Watchmaking: Machining a 0.6 mm Screw 

I was a pipe welder. The largest pipe I ever welded on was twelve feet in diameter. Watching this was fascinating. What a contrast.

My dad was a watchmaker, and seeing him handle these tiny parts was a wonder. He didn't have the equipment you show, but a small hand lathe and a set of turns, so actual screws may have been off the menu, but he could re-fit and re-make arbres and pivots with the deftest of touches. Thanks for this reminder of a loved parent and his art.

The way this is done nowadays is with Swiss turn machines. They hammer these in 5 seconds. Make thousands of them. You can let the machines run while you go home for the night don't need anybody to watch them once they're going.

Some 25years ago I worked for a guy who was an engineer who worked at a company in the US that thought they made the world smallest screw. They sent it to a company in Switzerland and the Swiss company sent it back with a smaller screw drilled and tapped into the end of it.

I'm an engineer working in new product development. I often get crazy looks from the machine shop guys when I ask if they can make this or that for me. But I haven't yet asked them to make a 0.6 mm diameter screw. I should do that and see what reaction I get. By the way, huge respect to skilled machinists. Without those guys nothing would ever happen.

I've been doing stuff like this for 39 years. Most machinists won't even look at stuff this small but I just see it as a challenge, the same as machining big stuff.

Taking a single heavy cut like he did at the start is a really simple way of producing smaller diameters on lathes, as the majority of the tool force is applied axially instead or radially, which almost eliminates the deflection of the part. Joe Piezinski did a great video on this. Probably common knowledge for people working at this scale, but it was new to me.

38 year industrial machinist here. Very impressive. Super small parts are always tricky. Like you said you get it right then lose it in the chip pan. Good idea on keeping the thread die square in the collet. I will remember that trick.

Nice to see someone doing this on a craftsman level with hand ground turning tools. I’m a CNC Swiss Screw machine programmer/machinist. We go down to a #0000-160 screw but some of the smallest parts/features we make aren’t simple screws. A job I recently ran employed both a .0098” (.24mm) drill and .011” (.279mm) endmill. We run those around 65,000rpm. Edit: Your bit about looking for lost components… just imagine when someone accidentally upturns a cart with 100,000 pieces that all comfortably fit inside of a shoe box.

Im a gunsmith and pretty fair machinist and was pretty darned impressed. Good on ya!

I have three tap and die sets for those screws and nuts. They are used in instrument repair as well. You can tell, watchmakers have a huge influence in many areas where miniaturization is used. Which is why I watch such videos to learn ways to repair equipment so it doesn't have to be trashed.

It's one of my side hobbies in life to know how everything is made. I was happy to come across this video. Now I know how small screws are made. Very satisfying to watch

As a Carpenter I look at my rule and my tape measure repeatedly during a work day. Point 6 of a millimetre is incredibly small. Just stop for a minute and find yourself a ruler or a tape measure. Point 6 or just over half of the distance between those two lines. It is absolutely amazing and stark raving crazy that we can repeatedly produce things of that size and smaller. Mark from Melbourne Australia

Therapeutic to watch, but oh my, how different it must feel making such small screws. Thank you for sharing. Very interesting and enjoyable. 👏👏👍😀 Andrew

I'm a retired Machinist and watching this I have such a great respect for those that tackle things this small. Incredible. Above Excellence. My hat's off to you sir.

I broke several M8 taps while you made this. Respect!

Ive never seen such a small die, one wonders how they make them. Always wondered how very small screws are made, now I know thank you

I've been a machinist for 25 years mostly producing massive aluminium parts for passenger planes. Seeing tiny parts like this being machined still fills me with awe

"What is this? A screw for ants?!" Always gets me how parts like this look manageable on screen, but in reality they're absolutely miniscule I really need to dig out my little watchmakers lathe

We as RU-vid viewers are particularly spoiled for fantastic camera work and interesting projects by a number of high quality channels. For many Chris from Clickspring immediately springs to mind. Sorry about the spring pun. Anyway, what I am trying to say in my round about way is that I think that we are witnessing the beginnings of a similar channel to Clickspring and other similar clock and watchmaking channels. I wish you all the best as it can take some time to gain some decent critical mass for your channel. Mark from Melbourne Australia

I'm a woodworking hobbyist, and some of the best and most difficult projects are small items (boxes, etc). They are a great way to learn techniques, since every flaw is magnified, and it's cheaper since you use much less material!

