Watchmaking: Machining a 0.6 mm Screw
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 січ 2023
- In this video, Mike machines a 0.6 mm watch screw on a watchmaker's lathe.
About Chronova Engineering Ltd:
==========
We're a small team of scientists and engineers who love making cool things! If you'd like to see what else we get up to, please subscribe to our channel and visit our other sites: linktr.ee/chronovaengineering
Credits:
=========
Machining, Filming, Editing and Narration: Mike Godfrey - Наука та технологія
I was a pipe welder. The largest pipe I ever welded on was twelve feet in diameter. Watching this was fascinating. What a contrast.
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist2spam
@Repent and believe in Jesus Christ lmao
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist2I’m sorry, but why we panting at all, for god?
How many washing machines is that???
Big meets smaller
My dad was a watchmaker, and seeing him handle these tiny parts was a wonder. He didn't have the equipment you show, but a small hand lathe and a set of turns, so actual screws may have been off the menu, but he could re-fit and re-make arbres and pivots with the deftest of touches. Thanks for this reminder of a loved parent and his art.
Watchmakers are always so fascinating, the fact that humans can handle such small parts with 0.001 mm of precision is utterly mindblowing,
well my great great great great great grandpa was from the sandglass era and he used to count sand grains accurately(without the aid of any microscope etc etc) for the sandglass clocks 😉
They make little taps for teeny screws
@@runcoweezrun8143that would put him in the 1700’s which definitely had clocks then (though hourglasses were definitely in use too)
Question for the watch maker's son, I was listening to a dirk pitt novel or a reacher novel can't remember and they were talking about special oils for inside the high end watches. This oil occurs naturally on our nose!is there any truth to this? I'm seriously curious and google is over used lol.
The way this is done nowadays is with Swiss turn machines. They hammer these in 5 seconds. Make thousands of them. You can let the machines run while you go home for the night don't need anybody to watch them once they're going.
Yup. Was a machine maintenance tech in a large Swiss screw machine shop and you're right-they churn out tens of thousands of these in all material imaginable and then some in all configurations...but one broke down they were hell to fix
Modern machining methods have come a long way. It is incredible. Thanks for watching.
This makes no sense, sir.
These are not watch screws if there's no one watching them!
@@DanielConstantinoS They're unattended screws.
Yep, the Swiss machines sure do the job, starting at $125,000…😂 3:23
Some 25years ago I worked for a guy who was an engineer who worked at a company in the US that thought they made the world smallest screw. They sent it to a company in Switzerland and the Swiss company sent it back with a smaller screw drilled and tapped into the end of it.
My grandfather told me this same story when I was a kid (I am 44 now, was about 10 at the time) I am sure it has happened more than a few times. I got big into science and realized the amount of money you can spend just asking for something simple with a serious level of precision. I.E. a 1cm cube doesn't sound that expensive, but if it is 1cm + or - .00001 you are looking at big money.
@@simoncameron4355: 5 decimals in metric? That's crazy!
Gits... 😆
Back in 1982 I heard a story where an American company made the world's smallest drill bit. They sent their accomplishment to some company in Japan. the Japanese company drilled a hole through the drill bit and sent it back. I don't know if this story is true, but it would be very humbling.
At what temperature
I'm an engineer working in new product development. I often get crazy looks from the machine shop guys when I ask if they can make this or that for me. But I haven't yet asked them to make a 0.6 mm diameter screw. I should do that and see what reaction I get.
By the way, huge respect to skilled machinists. Without those guys nothing would ever happen.
You’ll probably wind up in a compactor.I’m a retired machinist. Our main product was rollers for printing presses and the large one used for glass. Our area most of our tolerances 2/10ths on the roller areas and up to 5/10ths on the main body. The specs didn’t make since at first. I asked the plant manager why are they so important and that tight? If we make them here in the summer and send them to Alaska the specs will be off from just the temperature difference? He said that’s just a guide line. The 2/10ths on the OD makes it so they can run the rollers faster without vibration or wobbling. Thus ruining whatever they are printing. Makes sense. This was when I first started there.
yo how do you get a job like that? i wanna do that
@@adog3129 Get a bachelor's in engineering, probably best field would be mechanical engineering. Then try to get an internship at a company that does what you'd like to be doing. Be patient and keep trying until you get the job you want.
