Imagine actually fixing a watch...

[Birbdad]

48 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

What's cool about it is that it uses standard threaded dies, so you can use the alu type screw in dies with it as well. These are handy when you need to work with tension ring crystals.

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/die-sets-threaded-aluminium

Funny you mention, I'm pretty sure my vintage seiko project watch  might have those. Haven't opened it up yet but i keep seeing som eof the older 70's and 60's seikos having those. I actually am not entirely sure how to approach those or acrylic crystals and will have to look around for good vids on them. Mos tof the demos i see on acrylic stuff is with a crystal lift which i really hope i don't need.

ALso after a day on the wrist and a bit more wind got the timegrapher data in on my second  repair and service. I'll take it!

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 hours ago, Birbdad said:

Mos tof the demos i see on acrylic stuff is with a crystal lift which i really hope i don't need.

What is worrying you about this crystal lift Col ? Dont buy the chinese copy as ive heard the jaws can slip. I bought a second hand bergeon that has really good grip,not slipped as yet even with a good amount of force. I dont think it can work with a tension ring though. Something i haven’t had to deal with yet, the tension ring is going to prevent compression. 

[dadistic]

I only use a crystal lift on crystals that have a straight side, like the GS PHD acrylic high dome. Anything else, I use a press. The technique depends on the type of crystal and bezel, sometimes you support the case and press in and out with one die,  sometimes with acrylic crystals you use two dies. One supports the outside of the crystal, and the size is picked so that the crystal rest on the tapered part of the die. Then a smaller die is used that fits inside the crystal. Kind of like a sandwich. The inside die presses the crystal against the taper of the outside die, which compresses the crystal, so that it will lay in the recess.  These types of crystals are only caught at the lip. 

Tension ring crystals are different,  they generally have straight or slightly tapered sides that , and are just pressed in or out of the bezel.  Held in place mostly by friction.  I'm not sure why they are called tension rings, they really are compression rings

 

[Birbdad]

9 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

What is worrying you about this crystal lift Col ? Dont buy the chinese copy as ive heard the jaws can slip. I bought a second hand bergeon that has really good grip,not slipped as yet even with a good amount of force. I dont think it can work with a tension ring though. Something i haven’t had to deal with yet, the tension ring is going to prevent compression. 

What's worrying me is having to spend more money on a tool that does one thing that i might not use all that often.

 

 

1 hour ago, dadistic said:

I only use a crystal lift on crystals that have a straight side, like the GS PHD acrylic high dome. Anything else, I use a press. The technique depends on the type of crystal and bezel, sometimes you support the case and press in and out with one die,  sometimes with acrylic crystals you use two dies. One supports the outside of the crystal, and the size is picked so that the crystal rest on the tapered part of the die. Then a smaller die is used that fits inside the crystal. Kind of like a sandwich. The inside die presses the crystal against the taper of the outside die, which compresses the crystal, so that it will lay in the recess.  These types of crystals are only caught at the lip. 

Tension ring crystals are different,  they generally have straight or slightly tapered sides that , and are just pressed in or out of the bezel.  Held in place mostly by friction.  I'm not sure why they are called tension rings, they really are compression rings

 

Ooh good to know. I do have two watches with acrylic. a seiko and an old Ariston swiss watch my grandpa owned that is so not me i'm not really sure what to do with it. it does run well though but i might use it as my guinea pig to service my first swiss watch. Not sure what's in it but probably some sort of ETA from the 70's

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, Birbdad said:

What's worrying me is having to spend more money on a tool that does one thing that i might not use all that often.

Understandable Col they do work well with high domes, but as david has said they cant be used on much else. I would say a good portion of the vintage swiss watches and a lot of the british  I've come across have a high dome acrylic crystal either original or been replaced. Probably because they are easy to fit and give plenty of dial clearance, some just dont look right though. 

[Birbdad]

5 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Understandable Col they do work well with high domes, but as david has said they cant be used on much else. I would say a good portion of the vintage swiss watches and a lot of the british  I've come across have a high dome acrylic crystal either original or been replaced. Probably because they are easy to fit and give plenty of dial clearance, some just dont look right though. 