And all in a 5 minute video! Thank you for not dragging this out for 20 minutes.

Thats astounding, making something that small. I am really deeply impressed by your skills.

On the one hand this is a perfectly rational thing to do, and on the other it very much makes my brain itch.

Thank you. I’ve looked all over the internet for a video on how these miniature screws are made and yours is the first and best one I’ve seen. 😁👍🏻🇦🇺

it's pretty insane my grandfather did this until his late 80s and with no feeling in one hand due to a WW2 injury

We did 0.55 UNM screws on a CNC lathe by single point threading. If I remember correctly the depth of thread was .003" per side and we had to take .0001" per pass (30 passes) or it would just snap off.

I've made screws on a lathe using different methods. This was fascinating.

Amazing craftsmanship. It is mind boggling to me that someone was the first to manufacture those tiny dies and components.

Watching people work with lathes is very therapeutic and the commentary was *chefs kiss*. The scale blew me away I had to get a ruler out of amazement. Great video!

I ran a CNC Swiss lathe (funnily enough, it was made by Citizen) for a few years, we regularly made parts around 0.035" in diameter. Machining at these scales is actually a lot of fun. I enjoyed the looks I'd get from people when I showed them parts we made.

Amazing. You make it look easy but in reality, I know that it takes years to acquire the skills to perform such precise crafting. Bravo!

I keep thinking of John Harrison doing this in the 16 century and won the Longitude Act prize. Those were the true genius

Excellent! Just incredible craftsmanship! "So, whilst its concentricity might be constrained, its axiality not so much so." - Love it

That's just insane! And well done on the photography. Depth of field is a pain at that size and closeness but, you did it.

*@Chronova Engineering* 3:19 You could put a strong magnet (eg. neodymium) in a small plastic bag & attach it to the tail-stock (or lower), so when the part is separated it is sucked to the magnet. The bag helps you remove the shavings from the magnet, by just turning the bag inside out & remove the bag. (you might need to de-magnetize the part later?) Just watch out so the plastic don't tangle up with the part in the lathe.

I’m a welder, and I regret not getting into machine when I was younger. I was taught. “We don’t buy parts, we make them”.

I work for a company that buys misguided freight from the likes of Amazon and UPS. Not too long ago, I opened a box from a load of UPS shipments and discovered an array of disassembled watches, all packeted up in smaller and smaller zip top bags. I assume they were bound for some final assemble process somewhere, but never quite made it. Incidentally, I worked for a decade in front line manufacturing making defense and oceanographic components. The smallest thread I ever personally cut was 0-80. I knew of jewelers and watch makers lathes, and in fact the company I worked had a few of them (used mostly as polishing stations for sensor housing lenses). I was scratching my head, wondering how the tiny watch screws are made, and what a headache it must be. Thanks for the video. Very informative.

An old machinists trick when parting off is to use a small paint brush dipped in oil and placed on the small component as you part it off, this should catch the part in the hairs of the brush.

This was incredible. That's insane a skilled watchmaker can make one half the diameter

No, Joe, I'm serious, it's 4 1/2 minutes about making a single screw. What do you MEAN there's no way you'd waste that time? It's actually fascinating, and the video is perfectly produced and edited! YES, FOUR AND HALF, for Lord's sake just watch it. This was brilliant, thank you Mike. Whilst you were sawing I'd keep looking at your fingers and my brain still won't allow all of that to mesh together.

All of you horologists are nuts, looney, insane. After 25+ years as a jeweler, my respect for the lunatics of mechanical precision never fail to put a smile on my face. Nice vid demonstrating the machining of a small part.

