Mid case and case back restoration and re threading

[Neverenoughwatches]

9 minutes ago, Knebo said:

Yea, the missus'es are made of radium-infused grade 5 titanium. No messing with them! 

Missus'es ? You do know I'm studying English and find it difficult not to check all punctuation even though mine is terrible sometimes

Its not plural, its not possessive its not plural possessive.....I'm not sure what it is....it must be a new word Knebo. Only I'm allowed to create new words

[Roll1ex]

Update time:

Diamond burrs on a lathe worked quite well for case back cleaning.

Case back threading is turning out to be more difficult than I thought. A special tool will have to be made (Easy Part) and I will have to figure out a better lathe since the current option is old and requires several replacements to get tolerances right for finer work.

On the bright side, I have figured out nitrogen welding and it has given me confidence that cutting threads on the weld will be possible.

 

I am also addressing the mid case issues discussed Here

The outer ring Marked B welded and machined.

The area below the bezel was welded and machined 

2 lugs and 1 side is being rebuilt. (Side is ambient air weld | Top lug is single layer (0.2mm) nitrogen weld on top of air weld | bottom lug is double layer nitrogen weld on filed air weld)

The other 2 lugs and side will be rebuilt

 

 

The crystal and retainer ring area will be further welded and machined.

@caseback@Neverenoughwatches@RichardHarris123@AndyGSi@praezis@SwissSeiko@Knebo

Thank you for participating in this thread, I would appreciate if you can link to some good resources in polishing and case reshaping, since i am having a bit of a difficult time with it.

[SwissSeiko]

My time to shine I guess! So you might want to make a lapping setup to make sharp edges on your case. I have a few threads in my profile on what I built. I would machine the top surface to a decent finish. The lugs and side can be done on a belt sander with a high grit. Just go slowly. I should note, this is just for the prefinishing stage. Once you have the general case shape, youll want to start getting more accurate with your finishing. Low speeds and light hands. The 1625 has a brushed top surface, and polished sides, with a very slight polished bevel on the transition. The brushed surface is circular, so you'll need a way to rotate the case while you brush it, ideally on some sort of spindle. The polished side are easy to do, but youll need to brush the top first, then mask it off before you polish to get a sharper edge. Then you do the polished bevel. I've attached a photo as a reference. Don't mess up a turn-o-graph, they are one of my favorites!

 

[Roll1ex]

Ran into some BIG TROUBLE

After laser welding both the sides and all 4 lugs, I measured the crystal and retainer ring area so that I have rough dimensions to cut to post welding. To my surprise, the dimensions from 3-9 are 0.6mm smaller then when measured from 12-6. The same dimension difference was observed when measuring other points. 

This means that now the case is friggin oval shaped. Fortunately there is no warping or deformation on the other axis.

I was careful enough to not hold the case tight, my best guess is that the heat stress and material anomaly/deterioration has led to this.

I am still committed to this project but a few more steps got added and it has now become an all or nothing deal, will be posting updates

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 minutes ago, Roll1ex said:

Ran into some BIG TROUBLE

After laser welding both the sides and all 4 lugs, I measured the crystal and retainer ring area so that I have rough dimensions to cut to post welding. To my surprise, the dimensions from 3-9 are 0.6mm smaller then when measured from 12-6. The same dimension difference was observed when measuring other points. 

This means that now the case is friggin oval shaped. Fortunately there is no warping or deformation on the other axis.

I was careful enough to not hold the case tight, my best guess is that the heat stress and material anomaly/deterioration has led to this.

I am still committed to this project but a few more steps got added and it has now become an all or nothing deal, will be posting updates

You were always going to be up against this project, but you had the guts to go for it. Determination will see you through and you certainly have that. Good luck with the rest of the work