on each side into which
the jewel is held. I used to do the job with
plain 3C's and I don't wish to go back to that(I've spewn my share of jewels). You could make a roller jewel tweezer pretty quick from another tweezer by simple putting the notches at the end to hold the jewel.
Crazy glue is brilliant stuff but I'd
never use it for jewels. Two out of three
efforts require some minor adjustment. For instance, if the jewel is tried and found to be high or low, resetting it, if you used
shellac, will take two or three minutes. I
don't want to think about making a tiny
adjustment if crazy glue was used.
I buy'n'sell watches and always make out
buying watches with this problem because the
cure is a job that I'm comfortable with. Now,
having enough jewels can present a problem,
but there are 7 jewel Elgin volunteers lined
up and ready to donate for a transplant. The
regular method works best on this job.
-Cort

[BrianC]

Guys,
Here's a little trick to try.
Put a little saliva (spit) on the end of a small screwdriver. You will find that a roller jewel will stick to the screwdriver like a magnet and it will be easy to put the jewel in the roller table. Please don't use crazy glue, I might be the next one to work on the watch.
Brian C.

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[Tom Huber]

Why does everyone think that super glue is so hard to work with? I have installed roller jewels with superglue and I have removed them for adjustment. They make a super glue solvent in a tube just like the glue. I apply the glue with the head of a pin, and if I must remove it, I apply the solvent the same way and lift out the jewel with my tweezers. You then just reset the jewel and glue it in place. I have successfully utilized super glue on a number of applications on watches with great success. My word is--Until you've tried it, don't be so critical. You just might find something that works.

I had posted a while back about people on this board coming back with posts saying "no way" to anything that is new, different, or out of the ordinary. I utilize what is called horizontal thinking. There are many solutions to things today that were not available to watchmakers years ago. I give the advice that has worked well for me over a period of years. I'm not afraid to try something different. I have found many techniques and materials that are out of the mainstream for watch repair that work exceptionally well. When I share some of these with the old watchmakers in my chapter, they have been amazed and have told me that they wished they had thought of that years ago. So, again, until you try something, don't come right out and knock it.

Tom

[Mike Kearney]

Tom, I will admit to having used super glue on roller jewels more than once. And the fact is, it makes an excellent repair. I think what convinced me that shellac was the best way to go was reading Fried and de Carle, who both said that good workmanship dictates that repairs be indistinguishable from factory work. And super glue isn't.

In learning to work with shellac, I did experiment with a low wattage soldering iron, and found out that I have better control over the work and the temperature than when using an alcohol lamp and combination tool. And I can watch it under the stereo microscope.

Just my opinion.

Regards,
Mike

[Tom Huber]

Mike, I agree, but I have always been a pragmatist. I guess I'm just interested in the watch working well, not any of the minutia. Thanks. Tom

[Larry Jones 98326]

Tom,

One of the nice things about shellac is that you can adjust the jewel, if needed, by just warming the shellac. Is any adjustment possible with the super glue, or do you need to dissolve and reglue?

[PJW]

It seems likely that shellac will hold a jewel for about 100 years.
Super glue appears to become very brittle in a few years. To me, rigid (or knocked about)items repaired with it don't seem to last, especially if subjected on a daily basis?
My thought: shellac also is brittle , but it retains its long term plasticity offering thermal expansion/contraction.
Just my opinion,
Regards, Paul


[This message has been edited by PJW (edited 10-23-2001).]

[Tom Huber]

Larry, To adjust, I must use the solvent and reglue. Tom