Help identifying lathe accessories?

[BCR]

I've had these for over 30 years. No clue what they are used for. I have a nice old Marshall watchmakers lathe that I mainly use to polish pivots and replace the occasional broken pivot. It uses 8mm colletts. These were mixed in with the box of colletts when I bought it. Thanks for any help.

In the next picture, you can see that the center shaft has a flat section for tightening the clamping lever. If you loosen the clamp several turns, then the shaft is free to turn. Also in the other pictures you can see a small hole at the top of the shaft. What is that for

ABOVE...JUST FOR SIZE COMPARISON NEXT TO 8MM COLLETT

AND NOW THE SECOND ITEM IN QUESTION...first picture is assembled, second shows the 2 parts, and the lower piece is 8mm

 

[Betzel]

You have a balloon chuck that is used to hold a wheel riveted to an arbor, letting just the pivot tip stick out. It protects the part while you are working the tip with a burnisher. Put the wheel in and push the rod until its tight, then clamp the handle. Polish. Switch it around and polish the other side. Rinse and repeat. This one is large and will probably accommodate a balance, if it all works out. Likely, it fits right into your #50 chuck.

The second is a screw-in wax chuck. I use a mixture of brown shellac (comes from small bugs in the jungle, I believe) and red sealing wax (fine pen stores sell them, and I think it is easier to find in Europe) which looks like a candle. Nobility used to seal a letter by lighting the candle, dripping the wax onto the seal of an envelope, and pressing their signet ring (or coat-of-arms, etc). Also holds a barrel onto that chuck pretty well.

The shellac is weak and brittle, but when mixed with the wax, helps you turn interrupted cuts without losing the work onto the floor, or oblivion. Most of these need to be faced true to start with by hand. Then, the trick is to learn to heat it without setting it on fire, so you can push the work true in all directions with a toothpick while the lathe is turning slowly, and hold it there until the mixture cools. That's why it's brass, as it holds heat well. Today, a lot of folks use crazy glue to hold and acetone to remove. Whatever you like.

Look up watchmakers Balloon chuck and wax chuck on you tube to watch people using it (perhaps?) correctly. HTH

 

[BCR]

Thanks BETZEL...It's finally good to know what the tools are used for. Your description was very helpful, and yes, I did watch a couple of Youtube videos showing them in action. Thanks again.

 

[Betzel]

Sure. Another thing is that if the hole in the blued steel end of the balloon is or becomes too large (so the pivots flop around under the slightest pressure) some of these old tools had replacement "ends" so you can cut your own hole to the size you need. Yours does not look like the screw-on cap type, but you can make one if needed. I have a set (marked Leinen, strangely) with five caps - pretty sweet. Also, aligning the handle in some repeatable orientation with the keyway of your #50 chuck will help keep it centered on repeat runs. Few run true without some trial and error to find a sweet spot.

I often just go old school and put them in a pin vise and twirl by hand in hardwood, notched with a v from an escapement file, while burnishing them. Slow and steady does it for me, especially on long hard pivots like french "Empire" clock arbors. The fly pivots (for example) are incredibly fine, and the thought of breaking one while polishing is unpleasant