@@paulredinger5830 Those guys would simply give me a crazy look then tell me it can't be done. Or they would just out source it and not worry about it, lol.
@@paulredinger5830My Daddy and grandmother worked at Thompson's, and my grandfather (the husband) worked his whole life at Todds/Burroughs/Unisys in printing.
I have a predisposition to printing and self-fabrication of precision parts l.
I've been doing stuff like this for 39 years.
Most machinists won't even look at stuff this small but I just see it as a challenge, the same as machining big stuff.
super impressive dude! has it gotten any easier/less complicated over the years?
As a fitter and turner in the mining industry I actually think machining the big stuff is way easier... I admire the blokes like Clickspring who can do the tiny stuff AND make it beautiful.
It's not quite the same but since I'm not good at making unique stuff in art. I just started trying to make the smallest real things I could out of clay. Cups with handles and all less than a cm in size. Tiny tables, tiny forks, things so small that they usually just fell apart in the kiln, I made a tiny champagne glass only 5mm tall which was my pride and joy
@@membranealpha5961 I'm a tool maker, like anything it gets easier over time. But like op said, gotta look at things as challenges and not whine about them. Ik a lot of toolmakers who whine everyday, and that doesn't make one happy.
Taking a single heavy cut like he did at the start is a really simple way of producing smaller diameters on lathes, as the majority of the tool force is applied axially instead or radially, which almost eliminates the deflection of the part. Joe Piezinski did a great video on this. Probably common knowledge for people working at this scale, but it was new to me.
didn't even consider that. good eye
Yes it was very nice work ! And the way it had to be done in the late eighteenth and whole nineteenth centuries!
Why good shit cost so much back then ! And also why worth so much now !
Each tip we find out is gold to us ❤️
Heavy. Hah yes, that was the heavy cut 😅
38 year industrial machinist here. Very impressive. Super small parts are always tricky. Like you said you get it right then lose it in the chip pan. Good idea on keeping the thread die square in the collet. I will remember that trick.
Horologist here, I've had screws ping out of tweezers off onto the floor a few times.
Empty the hoover, clean the dust trap thoroughly, then hoover EVERYWHERE and finally sift through what you pick up.
I've managed to retrieve a couple of balance wheel screws and jewel cap screws that way.
Its a real PITA to do, but works surprisingly well and often!!
But out of a chip pan?! I'd just start again lol
...or pedantic! Like you said you get it right then lose it in the chip pan.
would it not help if you put marking blue on the screw before finishing the cut so that it stands out better within the pile of chips?
That made me think of something, why not put some vibrant nail polish/paint onto the part before parting off? You'd have much bigger chances picking it off in swarf
Nice to see someone doing this on a craftsman level with hand ground turning tools. I’m a CNC Swiss Screw machine programmer/machinist. We go down to a #0000-160 screw but some of the smallest parts/features we make aren’t simple screws. A job I recently ran employed both a .0098” (.24mm) drill and .011” (.279mm) endmill. We run those around 65,000rpm.
Edit: Your bit about looking for lost components… just imagine when someone accidentally upturns a cart with 100,000 pieces that all comfortably fit inside of a shoe box.
Heh… I work in electronics, and a common size for discrete capacitors and resistors nowadays is 1mm x 0.5mm. The maximum thickness is the same as the width. If the thickest possible ones were stacked neatly, 4 million of them would fit in 1 liter. But the smallest discrete components available now are 0.4mm x 0.2mm. So 62.5 million of those would fit in a liter! 😳
@@tookitogo you must have the patience of a Saint working with components that small🤔😇, I get frustrated trying to they'd fine fishing line through the eye of small hooks!😂✌️
@@jamiecurran3544 Machines do the work
@@yohkodevilhunter8292 yeah but even they get frustrated n make mistakes!😁, I've seen many malfunctions whilst working in places with such machines n had to clean up their mess afterwards!😂✌️
@@jamiecurran3544 Heheheh.
