Guard pins come in many shapes and sizes requiring different procedures for various circumstances.
Not knowing your circumstance without a photo, lets assume it is a straight round pin.
In most cases it will require very little adjustment and would not be safe to do in the watch unless specifically tooled to do so.
Due to the fine adjustment required, my personal procedure to do the pin mentioned above would be as follows.
(1) I mount the pallet by the pin in a collet in the lathe along with a staking punch designed to remove a cylinder pivot per first attached photo.
(2) I then position the punch pin against the pallet and record the hand wheel setting for future reference on how much the pin has bent. second photo
(3) The pallet can now be pushed using the carriage hand wheel in .001" increments for very fine adjustment.
(4) If required the pallet can be pulled by positioning the pallet behind the off set in the punch with the same degree of accuracy. third photo.
(5) The degree of bend can be gauged by comparing to the setting in #2 at any time.
Because of the very fine adjustment required, its often a get lucky thing without mechanical control. Mechanical control allows for very minor highly accurate and safe adjustment.
Jerry Kieffer
