Fixing a watch with a hammer; First time using the Staking Set

The movement

Had this Velona 1100 Compressor with an ETA 2409 that I purchased, it ran but there was way too much play in the barrel. This was a job for a staking set, which I didn't have at the time, so I just serviced the movement and let it sit.

Staking set

 

Enter a few weeks ago, a staking set! Managed to snag an almost complete Boley 173gN staking set, missing one stake and the stake handling cap, for a really price and in great condition.

When the set arrived the stake hole in the base was plugged, my first reaction was quite depressive and I thought I got scammed. Coming back after a break it turned out that it was indeed clogged but the clog could be removed; a couple of centimeters of sort of compressed leather were plugging the hole. A couple of hours patience and, surprisingly, quite some WD40 fixed that. The latter softened everything up and helped me understand what was going on; it was "disappearing"; soaking into the plug and making it softer. Remove some, rinse repeat, the set was back in business.

 

Hole too big

 
Sizing the hole

First, centering the plate. Someone in the past missed the mark but this is just cosmetic damage.

The bridge ready for a smackdown.

 

An unlikely ally appears.

Tap tap tap; and the hole is now too small, right as planned.

 

 

 A set of broaches, which I purchased for this project (and hopefully many more in the future).

And, rightsizing the hole. It takes such little pressure to increase the diameter of the hole again and it got too big again but there was still a slight improvement so I knew I was on the right track.

 

 

A few more rounds of hammer time and testing and the barrel could finally move freely without very little play.

 

 All in all this took about an hour, I'm sure that with practice it would take less time with better results but as a first try I think it went really well. No mishaps, nothing broke and there was a definite improvement in the barrel shake. All that remains is to re-service the movement.