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Barrel and barrel arbor maintenance.

Neverenoughwatches
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Neverenoughwatches Distinguished Member

Neverenoughwatches

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Eyup watch people. Thinking about the maintenance of where the energy begins, in particular reducing friction between the barrel and the arbor. Does anyone pay attention to this area ? Does anyone polish the bearings of the barrel or polish / burnish the arbor ?

tomh207 Distinguished Member

tomh207

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Although I don’t really have a clue I have been thinking about this too. I have seen and read several things mentioning polishing/smoothing the barrel base and rarely the barrel cap/top. I haven’t ever seen or heard of anything about chucking up the arbor in a lathe and burnishing the arbor bearing points. I suppose it may be one of these things that come under diminishing returns for the effort involved. However not being professional I maybe see the time investment differently. It will be interesting if/when the professionals chime in.

 

Tom

Neverenoughwatches Distinguished Member

Neverenoughwatches

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29 minutes ago, tomh207 said:

Although I don’t really have a clue I have been thinking about this too. I have seen and read several things mentioning polishing/smoothing the barrel base and rarely the barrel cap/top. I haven’t ever seen or heard of anything about chucking up the arbor in a lathe and burnishing the arbor bearing points. I suppose it may be one of these things that come under diminishing returns for the effort involved. However not being professional I maybe see the time investment differently. It will be interesting if/when the professionals chime in.

 

Tom

I've watched Chris Soto burnish and polish arbors. Reason I've asked, I'm in the middle of servicing an Oris 291 which is in fair shape for its age, but i thought i would polish up some pivots, not burnish but polish. I know this is frowned upon as potentially the polishing medium can embed itself into the steel and charge it up with compound. The barrel arbor had a dull look about it and some very fine marks, so popped it into a dremel and charged up some wood stick with autosol to polish it. After rinsing it, the before and after difference is night and day, testing for barrel and arbor friction between some tweezers has made a huge difference but the play is the same. So wondering if the arbor steel is hard enough to resist being being charged by the polishing compound, obviously burnishing is a better idea but most folk don't own a lathe. Probably not necessary to polish the plate arbor points just where the arbors meets the barrel and lid as this where the barrel unwinds itself and needs the least friction.

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
HectorLooi Distinguished Member

HectorLooi

Posted
Posted (edited)

I don't usually do it but I just burnished and polished a barrel arbor a couple of weeks ago. The upper arbor was rusted and pitted, so it was a necessary job.

I chucked it in the lathe and used the rough side of the pivot polisher first, then the smooth side. And finally polished it with autosol on a wooden popsicle stick.

It still had some deep pits but that was all I dared to polish. I also used a smooth broach to smoothen the barrel cap hole before polishing it with a bamboo toothpick. 

Edited by HectorLooi
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nevenbekriev Distinguished Member

nevenbekriev

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Hi Rich,

Yes, You can polish the arbor pivots and the barrel holes, but it will be beter to burnish them. The normal reason one will do it is if there is bad surface by the manufaturing or signs of degrdation of the surface due butting from no lubrication or hard particles for example, and it is done to prevent the bearings from fast wear when working in such state of surfaces. Othervice, do not expect significant change in amplitude because of the polishing. This is what I think, but You can try before/after with no change in other conditions and make own conclusions.

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