God with how clumsy i am and how i walk at light speed becaus1e i'm 6 foot 4 i bash my arms on corners and door frames so often i will probably have to buy like 5 acrylics for this old seiko when i get it fixed up. I will be just absolutely wrecking them Haha. I'll definitely have to get very familiar with polywatch and how to polish the things.

[Neverenoughwatches]

4 hours ago, Birbdad said:

God with how clumsy i am and how i walk at light speed becaus1e i'm 6 foot 4 i bash my arms on corners and door frames so often i will probably have to buy like 5 acrylics for this old seiko when i get it fixed up. I will be just absolutely wrecking them Haha. I'll definitely have to get very familiar with polywatch and how to polish the things.

Haha my lad is 6'5" hes exactly the same always breaking things even now at 27, when he was a boy we could gaurantee he would knock over a full glass of coke everytime we were eating out . Acylic does scratch easy but it also polishes up easy as well. Alex at about time does a great video on restoring them. They are a very cheap option and second hand nos joblots come up often on ebay. Just bought a load myself recently paid 40 quid for 4 boxes, i guess at over a thousand cystals easily, many of them fancy. Most slightly discoloured which is why they were cheap, but i prefer that as it adds to the authenticity of an old watch.

[gbyleveldt]

3 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Haha my lad is 6'5" hes exactly the same always breaking things even now at 27, when he was a boy we could gaurantee he would knock over a full glass of coke everytime we were eating out . Acylic does scratch easy but it also polishes up easy as well. Alex at about time does a great video on restoring them. They are a very cheap option and second hand nos joblots come up often on ebay. Just bought a load myself recently paid 40 quid for 4 boxes, i guess at over a thousand cystals easily, many of them fancy. Most slightly discoloured which is why they were cheap, but i prefer that as it adds to the authenticity of an old watch.

Hah, my middle one (13 now, ouch) is the one that is always doing stupid sheet. Always catching his finger in a door, falling out of a tree after his zipline snapped or otherwise getting himself hurt in other creative ways. He's the reason we have private medical 

Anyway Rich, I suspect you need to lay off eBay for a while. The amount of "random stuff" you've collected since you've been posting here is abnormal. Seriously. You might even feature in one of those hoarding TV shows my man.

Edited December 20, 2022 by gbyleveldt

[Neverenoughwatches]

31 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

Anyway Rich, I suspect you need to lay off eBay for a while. The amount of "random stuff" you've collected since you've been posting here is abnormal. Seriously. You might even feature in one of those hoarding TV shows my man.

Haha. Gert I know you are right but i cant help it lol. I have this thing about having plenty of stock. Not only the old crystals along with them came around 800 calibers of different stems. I cant resist a bargain. At some point i will start repairing watches again .

3 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Haha. Gert I know you are right but i cant help it lol. I have this thing about having plenty of stock. Not only the old crystals along with them came around 800 calibers of different stems. I cant resist a bargain. At some point i will start repairing watches again .

At any rate i should have enough gear, if anyone here is stuck for a stem or a staff i should have it

Edited December 20, 2022 by Neverenoughwatches

[Birbdad]

8 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Haha. Gert I know you are right but i cant help it lol. I have this thing about having plenty of stock. Not only the old crystals along with them came around 800 calibers of different stems. I cant resist a bargain. At some point i will start repairing watches again .

At any rate i should have enough gear, if anyone here is stuck for a stem or a staff i should have it

Since you're a parts collector while we're all here ( @gbyleveldt you might know this better since it's seiko.) . I just got an OEM seiko case for a song since i'm now apparently becoming a watch parts hoarder.

Only issue is there is no stem or crown. I know how to find a correct stem and size it and trim it down but what i don't know about is matching the crown. It's a pretty basic one, not screw down, not waterproof with an inner gasket, I imagine it should be easy to match with a cheap generic but is there things i have to keep in mind when doing that?

Like do they all use the same threading or do i need a seiko compatible generic crown? It doesn't even need to look identical to the oem one just fit on the stem and fit in the space provided on the case. It's amazing how expensive an OEM crown is, like 30 bucks and it's a very very basic one.

This is the case/crown in question.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Birbdad

[aac58]

18 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

Since you're a parts collector while we're all here ( @gbyleveldt you might know this better since it's seiko.) . I just got an OEM seiko case for a song since i'm now apparently becoming a watch parts hoarder.

