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I posted here because its not a watch repair, but the techniques are the same or similar.  I've some cracked jewels in a nice German 1/10,000" dial indicator.  They're reminiscent of old style rub in jewels in chatons, but there's not really any sort of lip or anything else where you'd close it in to hold the jewel.   So the first question is how is the jewel held in the brass chaton?  Cement?  would it just press out?

The second question is where does one get large size jewels like this?   OD of the chaton is 3.5mm, Diameter of shaft going into the jewel is 1mm.   Buy blanks and turning the down is a possibility, but not sure where to source blanks.  The value of these old indicators isn't so high that there's a big budget, so it probably needs to be a low cost source of jewels - unlike a Rolex, if you start spending $20 each on a couple of jewels, its not worth it.

I could just turn bronze bearings, but of course ideally I'd like to keep its original quality and performance with jewels

I've got several instruments with similar requirements, they've been waiting for a stroke of genius and there's been none!  any ideas welcome, thanks

PS, in looking for ideas I came across this video and was really impressed - this guy does rub in jewel replacements including home made tools and grinding them to size...all with a dremel!! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3gxp96WjCI

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    • Hello and welcome from Leeds, England. 
    • Hi watchweasol, yes that is a way of doing it I suppose, I have a pair of mainspring hole making pliers on their way off eBay, the ones with the different shaped punches. I may be able to use them to make a hook.
    • Hello everyone, Glad to be here. 
    • This is a modern watch, the crown is definitely made from solid 316l steel. You must have heated the crown to some 200C caused the surface colour to change to light yellow. It's similiar to steel tempering. Yes it is the chromium oxide that forms during the heating that gives rise to the colours you see as you know stainless steel contains chromium. The fact the crown is SS lead me to a question, you've never heard of the alum method? Because alum would work perfectly in this case, instead of drilling, which, there is always a risk of damaging the crown, I would just let the crown chilling in some warm alum solution for 1-2 days and the job is done.   Sure can but the thing is the crown is not just mirror finishing, the lock symbol is polish while its background is some sand-blasted finishing so it would be hard to replicate that. You can buff it all shiny but losing the sand-blasted finishing means it won't look exactly like before.   Gasket is always tricky to me. I would try to use some gasket that look closest to the broken one in term of thickness and diameter, and check if the replacement gasket fit with some friction to the case tube. Lastly you can still use alum at this point.
    • No mate. Sorry if that offends you! Also please don’t take threads off-topic. I thank you sir. 
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