Watchmaker's and clockmaker's workshop - Lathes
| Watch and clockmaker's
tools must, first of all, follow high quality standards. For this reason
they are often very expensive. Sometimes they are used in a particular
manner and require to be individually modified. Antique tools are often
still in use. Our workshop follows this tradition: this 6 mm. Lorch lathe
(built at the beginning of this century) is used daily for light drilling
and finishing tasks. With this lathe balance staffs are made for those
calibers whose spare parts are no more available, starting from simple
steel bar. By the way, an interesting CD-ROM with plenty of references
to watch parts can be obtained by Chris
Heal. |
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It has to be remembered anyway that a modern electronically
controlled Bergeon 6800 motor powers it (left).
On the right, the
three dogs mandrel, used for off-centre cuts on odd shaped parts. Fixing
a plate on it, for example, allows cutting a recess for a wheel in any position
by a tool mounted on a cross slide rest. |
|
You can see a number of its accessories in the
typical wooden box.
For heavier turning or milling tasks, larger
lathes are employed, like this Emco
Unimat PC.
In the picture below, you can see the lathe making a thread.The vertical milling
and drilling attachment is mounted, too. We could cut left threads after a modification
to change gears.
With this machine, a complete pendulum clock can be made, even if of relatively
simple design.
There are firms making similar lathes at very low prices with
a presence on the Internet: Cowells,
Sherline,
Levin
(very high quality) e Taig
(maximum economy) for example.
| It is capable of creating a wheel starting from simple
brass plate or stock thanks to a system of dividers and milling column.
The only limit being it cannot cut wheels with a large number of teeth using
standard equipment. |
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