I love how this video screws w ur perception of scale. I constantly forget it's so tiny, until a finger is in sight.

Very nice video! Thank you for making it and sharing it!

Thank you for posting , most interesting, this has inspired me to look for a video of the mass production of these tiny screws.

When you apply cutting fluid with a magnifying monocular, you know things are getting serious. Lol, excellent work. I've been collecting pocket watches for years, and it still baffles me, their engineering.

OMG, that's a whole new level of precision and craftsmanship. Thanks for the video!!!

Nice work, and amazing to see the size of these fasteners. I've just been working on the other end of the scale, we are currently assembling machinery to start sinking a 1.3km deep mine shaft. The bolts we fitted last week had 70mm heads and required 4000nm tension 🙂

Noy being familiar with this particular field, I find machining on such a minute scale facinating. Very interesting video. Curious to see how you harden and blue such a tiny piece.

I know nothing about any of this except "what a screw is" and this was extremely fascinating. Thank you

Amazing, hard to believe someone making a 0.3mm screw in this way.

this really makes you realize that its important to pass down our knowledge

Wow, it will be interesting to watch a m 0.6 nut.

Running a tap of that size seems more difficult, how would one know if the tap did its job or broke ?

What blows me out is the people who make the machines like the thread die for instance is so awesome to me , really stirred up some great emotions in this video mate , thanks 👍

I used to be a machinist and watching this is most fascinating and appealing. Thank you

Too easy ! You must do it with single point threading tool 😅

Thanks for sharing this!! What a process!! It’s fascinating.

I’m a 25 year old man, damn near lost in this world. Even I can appreciate a video and voiceover like this. Great job man.

I half expected him to cut the threads on the lathe using the automatic feed. This is much more sensible.

When you're making the next video to show the rest of the process of finishing this screw, please include a shot of it being added to the watch. :)

I am a mechanical engineer and watching this level of skill is astonishing! Much respect!

I like the part at the end, the unintended pun. "Thank you for Watch-ing." You're welcome.

I used to make twelfth scale miniature furniture which required very small wood screws. I used 1.5mm aluminium bronze and a Unimat SL lathe, two tools were needed the first a cutter angled at 45 degrees and a parting off tool with a slight angle on the tip.The first cut was to taper the tip at 45 degrees then to turn down the shaft of the screw to the required OD about 0-3mm with a 45degree countersink head reduced to the final diameter. I used a watch makers dieplate to cut the thread then parted it off, the slight angle on the parting off tool allowed one to snap the screw from the stock rather than losing it. The head was finished by putting the screw into a steel plate with a hole to hold the shaft filing flat and cutting the slot with a very fine slotting file. These screws were made to copy old hand made wood screws and held well if a brad awl was used to open the wood which closed on them after insertion. Cliff Taylor

Nice energy. One can feel how patiently, thoughtfully, and how relaxed, you work. Maybe it's how it goes on those endeavors 🐦

I was watching a Wristwatch Revival vid last night ('A True Mystery Behind the History of This IWC Pocket Watch') & he mentioned how these screws are made industrially, on a very very large machine - "the size of half a room". Then this vid turns-up in 'suggested'. Hat's-off to you Mr. Table-top Precision, kudos.

Brilliant work, 👏

The stress of always being one sneeze away from having to start over would be too much for me to handle

You thank us for watching???? Dude thank you so much for sharing.

Thank you for these amazing videos. I look at my watches in increasing awe with every video I watch.

Amazing insight. I’ve watched lots of watch repair and restoration videos and often wonder about the making of the actual components.

Hey there I know nothing about these processes but I found that your skill and precision made this video very entertaining to watch and the topics very interesting to learn about. Thanks!

My grandfather was a master machinist. During the Great Depression he used his mother’s steel knitting needles as stock to make new shafts for a clock. On a 1892 flat-belt drive 18” by 72” engine lathe that could do a 3/4” diameter reduction in mild steel in one pass. A clockmaker recently said the 170+ year clockworks are in very good shape. After my father died I donated the lathe and tooling to a museum that has a steam-powered, belt-driven machine shop. The last production job done on that lathe was 9,500 pieces around 1970.

