Quote:
Originally Posted by Geneman
why do watch makers / repairers need lathes so much? I do not get it....
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In the old days most watch shops had lathes that were mostly for decoration. You could simply order most parts you needed from a supply house. They made it easy with catalogs parts charts and parts galore. Lathes were also sort of the pride and joy of the watch maker and one of their most expensive tools. But many just sat on the shelf.
With the demise of the profession, many of the these lathes come on the market in nearly unused condition from heirs who have no idea what they do or how to work them, for relatively much less money than they cost originally.
But you can actually build a watch from scratch with a well set up lathe. Problem is setting up the tooling for individual parts is very time consuming and somewhat repetitive. If you are a complete nut like I am, you can have several lathes set up for individual tasks- polishing pivots, making stems, and on and on.
Also certain lathes may have better or more available tooling for one project than another. The also come in different sizes- 6mm, 8mm, 10mm. You may be able to find a milling attachment (that you can afford) for one and polishing attachments for another.
This, at least, is how I have been able to explain why we need all these lathes to Mrs Charlesbahn