Yeah, I’ve worked with trainees who were whining about much, much larger parts than that being too small and fiddly, and I told them, “If you don’t like small and fiddly, electronics is the wrong career for you!” (Same thing with attention to detail: if you can’t handle _absolute_ attention to detail, you can’t do well at this, because “almost the same” isn’t the same as “the same” in this industry. Adding or changing one letter to a part number can make it completely incompatible.)
Im a gunsmith and pretty fair machinist and was pretty darned impressed. Good on ya!
Small shit and big shit are so difficult lol
This was quite impressive, makes me now wonder how they mass produce the even smaller ones for wristwatches....
@@aevangel1 Swiss machines. They’re designed specifically for that type of operation.
@@kw2519 0.1mm (0.003 inch) screws???
@@aevangel1 sure? Why not?
I have three tap and die sets for those screws and nuts. They are used in instrument repair as well.
You can tell, watchmakers have a huge influence in many areas where miniaturization is used. Which is why I watch such videos to learn ways to repair equipment so it doesn't have to be trashed.
It's one of my side hobbies in life to know how everything is made. I was happy to come across this video. Now I know how small screws are made. Very satisfying to watch
Somewhere on you tube there is a video on how ruby watch bearings (jewels) are made.
You, like me, have an inquisitive mind. I'm sure you would enjoy that video.
I did a quick search & I think its "jewel bearings - Elgin national watch co WWII production".
It's an old B&W film about an hour long.
Edit- yes, just watched a few minutes of it again. That's it. Fascinating.
Would not have thought this is the process on an industrial level though because of how long it takes?
And babies are made with a screw, so now you know that one too!
As a Carpenter I look at my rule and my tape measure repeatedly during a work day. Point 6 of a millimetre is incredibly small. Just stop for a minute and find yourself a ruler or a tape measure. Point 6 or just over half of the distance between those two lines. It is absolutely amazing and stark raving crazy that we can repeatedly produce things of that size and smaller.
Mark from Melbourne Australia
I think I'm more impressed by the die!
True. The statistical process control has to be incredibely tight at these scales.
@@CreepyHandedMan that or the volume is super low. Niche-component manufacturing shops have fuck-all process control
@@myuzu_ As others have pointed out, there are swiss turning machines that can produce multiples of these and smaller in under a minute. Truly incredible what some people on this planet are able to engineer.
When I served my apprenticeship as a joiner/cabinet maker, we worked to 0.5mm setting out staircases. The logic behind this is that if we went to the millimetre, then over 13 risers you could end up being out by 13mm on your FFL to FFL (finished floor level) and if you tried to tilt the staircase to compensate, the treads would not be level.
I'm a retired Machinist and watching this I have such a great respect for those that tackle things this small. Incredible. Above Excellence. My hat's off to you sir.
Ive never seen such a small die, one wonders how they make them. Always wondered how very small screws are made, now I know thank you
The die is made very carefully, lol. If you look at the die closely, my bet is you can figure it out. (Hint: single tooth cutting, pitch offset)
So in the history of machine shop its a chicken and egg thing. Which came first. The small machines making bigger machines or vice versa. Both I guess. But in the real world of the chicken and the egg, the rooster came first otherwise you just have a chicken with an unfertilized egg.
American made a wire so thin, nobody could beat them. Sent one to a swiss watch maker. Came back with no message. Fine examination showed, they had bored a hole in it.. True story - or not.. My dad was a lieing piece of crap, but nice story..
@@CONEHEADDK i heard the Japs sleeved that hole and made a two stroke engine out of it.
Therapeutic to watch, but oh my, how different it must feel making such small screws. Thank you for sharing. Very interesting and enjoyable. 👏👏👍😀 Andrew
I've been a machinist for 25 years mostly producing massive aluminium parts for passenger planes. Seeing tiny parts like this being machined still fills me with awe
Thats astounding, making something that small. I am really deeply impressed by your skills.
