Railroad Pocket Watch Repair

The Gold Pocket Watch Blog presents a short lesson on repairing a Railroad Pocket watch. This was presented by Maggie Kmiecik.

 

 

How to Repair a Railroad Pocket Watch

By Maggie Kmiecik, eHow Contributor

updated: November 30, 2010

I want to do this! What's This?

Old railroad watches are hard to find.

gold pocket watch image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clean workspace
• Screw driver set
• Parts tray
• Tweezers
• Watch cleaning solution
• Watch oil
• Toothpick
• Loupe or magnifying glass
• Blower
• Hand remover tool
• Watch paper

Opening the Back and Removing the Movement

 

part machine watch image by Leonid Nyshko from Fotolia.com

Open the back of the watch. Most pocket watches open on a hinge, you can simply use your fingernail to pop open the back.

Wind the open watch to locate the click. The click will sound every time it passes over a gear.

Hold the watch in one hand with your thumb and index finger firmly holding the crown, or the button used to wind the watch, in place. Then wind the watch slightly to move the click out of the way of the gears.

Use a toothpick to move the click so that it is completely out of the way of the gears, then let go of the crown. The watch should begin to unwind itself. Let the watch unwind completely.

Loosen the screws. Many pocket watch movements are held in place by two screws, unscrew these just enough so that they are clear of the movement.

Remove the face of the watch by either unscrewing it or popping it out of place, then very carefully remove the movement from the case.

Removing Parts

Place a little bit of paper on the face of the watch to protect it from the hand remover tool, then use the tool to remove the hands. Put them in one section of your parts tray.

Loosen the screws that hold the dial in place, they will be on the side or at the back of the watch. If the dial does not come off easily, loosen the screws a little more. Forcing the dial will damage it. Put the dial in your parts tray.

Remove the hour wheel, located in the center under the dial, with your tweezers. Place it in your parts tray.

4Carefully remove the cannon pinion, located under the hour wheel, with your tweezers. Place it in your parts tray.

5Find a safe spot where you can place your watch while you work on the back. To work on the back of the watch, you need a platform on which to place the watch where the hand post will not touch anything, otherwise it will snap off. You can drill a tiny hole, big enough for the post to fit through, into a small piece of wood to ensure that, when you place the watch down, the post does not touch anything.

The Back and Reassembly

Disassemble the watch. The watch should look like it has different sections. Remove the sections and gears one by one, placing the parts in your parts tray. Be sure to remember, write down, or sketch where the parts go.

Remove the balance wheel--or the part of the watch that has a tiny spring coiled in the center--by removing the screw then grabbing the underside of the balance wheel with the tweezers and hold the upper-side of the balance. The two parts must be removed together. Be sure to set them upside down in your parts tray.

Remove the pallet fork, which is located under the balance bridge and shaped like a "T".

Take a small amount of the watch cleaning solution and begin cleaning the parts one by one so as not to get them confused. Place the wet parts on the watch paper and dry them with the blower.

Take the watch oil and lightly lubricate all of the pivot holes. The pivot holes are the spaces where the different gears rest and rotate.

Work backwards to put all the parts back in their places and wind the watch. It should begin working as normal.

Read more: How to Repair a Railroad Pocket Watch | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7575768_repair-railroad-pocket-watch.html#ixzz16rlUswvB