Watchmaker's Jewel Press

This is a prototype of 3d printed watchmaking jewel press.

It is functional, but depending on your resources you will need to source anvils/pushers for the press (buy/turn on a lathe). You can also print them, but they might be not sturdy enough depending on the task you're trying to complete.

Parts printed:
- Press body
- Micrometer screw
- Plunger with 4mm hole - accepts Seitz and other brands pushers
- Plunger with a pushing tip - for naive pushing without inserting bits. Probably too weak for any real applications
- Anvil - probably too weak for real life jewel applications

Plungers can be modified to accommodate other types of pushers or anvils.

Additional parts needed:
- Spring 9mm diameter, 30mm length: to keep plunger away from the workpiece. No strong springs required here, so 0.4 and higher should be OK. The press would work without the spring, but the spring retracts the plunger automatically which makes it much more convenient to work with the press.

Known issues:
- Micrometer indicator doesn't work very well. Need to either redesign to a different system (like Seitz, on springs) or adjust the range of the current one
- Pushers/anvils availability is the biggest problem. They need to be small and executed with precision. If you have a small lathe it's possible to turn them from brass or harder materials.
- Plunger itself might be not hard enough to handle required loads. An attempt might be made to replace it with cheaper alternatives (e.g. woodworking rivets), however tolerances need to be observed and the plunger hole needs to be reworked to accommodate the replacement.
- To improve the loads the body itself can handle some spaces might be left inside the model and filled in by long screws during printing. This might help increasing resistance to loads.

Project viability:
- The plastic is quite flexible which doesn't allow to precisely measure the endshake adjustments. My thought is that cheap low-quality jewel presses would outperform this one (especially given that they include a set of pushers and anvils which is great for the price).

Printing notes:
- No support needed
- Use minimum layer height in thread and gauge areas (you can use adaptive height on the body to save time). See an image provided for recommended layer heights.
- Brim is recommended for small pushers/anvils if they're printed
- Bigger walls count and infill density would help rigidity (5+walls, 50+% density). "Triangles" is my infill of choice for such jobs, but you might seeks comparisons online and come up with your preference.
- Flat plate is recommended to match the tolerances better.
 

Support the author:
The model is free to use and published under CC-BY license, however if you want to support the model author you can do it here: BuyMeACoffee link