Holy smokes. Watchmaking is a completely level of metrology than I ever considered.

It is amazing to see how small a watch screw is. It is even more amazing to see you create one!

OMG I've never been more impressed by something. That's gobsmacking when you actually get to see it in action

I made a screw for my watch one time using a large lathe in the heavy workshop on the ship I was serving on. Smallest thing I ever made and it worked.

Can't believe a simple screw has just blown my mind

I once Cat Scanned an 18" lawn Dart stuck in a 10 year old child's head. The ambulance driver's brought him into the trauma center with it sticking straight out of the side of his head completely wrapped in gauze. It cleared the CT gantry by 1/2 inch. The pictures were grainy but they showed no bleeding inside the brain and the neurosurgeon took him to surgery and removed it and besides a dew bone fragments, there was little damage and he had no problems after surgery and was released in just a few days. We all have our most exciting memories at work.

Great video, i love this type of machining, i'm a training watchmaker, and working on lathes like this is what gets me up, cheers. D

I work on model aero engines and mostly make all my own screws. Slots I generally cut with slitting saws on a vertical Milling machine making a threaded and triple slit holding collet usually in brass first. Smallest screw I've made so far on my English Toolmakers Lathe was 0.8mm dia. single point screw cut and in stainless steel as it was going into Mother's glasses on a Sunday when all the Optometrists were shut and as she was very short sighted, her glasses were critical. Most machined commercial screws are made from leaded free cutting mild steel. For Philips head screws I cold forge the Phillips recess then machine the head to shape using hand ground form tools. Only thing I'd have done differently on your screw would be to machine a 30 degree start to the screw thread. Really good idea when making tiny parts is to thoroughly clean down the Lathe first! Oh and the older you get the more easily small parts fall from your grasp!

I am so glad I found this channel! It has been something I have been wondering for a long time as to how watchmakers make such tiny parts.

Wow..I can't keep track of a 10mm socket, can't imagine looking for something this small in all the shavings. Love watching these intricate machining videos.

All I could do watching your process of making this screw, was sit here and shake my head back and forth! I recognized two things watching this. 1) You have to know what the end item will be. 2) Figure out the tooling to make it. I'm amazed at both here! 😲😲 😎

I can't wrap my mind around making screws that small! I've used our lathe and mills at work to machine various things, but watch screws are a whole other level!!!

Astounding. A watchmaker's universe is truly tiny. Loupe or no loupe, my eyes make me a non-candidate. Great video. Thanks.

Lol as soon as you said "watchmaker's lathe", I got a thrill just imagining the tolerances and precision and quality necessary to make something that small and powerful and consistent :)

Thanks for showing this awesome process!

This was a pleasure to watch, and I learned a thing or two, i think. Thanks so much!

I just enjoy watching machining like this. It's so fascinating.

I foresee this channel easily having 1 million plus subscribers with more content like this.

incredible. well done too, you have a concise style, but I certainly appreciated the "I've probably spent as much time looking for parts I've made as I've spent making them" I can imagine! subscribed!

Very satisfying, just to watch. One of my watches is missimg a few screws. Lost by a watch repair. They are all very special and exact. A marvel.

Good God!!!!!! That was 4 and a half minutes of jaw droppped "DA Hell" footage.

It's satisfying to see things going together so damn accurately!

Благодарю коллегу, за то что делитесь своим опытом и мастерством.

This rather reminds me of an article I read in Model Railroader magazine when I was a kid, about a fellow who built an N scale Shay locomotive (a geared steam locomotive with the two or three cylinder steam engine arranged vertically along one side of the boiler). He made everything on it from scratch.

This is mind blowing handwork accuracy

That is the most impressive thing I have ever seen, and when you said "a skilled watch maker can make a screw of half the diameter" 🤯

Videos like this deserve a double thumbs up!