Method of placing the Dial Feet.
No. 343. To place the three feet of the dial, make three holes in the pillar plate about equally distant from each other, so that they form a triangle and they cannot obstruct the train. Put the first opposite the contrate wheel, the second opposite the plug of the potence, and the third between the barrel and the first wheel. This method for placing them is not a general rule. One can deviate from it according to the circumstances, especially when one fears obstructing some part.
If you are within reach of an enameller, bore the three holes for the dial feet in the plate, and give it, with the case, to the workman who, making the dial for this particular part, will give it more grace. Besides, he will bore the holes in the center and for the fusee more accurately, and the whole will fit better than if you use a dial from the tool merchants. You will have much trouble to set up a dial chosen randomly, and it will never fit as well as one which has been made for the piece.
If you want to fit a dial taken randomly to a watch, take one rather large, so that the copper plate, which exceeds enamel, also exceeds pillar plate and can be flush with the seat of the case. Hold the feet of the dial with pincers, and put them as true in every direction as you can. Then put the dial on a playing card and press it down so that each foot makes a hole in it.
Cut it to the circumference of the dial and bore the holes of the center and the fusee, and mark the point of midday. After doing this, remove the card from the dial and place it on the plate, making sure that the point of midday exactly divides the hinge into two equal parts.
With loop pincers hold the card on the plate and mark with a drill the holes for the feet, which are already bored in the card. After boring them in the plate, chamfer them so that the feet will enter more easily. The dial thus fitted must overflow the plate all around.
Hold the dial on the plate and bore, on the side of the train, the holes in the feet which you will pin close to plate. Make these holes small if you want the pins to hold, and so that the pillars do not burst. Being made of copper, they will be very difficult to bore if you do not take care to put oil on the drill frequently. That done, cut them off a little beyond the holes with cutting pliers, and round the ends with the tool to round the ends of pillars, No. 150.
If the squares of the fusee, the canon pinion, and the hand of the rosette are not the same size, make them the same size; then smooth and polish them in the turns, as in No. 64 and 65.
As for the canon of the hour wheel, leave on it a shoulder which is used to hold it under the dial. To make this shoulder, turn the end of the canon until it can enter exactly and freely the hole in the dial, and so that there is a little play between the pinion of the canon pinion and the dial. Set up the two motion-work wheels, pin the dial, and turn the center wheel. If the motion-work is not free, if it binds, you cure it either by giving freedom to the wheels or by reforming the gearing. The hour canon must rise above the surface of the dial to receive the hour hand.
To mark the Hole for the Fusee on the Dial, and to bore it.
344. The position of the hole for the fusee is marked on the dial with the uprighting tool.
See the description and use of this instrument, No. 273.
There are two ways of boring a dial. The first is to mark the place of the hole with the point of a graver. Little by little one breaks the enamel with the point of this tool, until the part of the plate where the hole must be made is exposed. It is bored with a rather small drill so that it cannot grip and burst the enamel.
Then place the dial on plate, to see whether the hole is exactly opposite the square of the fusee. Enlarge it with a rat tail file until it is rather large, so that the watch key can be put on without being likely to break the enamel.
Take the precaution, when doing this, to file the enamel only when pushing the file; you would inevitably break it if you press on such fragile matter when withdrawing it. Take care to use a file which cannot grip in the hole, if you do not want to risk breaking the dial. If, however, the file grips, you can withdraw it by rotating it carefully until it is released.
345. The second method to bore holes in a dial is faster and more certain. Take a well hardened and well sharpened graver, mark the hole on the dial and sit it on a bottle cork fixed in the vice. Take this graver in the left hand, hold the point at the place that you want to bore, and strike it with small hammer blows. You will remove the enamel by changing the place of the point of the graver at each blow of the hammer. It is the way to break the enamel little by little, and of reaching the copper plate. When you bore it, bring the hole to size with the precautions indicated above.
346. To round and smooth a hole in the dial, make on the turns a copper drill. Place a ferrule on the end and use it like a drill by resting it in the hole in the jaw of the vice. After coating it with emery, introduce it into the hole in the dial, and turn it with a bow until the hole is round and even.
347. Then fit the two hands. The hour hand must have a round hole, and turn with friction on its canon. The minute hand must have a square hole, so that it can be fitted onto the end of the canon pinion. If the hole in this hand is not large enough, enlarge it with a square punch with blows of a hammer. You will do better using punches rather than a square file, because while filing you cannot be certain that you will form a square whose angles are sharp, which contributes much to fitting a hand firmly on the square of the canon pinion.
348. Before leaving the work of finishing, it cannot be recommend too much to go over the movement again. To smooth the plates, barrettes and other parts of the watch with water stone. To polish all the stems and faces of the pinions. To carefully blue all the screws, and to polish the springs and other steel parts. To clean the movement, soap it with a brush, and wipe it on a cloth with bread crumbs. When it is quite clean, put all the free pieces in the frame, one after the other. After assembling the movement and pinning it, put on the slide, the rack, the rosette and its wheel.
To Set Up the Watch Escapement.
After pinning the inner end of the balance spring to the collet, and making it true, pin the other end to the stud. Then put on the cock, and fix it with its two screws. The whole being set up, gently push the contrate wheel with a finger to make it run, and the balance will vibrate. If the vibrations are stronger on one side than the other, release the pin and move the balance spring to the side of the strongest vibration. Repeat this operation until the balance escapes as much on one side as the other. Tighten the pin in the stud, fix the cock with its two screws, and wind the watch. If you followed the principles that I given you, both in the rough and when finishing, you will not have to worry about its running.
Note: Articles XXIII, XXIV and XXV of Part 5 (on gilding) should appear here.
End Of The Third Part.
PRACTICAL
WATCHMAKING
Part Four.
Chapter One: Repairing.
No. 350. One usually looks at repairing as easy and simple work. The experts and true artists consider it from a quite different point of view.
A workman with little talent, and after several years of work, will manage to make good rough movements, while he would never succeed if he had devoted himself to repairing.
There are also cases which would cause trouble for a good finisher.
It is not only necessary that a good repairer is in a position to make and finish a movement, but further, that he is endowed with an inventive genius which can be applied according to the circumstances, and that he has long experience in this work. A repairer must have more extensive and more varied knowledge than that of a rough movement maker and an ordinary finisher. From which it is easy to conclude that a watch needing repair should only be entrusted to watchmakers who have acquired a good reputation for their talents, their probity, and their experience.
Do not be negligent, nor fail to be meticulous in repairing. In the first case, you would miss many defects which could stop or vary a watch.
In the second, you would make many useless repairs which would not make the watch better, and would waste much time.