I broke several M8 taps while you made this. Respect!
it's pretty insane my grandfather did this until his late 80s and with no feeling in one hand due to a WW2 injury
We as UA-cam viewers are particularly spoiled for fantastic camera work and interesting projects by a number of high quality channels. For many Chris from Clickspring immediately springs to mind. Sorry about the spring pun. Anyway, what I am trying to say in my round about way is that I think that we are witnessing the beginnings of a similar channel to Clickspring and other similar clock and watchmaking channels.
I wish you all the best as it can take some time to gain some decent critical mass for your channel.
Mark from Melbourne Australia
I've made screws on a lathe using different methods. This was fascinating.
And all in a 5 minute video! Thank you for not dragging this out for 20 minutes.
That's just insane! And well done on the photography. Depth of field is a pain at that size and closeness but, you did it.
On the one hand this is a perfectly rational thing to do, and on the other it very much makes my brain itch.
"What is this? A screw for ants?!"
Always gets me how parts like this look manageable on screen, but in reality they're absolutely miniscule
I really need to dig out my little watchmakers lathe
An old machinists trick when parting off is to use a small paint brush dipped in oil and placed on the small component as you part it off, this should catch the part in the hairs of the brush.
I've seen a machinist make a paper cone and catch it in that. Just make sure that the end is folded over, otherwise it's just a funnel! 😢
I ran a CNC Swiss lathe (funnily enough, it was made by Citizen) for a few years, we regularly made parts around 0.035" in diameter. Machining at these scales is actually a lot of fun. I enjoyed the looks I'd get from people when I showed them parts we made.
Thank you. I’ve looked all over the internet for a video on how these miniature screws are made and yours is the first and best one I’ve seen. 😁👍🏻🇦🇺
Watching people work with lathes is very therapeutic and the commentary was *chefs kiss*. The scale blew me away I had to get a ruler out of amazement. Great video!
Amazing. You make it look easy but in reality, I know that it takes years to acquire the skills to perform such precise crafting. Bravo!
We did 0.55 UNM screws on a CNC lathe by single point threading. If I remember correctly the depth of thread was .003" per side and we had to take .0001" per pass (30 passes) or it would just snap off.
Amazing craftsmanship. It is mind boggling to me that someone was the first to manufacture those tiny dies and components.
Excellent! Just incredible craftsmanship!
"So, whilst its concentricity might be constrained, its axiality not so much so." - Love it
I'm a woodworking hobbyist, and some of the best and most difficult projects are small items (boxes, etc). They are a great way to learn techniques, since every flaw is magnified, and it's cheaper since you use much less material!
*@Chronova Engineering*
3:19 You could put a strong magnet (eg. neodymium) in a small plastic bag & attach it to the tail-stock (or lower), so when the part is separated it is sucked to the magnet.
The bag helps you remove the shavings from the magnet, by just turning the bag inside out & remove the bag. (you might need to de-magnetize the part later?)
Just watch out so the plastic don't tangle up with the part in the lathe.
Can't see how this wouldn't get tangled, or if just sitting a bag down, how it wouldn't be much different sifting through the chips.
Loved it, finding it hard to sleep right now and this was this perfect video to chill me
I love how this video screws w ur perception of scale. I constantly forget it's so tiny, until a finger is in sight.
This was incredible. That's insane a skilled watchmaker can make one half the diameter
Thank you for posting , most interesting, this has inspired me to look for a video of the mass production of these tiny screws.
I used to be a machinist and watching this is most fascinating and appealing. Thank you
What blows me out is the people who make the machines like the thread die for instance is so awesome to me , really stirred up some great emotions in this video mate , thanks 👍
Very nice video! Thank you for making it and sharing it!
Nice work, and amazing to see the size of these fasteners.
I've just been working on the other end of the scale, we are currently assembling machinery to start sinking a 1.3km deep mine shaft.
