How do I remove this center pinion? Its the only thing holding this movement together

[GregG]

I have a fusee pocket watch that I am trying to disassemble.  I've gotten all the pieces out except for one, a center pinion which I believe slots into the cannon pinion.  I can't pull it out from the movement side and there is not enough space to get a pair of levers underneath.  On the dial side, the cannon pinion removal tool can't grip the cannon pinion strongly enough, I can't get levers underneath the cannon pinion, and I also tried gently tapping it out from the center of the cannon pinion with a punch, but for the life of me it will not budge.  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

EDIT: You can also see that one of the screws holding in the jewel setting on the main bridge is missing half the head.  I want to create a new screw for it.  How do I identify what screw thread series it belongs to? 

Edited September 17, 2024 by GregG

[nevenbekriev]

One of the ways for easy taking this cannon pinion out is to use pin wise and pliers. The pin wise will hold tight the cannon pinion itself, and the pliers will hold the square head of the pin on the other side. Turn one against the other and pull in the same time.

[JohnR725]

10 hours ago, GregG said:

tried gently tapping it out from the center of the cannon pinion with a punch, but for the life of me it will not budge.

I'm attaching a whole bunch images and information on what you have. Yes it's a common problem that comes up of how do I remove it? then yes there are variety of types yours is more noticeable because the square on the backside other times you don't see the pin itself as it looks like the normal center wheel unless you look really really carefully.

then I enhanced and snipped out your image which looks interesting? If you look at all the images attached there should be a center  pin that just needs to be pushed out. then pushing out is not quite the correct term needs to be pushed out usually with the hit of a hammer as they can be an quite tight. the reason why there so tight and if you look at the literature below the friction is not here it's in the pin going through the tube. So the cannon pinion this supposed to be quite tight on the pin itself.

Then attaching your image slightly enhanced it looks slightly different than I'm used to seeing almost like a center circle?

 

[GregG]

Thank you John and Neven.  Mine is basically the same as the fourth and fifth non-text image you provided, except the center pinion lies flush with the top of the cannon pinion.

8 hours ago, nevenbekriev said:

One of the ways for easy taking this cannon pinion out is to use pin wise and pliers. The pin wise will hold tight the cannon pinion itself, and the pliers will hold the square head of the pin on the other side. Turn one against the other and pull in the same time.

What sort of pliers?  That sounds like a recipe for irreparably crimping the cannon pinion.

[nevenbekriev]

See, just do exactly what I have written. The pin wise must hold the cannon pinion, the cylindrical part of it. The pliers must hold the square head of the pin. Nothing is going to crimp.

[JohnR725]

7 hours ago, GregG said:

crimping the cannon pinion

if you look carefully this is not your usual cannon pinion. your ability to crush it is basically nonexistent.

Then as usual and watch repair everybody has their different way. I still like whacking with a hammer possibly if you're careful in a staking set but you have to make sure the other side is properly supported so nothing else breaks. in other words you have to have a base piece with a large enough hole to accommodate the part that has to come out. The bases basically just goes around the square providing the support they are and raising the entire movement off the staking set because otherwise you probably break something's. Normally I just hold in my hand and tap it with a hammer and everything is fine. But sometimes you might need a center punch and holding it in your hand gets complicated if you have to hold the punch and the watch and then whack with hammer.

[GregG]

Sorry, didn't have a chance to work on it until today.  The pliers and pin vise method worked!  Thank you.