What to think about when buying hand removers
Greetings!
Hopefully this will be a bit shorter than most - essentially there are two types of levers for removing hands that I have seen so far - both are manual, but one is a tool that works by pressing the mechanism of the tool which moves preset hand-lifters in and up to remove the hands in a single sweep and the others are independent levers on the end of a pencil like wood or metal handle.
The key issue with removing hands is to avoid scratching the dial with the tools as you do it.
The higher the hour hand is off the dial and therefore the least amount of pressure you need to exert to get the hand removers under the hands before the lifting stage, the better. In my experience the dial scratching comes from the lateral movement of the tool across the dial as you position it / them under the hands, and not the downward pressure on the dial exerted by the tool in the lifting stage (much less likely at least).
You still need to be careful with both of course - use a proper watchmaker’s dial protector if you can and thin plastic bag / sheet if that’s too thick to allow the removers to get under the hands.
So which type of tool is best??
I like the individual levers - I am waiting for mine to arrive as I bought the specific tool initially as I thought it would be ideal for the job, however its a bit numb and does not allow me to control the delicacy with which I approach the job properly. Moreover, if the lifters are too thick, then you cannot grid them thinner with a grinding tool to get under the lowest hand. I tried a pal’s lever lifters and he has three sets with different thicknesses to allow for removing hour hands that are over-pushed on. He has also buffed the sides of the lifter to very slightly round off any edge and reduce the likelihood of a scratch (you can do this on a lifter tool too) - and I will be doing this to mine before I use them.
That’s about it, hope its a help - here’s a couple of tips for when you’re on the job:
Kiss her ears first (only joking),.. set all the hands pointing in the same direction before you remove them - the reason should be obvious if ever try this without aligning them - and also try to have the hands pointing in a direction that allows you to slide the removing tool(s) under the hands without touching any writing on the dial (if possible) - so the hands set to 12 o’clock and pushers coming in at a quarter past 9 on each side on most Seiko divers. This will prevent you losing any writing (particularly raised writing) - and if there is one thing worse than a scratch, its losing part of a letter or number in the dial information.
My crappy hand removers:
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