The bolts we fitted last week had 70mm heads and required 4000nm tension 🙂
whoa what does the process look like at that size?
@@lemminjuice
Lots of swinging of a torque multiplier gun 🙂
When you apply cutting fluid with a magnifying monocular, you know things are getting serious. Lol, excellent work. I've been collecting pocket watches for years, and it still baffles me, their engineering.
OMG, that's a whole new level of precision and craftsmanship.
Thanks for the video!!!
Wow, it will be interesting to watch a m 0.6 nut.
- Ahh, a 0.6mm nut with internal thread cut with a cutter is way more complex mission than external.
Noy being familiar with this particular field, I find machining on such a minute scale facinating. Very interesting video. Curious to see how you harden and blue such a tiny piece.
I am a mechanical engineer and watching this level of skill is astonishing! Much respect!
When you're making the next video to show the rest of the process of finishing this screw, please include a shot of it being added to the watch. :)
this really makes you realize that its important to pass down our knowledge
Running a tap of that size seems more difficult, how would one know if the tap did its job or broke ?
Yes, it's tricky. The problem with tapping small holes is the cutting force required is very close to the force required to break the tap. You just have to be super careful and back off regularly.
Too easy ! You must do it with single point threading tool 😅
Something I’ve certainly considered! Perhaps for the future…
I half expected him to cut the threads on the lathe using the automatic feed. This is much more sensible.
Nice energy. One can feel how patiently, thoughtfully, and how relaxed, you work. Maybe it's how it goes on those endeavors 🐦
Amazing, hard to believe someone making a 0.3mm screw in this way.
OMG I've never been more impressed by something. That's gobsmacking when you actually get to see it in action
Can't believe a simple screw has just blown my mind
I work for a company that buys misguided freight from the likes of Amazon and UPS. Not too long ago, I opened a box from a load of UPS shipments and discovered an array of disassembled watches, all packeted up in smaller and smaller zip top bags. I assume they were bound for some final assemble process somewhere, but never quite made it.
Incidentally, I worked for a decade in front line manufacturing making defense and oceanographic components. The smallest thread I ever personally cut was 0-80. I knew of jewelers and watch makers lathes, and in fact the company I worked had a few of them (used mostly as polishing stations for sensor housing lenses).
I was scratching my head, wondering how the tiny watch screws are made, and what a headache it must be.
Thanks for the video. Very informative.
All of you horologists are nuts, looney, insane.
After 25+ years as a jeweler, my respect for the lunatics of mechanical precision never fail to put a smile on my face.
Nice vid demonstrating the machining of a small part.
I made a screw for my watch one time using a large lathe in the heavy workshop on the ship I was serving on. Smallest thing I ever made and it worked.
Thank you for these amazing videos. I look at my watches in increasing awe with every video I watch.
No, Joe, I'm serious, it's 4 1/2 minutes about making a single screw. What do you MEAN there's no way you'd waste that time? It's actually fascinating, and the video is perfectly produced and edited! YES, FOUR AND HALF, for Lord's sake just watch it.
This was brilliant, thank you Mike. Whilst you were sawing I'd keep looking at your fingers and my brain still won't allow all of that to mesh together.
I’m a 25 year old man, damn near lost in this world. Even I can appreciate a video and voiceover like this. Great job man.
Amazing insight. I’ve watched lots of watch repair and restoration videos and often wonder about the making of the actual components.
I know nothing about any of this except "what a screw is" and this was extremely fascinating. Thank you
You thank us for watching????
Dude thank you so much for sharing.
Hey there I know nothing about these processes but I found that your skill and precision made this video very entertaining to watch and the topics very interesting to learn about. Thanks!
I keep thinking of John Harrison doing this in the 16 century and won the Longitude Act prize. Those were the true genius
I am so glad I found this channel! It has been something I have been wondering for a long time as to how watchmakers make such tiny parts.
It is amazing to see how small a watch screw is. It is even more amazing to see you create one!
I foresee this channel easily having 1 million plus subscribers with more content like this.
