Endstones Elgin 556 21 jewel

JCHansen · March 30

I am servicing an Elgin grade 556 and have found some of the endstones are seemingly installed in their settings with the flat side up (opposite pivot or jewel hole). This is a 21 jewel configuration with the additional endstones on the upper and lower pallet fork pivots and escape wheel pivots. These are endstones mounted in a setting, not shock-resistant but the older, screw-down type. I've consulted all of my repair books and it seems that it is universally true that endstones are installed flat-side toward the pivot. My questions are, has anyone else encountered this issue and is it possible this is how the movement was designed? I can't imagine the latter is true, but as I said earlier, the endstones are mounted in settings.

nevenbekriev · March 30

17 minutes ago, JCHansen said:

My questions are, has anyone else encountered this issue and is it possible this is how the movement was designed? I can't imagine the latter is true, but as I said earlier, the endstones are mounted in settings.

The answer is that such things has happened before and sometimes in manufacture the stones have been put wit convex side to the pivot, and this done on purpose. What i have actually seen is not jewels in settings, but modern pres-fitted jewels in cap plates.

JCHansen · March 30

Here are a couple of pics I took with my phone aimed through my microscope. The first pic is the jewel in setting facing up. You can make out the screw marks at about 5 o'clock and 1 o'clock if you look closely. The jewel is flat side here. The second pic is the underside of same. This side marries to the jewel hole setting. The jewel is conical here.