Justasgood Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Well, in helping a friend whose Daylight Chrono was not working, I discovered that the stem was broken. It broke in such a way that the crown was useless. So......I spend $100.00 on the RWG auction for 2 crowns. 1 auto Valjoux and 1 manual unitas plus stems. I send the manual wind to a friend(didn't need it anyway and buy a valjoux stem from my watchmaker. My Palp valjoux crown just got here so I set about the business of repairing the chrono. Stem trimmed, crown and loctite installed.......install crown/stem into movement.......and......you guessed it.....Snap! Stem breaks.........right at the crown. Now I have a brand new Palp crown of no use to me and a daylight chrono that still doesn't work. Anybody got a spare crown? I can get another stem. No good deed goes unpunished......or cheaply. This one cost me 100 large. Thanks, Kurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubiquitous Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Man, I feel ya, K. Very, very sorry to hear. When did the stem snap? Was it while advancing through the date or time? If so... That leads me to believe that the stem hole isn't lined up center with the tube... BTW... The Manual Palp landed with me today. I appreciate your generosity, but I intend to return the favor in some way or another... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justasgood Posted June 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Man, I feel ya, K. Very, very sorry to hear. When did the stem snap? Was it while advancing through the date or time? If so... That leads me to believe that the stem hole isn't lined up center with the tube... BTW... The Manual Palp landed with me today. I appreciate your generosity, but I intend to return the favor in some way or another... No need as your help has been immense. I just thought you might find a use for it. As for when it snapped, the keyless works were a bit stiff....not that it was forced, but yeah, the movement needs a shim to bring it down about .05 mm. Lesson learned. I guess the original suffered the same fate for this reason. I have the alignment handled, just need a crown:-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltatahoe Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 sorry to hear this kurt -- there is nothing worse than trying to help and then having something like this happen Stem trimmed, crown and loctite installed.......install crown/stem into movement.......and......you guessed it.....Snap! Stem breaks.........right at the crown. Now I have a brand new Palp crown of no use to me i'm a self-proclaimed modding super-noob so take this ridiculous suggestion for what it's worth (basically nothing) would it be possible to drill a hole (or even better, threads -- but i'm guessing that isn't possible in these small sizes) in the stem that is stuck in the crown, then glue something into the stem in order to remove it (pull it out? unscrew it?) from the crown? am i nuts? deltatahoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubiquitous Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Hmmmm... You'd need some leverage and strong glue to break a loc-tite treated thread loose (or heat it up, which would then soften the glue in the stem as well ). Plus, with the weakened walls of the stem from drilling, they might just break anyways. That might help with removal, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justasgood Posted June 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 sorry to hear this kurt -- there is nothing worse than trying to help and then having something like this happen i'm a self-proclaimed modding super-noob so take this ridiculous suggestion for what it's worth (basically nothing) would it be possible to drill a hole (or even better, threads -- but i'm guessing that isn't possible in these small sizes) in the stem that is stuck in the crown, then glue something into the stem in order to remove it (pull it out? unscrew it?) from the crown? am i nuts? deltatahoe No nuts and unfortunately, there isn't an extraction set small enough for this job. There is 1 thread visible but it is too small to get my pin vice attached to. Not to mention that it is loctited in. So, I count on some sympathecic soul to extend some help.......I'll pay of course. Not looking foe a freebie. Heck, it doesn't have to be high quality. It just has to be for an automatic Valjoux application. Thanks, Kurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltatahoe Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 sorry man -- no such crown laying around my house -- wish i could help deltatahoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offshore Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Maybe you need to think about going the alum spice route? http://www.rwg.cc/members/alum-spice-disso...;hl=broken+stem If not immersion in vinegar for 4 days to a week will normally do the trick. Must say I haven't enjoyed a lot of success with alum, and you do need to keep checking how the stem is dissolving with vinegar. I inadvertantly left a crown in vinegar for about 10 days, and found the crown female thread had started to degrade. Finally needed to use some metal glue to hold a wobbly crown/stem, but it worked. Better than scrapping expensive or hard to replace crowns. Offshore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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