I was watching a Wristwatch Revival vid last night ('A True Mystery Behind the History of This IWC Pocket Watch') & he mentioned how these screws are made industrially, on a very very large machine - "the size of half a room". Then this vid turns-up in 'suggested'.
Hat's-off to you Mr. Table-top Precision, kudos.
Wow..I can't keep track of a 10mm socket, can't imagine looking for something this small in all the shavings. Love watching these intricate machining videos.
My grandfather was a master machinist. During the Great Depression he used his mother’s steel knitting needles as stock to make new shafts for a clock. On a 1892 flat-belt drive 18” by 72” engine lathe that could do a 3/4” diameter reduction in mild steel in one pass. A clockmaker recently said the 170+ year clockworks are in very good shape. After my father died I donated the lathe and tooling to a museum that has a steam-powered, belt-driven machine shop. The last production job done on that lathe was 9,500 pieces around 1970.
Astounding. A watchmaker's universe is truly tiny. Loupe or no loupe, my eyes make me a non-candidate. Great video. Thanks.
It's crazy how metal just turns into soft butter at this size and so easily deforms in ways you don't want.
I can't wrap my mind around making screws that small!
I've used our lathe and mills at work to machine various things, but watch screws are a whole other level!!!
It's satisfying to see things going together so damn accurately!
incredible. well done too, you have a concise style, but I certainly appreciated the "I've probably spent as much time looking for parts I've made as I've spent making them" I can imagine! subscribed!
Good God!!!!!! That was 4 and a half minutes of jaw droppped "DA Hell" footage.
I just enjoy watching machining like this. It's so fascinating.
I used to make twelfth scale miniature furniture which required very small wood screws. I used 1.5mm aluminium bronze and a Unimat SL lathe, two tools were needed the first a cutter angled at 45 degrees and a parting off tool with a slight angle on the tip.The first cut was to taper the tip at 45 degrees then to turn down the shaft of the screw to the required OD about 0-3mm with a 45degree countersink head reduced to the final diameter. I used a watch makers dieplate to cut the thread then parted it off, the slight angle on the parting off tool allowed one to snap the screw from the stock rather than losing it. The head was finished by putting the screw into a steel plate with a hole to hold the shaft filing flat and cutting the slot with a very fine slotting file.
These screws were made to copy old hand made wood screws and held well if a brad awl was used to open the wood which closed on them after insertion.
Cliff Taylor
This rather reminds me of an article I read in Model Railroader magazine when I was a kid, about a fellow who built an N scale Shay locomotive (a geared steam locomotive with the two or three cylinder steam engine arranged vertically along one side of the boiler). He made everything on it from scratch.
This was a pleasure to watch, and I learned a thing or two, i think. Thanks so much!
Good narration. Didn't think making a tiny screw could hold my attention, but it did.
This is mind blowing handwork accuracy
This looks great. I wish I could see well enough to do something like this
That is the most impressive thing I have ever seen, and when you said "a skilled watch maker can make a screw of half the diameter" 🤯
Thanks for showing this awesome process!
Never have ever thought that making screw is that interesting! Good content mate!
Used to make parts like that on screw machines when was younger hundreds at a time ..
this is the true definition of crafsmanship! nothing comes close to a precision handmade watch!
Fascinating. I just had to adjust the rating screws of the balance on a Waltham style bridge escapement of a Seth Thomas clock made in about 1917. Those screws must have been made using technique like shown here. This video really impressed me with what working at this scale is like.
Great video, i love this type of machining, i'm a training watchmaker, and working on lathes like this is what gets me up, cheers. D
Amazing, thanks for sharing!
Very nice. I've actually wondered how tiny screws/parts are made. Now I know. Thanks!
Very satisfying, just to watch. One of my watches is missimg a few screws. Lost by a watch repair. They are all very special and exact. A marvel.
Lol as soon as you said "watchmaker's lathe", I got a thrill just imagining the tolerances and precision and quality necessary to make something that small and powerful and consistent :)
amazing to watch, just beautiful work!