At first glance it may look like a pin vise but it is much much more. It’s a minute wheel post cutter. Tighten it down around a cylindrical post and rotate it and it shaves off around the circumference of the post, reducing its diameter.
It’s designed to help you bush a worn minute wheel post. Sometimes the posts wear on one side leaving the post ovalized. With this tool you can slowly reduce the diameter past the worn spot and then fit a bushing over the post. Of course this post should be bushed anyway but all too often it isn’t. This is an operation that would best be performed with the face plate on the lathe, centering the plate on the minute wheel post and turning it down to ensure the post is centered, but usually there is enough play that this will get it close enough to solve the problem.
I use the tool most after soldering on a broken dial foot to trim off extra solder around the bottom of the foot so it will fit flush against the plate. It’s really a crude tool, but it gets the job done.
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2 Comments
Is this a Bergeon tool? Where did you aquire it from? It looks like it could be a useful addition to my arsenal.
Bergeon No. 40141. They describe it as a tool for chamferring minute wheel studs but it seems to cut the post just fine. I’m sure I am using it incorrectly but it has been doing the job for me.
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