Broken stem in crown removal?

[sneed12]

I bought a case + crown, got a good deal on it and just discovered why--the crown has a snapped-off bit of stem in it.

If it was a motorcycle part I'd either use an easy-out or drill it, but I don't think either will work on something this small. Am I screwed?

[offshore]

If there is enough stem protruding from the crown, you can grab it with a pin vise, or pliers, and simply unscrew the crown.(anticlockwise)

If there is not enough stem to get hold of, you can try immersing the crown and stem in vinegar, or better still an alum mixture.

Here is one of many discussions-

http://www.rwgforum.com/topic/104986-dissolving-a-stem-that-cannot-be-removed-from-the-crown/page__p__725948__hl__alum__fromsearch__1&#entry725948

If you try the vinegar route, it will take a minimum of 7 days, and may not work at all.

If you use alum, be careful to continue monitoring it, as you may start a process which also dissolves some of the inner threads in the crown.

There are plenty of threads discussing this procedure here.

Offshore

[omni]

Offshore:

I will verify that the alum will start to dissolve ever so slightly the inner crown threads. Since I was one of the first ones to report on using alum to dissolve a broken stem, in the year after that repair, the crown kept working itself loose from the stem and spinning around uselessly. We tried four different times using a bit of white Loctite to keep it secure but it just eventually kept wearing loose. I finally had to get a completely new crown installed which was a hassle since Glycine would not sell me one, I had to send the whole watch to them and have them install it on the stem.

So yes, alum will work faster in dissolving a broken stem but it sounds like vinegar would be slower and safer.

[offshore]

@Omni,

Indeed it was your thread that started me on the alum route.

There was another which involved heating and simmering, and purportedly only took minutes...never tried it.

The one interesting thing is that in some cases, vinegar won't achieve anything. I had one in vinegar for a week, and there were no signs of erosion, put it in alum,and it worked exactly as previous alum jobs. Yet another will be, partly at least, dissolved in 2-3 days. Different metals I guess ...who knows what the stems are actually made from.

O/S