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Old Old Brown & Sharpe 1" - 2" Micrometer Cleaning Question

R-Savage

Plastic
Joined
Oct 31, 2013
Location
Alberta, Canada
I'm looking for a solution for a problem. I have my father's really old Brown and Sharpe 1 " - 2" 0.001 Graduation with 0.0001 correction Micrometer. The Micrometer is about 40 years old and works great, it is in fantastic condition. I don't have the model number handy at the moment. I want to give it a good clean and the main problem is the lock wheel. It seems to be jammed with gunk and seems to be seized. any opinions in how to free this up without damaging the MIC? I checked the calibration with a Vernier Caliper at .100, .250, .500, 1.000. It seems to be spot on. I want to get this back up and working like new for my new hobby machine shop.

Thanks.

This micrometer was used in a heavy duty mechanics shop that had a manual lathe. Shop was pretty dirty, and so is the micrometer.
 
soak it in some kerosene to loosen up the dried gunk and re-oil with starrett instrument oil. You could take it apart as well.
 
OT to cleaning the micrometer, but you might want to edit out the reference to a home shop. That will get sneers and catcalls from some on this forum. It's fine to have one and work in it, just don't say that out loud.

Yeah, I know, there are retired, experienced, really competent toolmakers working in home shops so it's not quite a valid indicator and sometimes more like racial assumptions, but there it is.
 
I would avoid the brakekleen. It will wash out any lubrication- which you want there when it does move. If you do use the brakekleen- be sure and add back a penetrating oil before trying to loosen it. My preference for dissolving old dried grease and oil is the Berryman brand of carb cleaner- just remember that it is not a lubricant.

Kroil will penetrate and free it up, and does have some lubricating effect- but not what you want to use for long tern use.
 








 
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