Hi guys,
The reason for this post is only to share my excitement at fixing my vernier. When i say fixing, it wasn't really broken in the sense of it being worthless. It functioned perfectly, except that it wouldn't slide smoothly, and felt like some of the gears were missing a few teeth. After talking to one of my clients who is a watchmaker by profession, he suggested a trick they use, which is to essentially turn the gear upside down.
With that thought in mind, I decided to give it a go this afternoon. I began by carefully stripping everything down, making sure to keep track of all the tiny screws and tiny bits. Soon I came to see the need for one of those big magnifying lights, because this stuff is crazy small. Half the problem is just trying to see what you are doing.
Well I finally got everything down to the bare bones. and discovered that all the gears were still fine. Which was a surprise, but then I discovered a tiny spring thing, loosely sitting between two gears. And this seemed to be out of place. My efforts at searching google for a parts diagram or such, were uneventful. And I was at first stumped as to how the heck this spring fits in. But I eventually figured it out.
This whole event had taken about 50 minutes so far. And I thought I'd have it wrapped up in a few minutes, but no such luck for me. After reassembling the gear housing, I discovered that it wasn't engaging the main slide on the vernier. So the dial indicator wasn't turning at all. I scratched my head, made an espresso, had a vape. And stripped the whole thing down again, to check everything and look for the part I had assembled incorrectly. Needless to say, the gear failed to engage a second time, and so I stripped it down again. This process was repeated for a further two and a half hours. With the same end result.
I finally decided to call it quits for the day, when I accidentally discovered the key to success. And it ended up being a simple adjustment that got the gear to engage. Finally!!
The final test was now to see if the gears were running smoothly, and it now glides like butter. I was overjoyed that all the hours spent were not in vain. And I'm so proud to finally have it working the way I want. Sorry if I rambled on a bit. But I had to share it with someone.
Here are a couple of pics I took while trying to figure things out.
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The reason for this post is only to share my excitement at fixing my vernier. When i say fixing, it wasn't really broken in the sense of it being worthless. It functioned perfectly, except that it wouldn't slide smoothly, and felt like some of the gears were missing a few teeth. After talking to one of my clients who is a watchmaker by profession, he suggested a trick they use, which is to essentially turn the gear upside down.
With that thought in mind, I decided to give it a go this afternoon. I began by carefully stripping everything down, making sure to keep track of all the tiny screws and tiny bits. Soon I came to see the need for one of those big magnifying lights, because this stuff is crazy small. Half the problem is just trying to see what you are doing.
Well I finally got everything down to the bare bones. and discovered that all the gears were still fine. Which was a surprise, but then I discovered a tiny spring thing, loosely sitting between two gears. And this seemed to be out of place. My efforts at searching google for a parts diagram or such, were uneventful. And I was at first stumped as to how the heck this spring fits in. But I eventually figured it out.
This whole event had taken about 50 minutes so far. And I thought I'd have it wrapped up in a few minutes, but no such luck for me. After reassembling the gear housing, I discovered that it wasn't engaging the main slide on the vernier. So the dial indicator wasn't turning at all. I scratched my head, made an espresso, had a vape. And stripped the whole thing down again, to check everything and look for the part I had assembled incorrectly. Needless to say, the gear failed to engage a second time, and so I stripped it down again. This process was repeated for a further two and a half hours. With the same end result.
I finally decided to call it quits for the day, when I accidentally discovered the key to success. And it ended up being a simple adjustment that got the gear to engage. Finally!!
The final test was now to see if the gears were running smoothly, and it now glides like butter. I was overjoyed that all the hours spent were not in vain. And I'm so proud to finally have it working the way I want. Sorry if I rambled on a bit. But I had to share it with someone.
Here are a couple of pics I took while trying to figure things out.
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