A Treatise on Staff Making and Pivoting

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A Treatise on Staff Making and Pivoting, by

Eugene E. Hall This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: A Treatise on Staff Making and Pivoting Containing Complete Directions for Making and Fitting New Staffs from the Raw Material
Author: Eugene E. Hall
Release Date: January 8, 2007 [EBook #20317]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's notes: Some minor typographical errors have been corrected. The author's spelling has been retained.

A TREATISE
ON
STAFF MAKING
AND
PIVOTING
CONTAINING COMPLETE DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING AND FITTING NEW STAFFS FROM THE RAW MATERIAL
EUGENE E. HALL
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
CHICAGO: HAZLITT & WALKER, PUBLISHERS 1910

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The raw material. The gravers. The roughing out. The hardening and tempering 5
CHAPTER II.
Kinds of pivots. Their shape. Capillarity. The requirements of a good pivot 13
CHAPTER III.
The proper measurements and how obtained 19
CHAPTER IV.
The gauging of holes. The side shake. The position of the graver 23
CHAPTER V.
The grinding and polishing. The reversal of the work. The wax chuck 29
CHAPTER VI.
Another wax chuck. The centering of the work 35
CHAPTER VII.
The finishing of the staff. Pivoting. Making pivot drills. Hardening drills. The drilling and fitting of new pivots 39

STAFF MAKING AND PIVOTING.
CHAPTER I.
To produce a good balance staff requires more skill than to produce any other turned portion of a watch, and your success will depend not alone on your knowledge of its proper shape and measurements, nor the tools at your command, but rather upon your skill with the graver and your success in hardening and tempering. There are many points worthy of consideration in the making of a balance staff that are too often neglected. I have seen staffs that were models as regards execution and finish, that were nearly worthless from a practical standpoint, simply because the maker had devoted all his time and energy to the execution of a beautiful piece of lathe work, and had given no thought or study to the form and size of the pivots. On the other hand, one often sees staffs whose pivots are faultless in shape, but the execution and finish so bungling as to offset all the good qualities as regards shape. To have good tools and the right ideas is one thing, and to use these tools properly and make a practical demonstration of your theory is another.
I shall endeavor to take up every point in connection with the balance staff, from the steel to the jewels, and their relation to the pivots, and I believe this will then convey to the reader all the necessary points, not only as regards staffs, but pivots also, whether applied to a balance or a pinion staff.
It may be argued, and we often do hear material dealers advance the theory, that to-day, with our interchangeable parts and the cheapness of all material, it is a waste of time to make a balance staff. To the reader who takes this view of the situation I simply want to say, kindly follow me to the end of this paragraph, and if you are still of the same opinion, then you are wasting your time in following me farther. For a material dealer to advance this theory I can find some excuse; he is an interested party, and the selling of material is his bread and butter; but the other fellow, well I never could understand him and possibly never shall. When we seriously consider the various styles and series in "old model" and "new model," of only one of the leading manufacturers of watches in this country, to say nothing of the legion of small and large concerns who are manufacturing or have manufactured in the past, and then think of carrying these staffs in stock, all ready for use, we then begin to realize how utterly absurd the idea is, to say nothing of how expensive! On the other hand, if you reside in a large city and propose to rely on the stock of your material dealer, you will find yourself in an embarrasing situation very often, for as likely as not the movement requiring a new staff was made by a company that went out of business back in the '80s, or it is a new movement, the material for which has not yet been placed on the market. This state of affairs leads to makeshifts, and they in turn lead to botch work. The watchmaker who does not possess the experience or necessary qualifications to make a new balance staff and make it in a neat and