Dial Foot Repair Help

[jdrichard]

I have recently purchased a new dial soldering machine. It works well if you solder a wire to the bare dial, but if you try to solder to an existing file down dial foot, solder not working. So my question is how do I remove the old dial foot and get down to bare dial metal so I can solder on the copper wire, clip it and make the new foot.

[WatchMaker]

I'd be using a cylinder diamond burr to grind that remnant away. A mini set can be bought pretty inexpensively.

Alternatively a traditional soldering iron held on remnant just long enough to soften existing solder and remove it. A screwdriver pushing against remnant whilst you do this will help with the 'just long enough'.

[jdrichard]

1 hour ago, WatchMaker said:

I'd be using a cylinder diamond burr to grind that remnant away. A mini set can be bought pretty inexpensively.

Alternatively a traditional soldering iron held on remnant just long enough to soften existing solder and remove it. A screwdriver pushing against remnant whilst you do this will help with the 'just long enough'.

Hey thanks. But on another note. I took a scrap dial and ground the foot and some of the plate down revealing a copper back plate. Then I used the dial foot soldering machine with a copper wire and solder past. Doing this in the tin looking other dial worked every time. Trying to get the copper wire to adhere to the copper plate just doesn’t work. Is there something I am missing?

[jdrichard]

Help!

[Nibbler]

Mark posted a YouTube video on this process and solutions for some of the issues he faced. He switched the solder he was using for one he had better experience with in the past.

Its a pretty good video on repairing dial feet in general but I suspect you might already know most of this. I hope it might help. And bravo to Mark for posting this video.

Matt

 

[WatchMaker]

If we consider that the copper-to-copper you're attempting is just akin to what plumbers do on copper pipes they're joining then this points to some flux or solder issue. What are you using?

Your pics indicate there's not the kind of nice flow and adherence one would expect. Even your dial foot solder is trying to flee the scene and is just a ball on the tip.

Have you got just a normal soldering iron or torch you can use on your scrapper to check that the flux and solder are playing ball? Make sure your copper is bright and shiny and slightly rough (bit of emery paper); the dial looks primed but foot has usual copper oxidisation which might compromise soldering.

[watchweasol]

Hi JD  one point to consider is that its an enamel dial on a thick copper dial plate and probably whats happening is that the dial is acting like a heat sink drawing the localised heat away. I built my own dial soldering machine and it works well on ordinary thin dials no problem. On a thick plate, never tried it. The dial and dial foot wire are thicker on the pocket watch so may be try holding the probe a little longer.  Most good fluxes work with copper to copper and electrical solder wire flattened and cut into small bits placed in the flux at the base of the foot then apply the heat.    good luck.

[jdrichard]

9 hours ago, WatchMaker said:

If we consider that the copper-to-copper you're attempting is just akin to what plumbers do on copper pipes they're joining then this points to some flux or solder issue. What are you using?

Your pics indicate there's not the kind of nice flow and adherence one would expect. Even your dial foot solder is trying to flee the scene and is just a ball on the tip.

Have you got just a normal soldering iron or torch you can use on your scrapper to check that the flux and solder are playing ball? Make sure your copper is bright and shiny and slightly rough (bit of emery paper); the dial looks primed but foot has usual copper oxidisation which might compromise soldering.

I figured it all out. Flux was the secret