Cutting flutes for a watch winding
knob
This winding knob presented a
special problem: how to cut the curved flutes? This was accomplished
with a 32 toothed gear wheel indexer. After the general form was
turned from a chunk of wax the watch stem threads were tapped and the
model was reversed and mounted on the actual watch stem, which in
turn was chucked in the spindle. The indexer locked the spindle in
each flute's position and the lathe's slide rest was used to cut
horizontally. The curve is accomplished with a series of small
straight line cuts for each flute; six slide rest adjustments;192
little cuts - a lot of hand cranking
Copyright © Alan Heugh
1998
