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Broken crown stem - is this saveable?


slai

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I think you can fix this yourself easily...

Fill a small container with Vinegar, place the whole crown in the container, wait a week and if all goes as it should, the stem should dissolve and leave the crown in place.

If not, and the crown disolves as well, it doesn't really matter as there is no other way to salvage this damage.

RG

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I happened to do the same just a few days ago. :(

The Zigmeister you are our hero.

Unfortunately my crown was a gold plated one. I am afraid I am fu**ed.

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I think you can fix this yourself easily...

Fill a small container with Vinegar, place the whole crown in the container, wait a week and if all goes as it should, the stem should dissolve and leave the crown in place.

Thanks RG! Will give it a shot.

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I need to electrify my caseback tools so I get shocked everytime I try to open up a caseback. :D

That's a wonderful idea! I am coming to the same conclusion. :lol:

Sure thing. Especially if the crown dissolves as well!

hysterical6xi.gif

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I think you can fix this yourself easily...

Fill a small container with Vinegar, place the whole crown in the container, wait a week and if all goes as it should, the stem should dissolve and leave the crown in place.

If not, and the crown disolves as well, it doesn't really matter as there is no other way to salvage this damage.

RG

Unless the stem and crown are of 2 different materials, ie brass and steel, you will end up doing more harm than good

with this method.

The acid in the vinegar is simply not strong enough by far to eat and bite into steel, let alone differentiate between the crown and the stem.

The crown needs to be colleted in a lathe and the broken stem drilled , a size smaller than the actual thread size.

The broken stem will then be able to be un-screwed leaving the original threads intact.

Tungsten carbide micro drills are used at 500 rpm with plenty of cutting oil.

I have drilled down to 0.3 mm dia. into hardened steel with no problems. ( no annealing or re-hardening required ).

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Thanks Rod, another valuable piece of information :) I've had this exact thing happen to me also, I've just left it and forgotten about it.

Slai/ sssurfer/ demon slayer, send me the crowns , and I will drill the broken stems out, what have you to loose ?

The crowns are allready rooted !! ;)

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Sorry Rod, I missed your replies. I used to access this thread by "my last 10 posts" option in My Assistant, so when I posted 10+ more posts after it I just lost it out of sight and I forgot of it.

I was just keeping the stem tube in vinager -- the tube only, not the whole crown.

Your remarks make sense, but I have no clue on how to drill a stem at the needed precision level, and how to unscrew it after drilling it. Thanks for your kind offer, PM sent.

I also read that someone solved it by carving a small line in the broken stem so to make it resembling like a screw head, then using a tiny screwdriver on it. I suppose it was a 1.20mm stem, so a 1mm screwdriver could work. My stem is/was 0.90mm.

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I pull my head in here, with regards to The Zigmeisters suggestion for removing a broken crown, as I have been in contact with sssurfer.

The vinegar method of dissolving the broken stem is actually working, now whether this is because the crown is gold plated and is not being attacked by the acid I don`t know, but it is actually disolving the broken stem.

I mentioned to him to BOIL the crown in water, to remove all traces of the acid afterwards.

Now we know that there are at least 2 methods of removing a broken stem from a crown.

Great outcome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

- UPDATE -

The Zigmeister's vinegar method worked! :yahoo:

And it did not even affect the rose gold plating of the crown! :yahoo: :yahoo:

Actually, I even suspect that the RG plating actually protected the underlying metal. As a matter of fact, non-plated parts that were formerly chrome colored became black under the vinegar action.

Fortunately, those parts are in out-of-sight places of the crown. But keep it in mind if you are going to try it on a non-plated crown.

Thanks to The Zigmeister who helped on a problem that I believed hopeless.

And thanks to rodwc who also offered his help.

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Excellent news, congrats.

The one who deserves congrats is you, The Zigmeister.

This used to be a black beast, a nightmare to all us hobbist modders... now it is less fearsome. :notworthy:

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  • 6 years later...

You can also use alum powder. it works great and pretty fast. Here's some old pictures from a tutorial I did on the other RWG years ago. Took about a week to totally dissolve the stem. Heating the water occasionally also supposedly helps speed up the reaction time.

 

DSCN3429.jpg

 

DSCN3427.jpg

 

It comes as a white powder. You can buy it online or often at Spanish food markets.

 

DSCN3428.jpg

 

DSCN3430.jpg

Edited by kbh
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