Only issue is there is no stem or crown. I know how to find a correct stem and size it and trim it down but what i don't know about is matching the crown. It's a pretty basic one, not screw down, not waterproof with an inner gasket, I imagine it should be easy to match with a cheap generic but is there things i have to keep in mind when doing that?

Like do they all use the same threading or do i need a seiko compatible generic crown? It doesn't even need to look identical to the oem one just fit on the stem and fit in the space provided on the case. It's amazing how expensive an OEM crown is, like 30 bucks and it's a very very basic one.

This is the case/crown in question.

If this is a 7s26-02J0 or similar, the crown code is 9M40B3SNW0. It looks like Jules Borel is selling it for little money (http://www.julesborel.com/home?search=9M40B3SNW0) There are also some replacements available on eBay.

[Neverenoughwatches]

56 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

Since you're a parts collector while we're all here ( @gbyleveldt you might know this better since it's seiko.) . I just got an OEM seiko case for a song since i'm now apparently becoming a watch parts hoarder.

Only issue is there is no stem or crown. I know how to find a correct stem and size it and trim it down but what i don't know about is matching the crown. It's a pretty basic one, not screw down, not waterproof with an inner gasket, I imagine it should be easy to match with a cheap generic but is there things i have to keep in mind when doing that?

Like do they all use the same threading or do i need a seiko compatible generic crown? It doesn't even need to look identical to the oem one just fit on the stem and fit in the space provided on the case. It's amazing how expensive an OEM crown is, like 30 bucks and it's a very very basic one.

This is the case/crown in question.

Gert is going to know far more about anything seiko related than i do especially part selection. There are a few seiko stems in yesterday's haul, no idea what i have yet though. A few evenings ahead of me sorting out. 

[Birbdad]

54 minutes ago, aac58 said:

If this is a 7s26-02J0 or similar, the crown code is 9M40B3SNW0. It looks like Jules Borel is selling it for little money (http://www.julesborel.com/home?search=9M40B3SNW0) There are also some replacements available on eBay.

Ok nevermind that is insanely cheap. elsewhere i saw new crown and stems for it selling for about 25 to 35 dollars. Appreciate ya, gonna order today!

[Birbdad]

13 hours ago, aac58 said:

If this is a 7s26-02J0 or similar, the crown code is 9M40B3SNW0. It looks like Jules Borel is selling it for little money (http://www.julesborel.com/home?search=9M40B3SNW0) There are also some replacements available on eBay.

Hey maybe you or somebody else can help with this cuz this has baffled me. I"m on JB and found the correct part number for the stem and crown and figure while i'm ordering stuff i might as well grab some new caseback gaskets as I have only 1 left. 

The ones i got from cousins that are a close match to oem are 29.8x31.4x0.50 which i assume is inner/outter/thickness.
How do you make sense with the numbers jb uses for gaskets?! http://www.julesborel.com/products/watch-case-parts-gaskets-flat-gaskets 
Is that like F= combined width of both sides with the second number being the inner or outer dimension?

Edited December 21, 2022 by Birbdad

[aac58]

I don't know how JB name their gaskets,

I also use Cousins gaskets, mostly 29.8x31.4x0.50 and 29.20x31.00x0.50 depending on the watch, and for the stems usually the D ring gaskets 2.05x0.60x0.80 that are equivalent to the Seiko DJ0060B01.

[Birbdad]

6 hours ago, aac58 said:

I don't know how JB name their gaskets,

I also use Cousins gaskets, mostly 29.8x31.4x0.50 and 29.20x31.00x0.50 depending on the watch, and for the stems usually the D ring gaskets 2.05x0.60x0.80 that are equivalent to the Seiko DJ0060B01.

Cool thanks I guess ill give them a call and ask. Have you ever found generics that can function as crytal gaskets for seikos? They always seem to be weird sizes but man do they charge a lot for OEM.

EDIT: Damn sorta surprised after the call that they really hardly make flat gaskets in any sizes. Still have no clue how their sizing works she just kept not telling me haha.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Birbdad

[Birbdad]

Nm, weird it showed that my previous comment didn't post.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Birbdad