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NCRich

Vintage Sea Dwellers

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GingerApple

Mine's finished! Not too bad for a second attempt ever. Looks quite different depending on how the light catches the dial and hands. Clickpix turning it around for some reason.

w0p1.jpg wFVK.jpg wfk8.jpg wSav.jpg

 

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Alhig72
Mine's finished! Not too bad for a second attempt ever. Looks quite different depending on how the light catches the dial and hands. Clickpix turning it around for some reason.
w0p1.jpg wFVK.jpg wfk8.jpg wSav.jpg
 
That's turned out really well mate, nice one

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splke

not bad pal apart from the spunk bubble pearl :lol:

 

 

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GingerApple
4 minutes ago, splke said:

not bad pal apart from the spunk bubble pearl :lol:

Trust you to spot spunk at 80 paces.

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GingerApple
13 minutes ago, Alhig72 said:

That's turned out really well mate, nice one

Hard to believe I'm not entirely hopeless, huh! Ta.

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SCShrek
28 minutes ago, TheFreckledTampon said:

Hard to believe I'm not entirely hopeless, huh! Ta.

Hard to believe...LOL. Came out looking good!

Bleach or sandpaper or both on the insert?

And for the newbie in me...which did you find more of a challenge? Luming the dial or the hands?

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GingerApple
9 minutes ago, SCShrek said:

Bleach or sandpaper or both on the insert?

Just a bit of sandpaper, then some matt spray. In hindsight, I'd have not spayed it and left it just sandpapered, I preferred the worn sandpaper look I had.

11 minutes ago, SCShrek said:

And for the newbie in me...which did you find more of a challenge? Luming the dial or the hands?

Deffo dial. Hands are a piece of piss to relume. Taking the old lume off was more annoying. I soaked the hands in methylated spirits and that turned the old lume into a sticky, bogey like texture that wanted to stick to everything and was consequently hard to get off. The pro's seem to scratch the old lume off whilst it's dry so I suspect that's a better way of doing it.

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NCRich

Nice work @TheFreckledTampon!  That looks great!

If you put the hands in acetone the lume floats off in seconds. 

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GingerApple
34 minutes ago, NCRich said:

Nice work @TheFreckledTampon!  That looks great!

If you put the hands in acetone the lume floats off in seconds. 

Cheers dude. Ahhhh, so acetone is the trick. I knew it was something. I should have googled it. Or asked you!

Do you know what I always find difficult (and this is ridiculous because I don't think it should be hard), but I always struggle with movement tabs. I struggle to get them in properly. Is there a trick? I always fuck it up, not just on this watch. I just never seem to get them to sit properly, not without trying for 20 minutes at least.

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GingerApple

I also learnt during this mod that you shouldn't hold a naked flame to pearls; it doesn't make them turn yellow, but it does set them on fire.

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NCRich
13 minutes ago, TheFreckledTampon said:

Cheers dude. Ahhhh, so acetone is the trick. I knew it was something. I should have googled it. Or asked you!

Do you know what I always find difficult (and this is ridiculous because I don't think it should be hard), but I always struggle with movement tabs. I struggle to get them in properly. Is there a trick? I always fuck it up, not just on this watch. I just never seem to get them to sit properly, not without trying for 20 minutes at least.

I don't know what you are doing, but if you should not tighten them down until you have both in position.  Just put one in, screw it in enough to hold.  Do the other and then tighten down.  May be one of those practice things.

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GingerApple
8 minutes ago, NCRich said:

I don't know what you are doing, but if you should not tighten them down until you have both in position.  Just put one in, screw it in enough to hold.  Do the other and then tighten down.  May be one of those practice things.

That's my trouble; as I tighten one, the other side pops out. I'll try alternating with a quarter turn each side next time and just slowly-slowly crimp them tighter. It seems ridiculous that it's the part I find trickiest :facepalm: 

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SCShrek
25 minutes ago, TheFreckledTampon said:

Cheers dude. Ahhhh, so acetone is the trick. I knew it was something. I should have googled it. Or asked you!

Do you know what I always find difficult (and this is ridiculous because I don't think it should be hard), but I always struggle with movement tabs. I struggle to get them in properly. Is there a trick? I always fuck it up, not just on this watch. I just never seem to get them to sit properly, not without trying for 20 minutes at least.

I had a time my first time with tabs on an Omega PO....you dont know fear until that little fucker goes flying into your balance wheel.....luckily it missed the spring. LOL

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GingerApple
14 minutes ago, SCShrek said:

you dont know fear until that little fucker goes flying into your balance wheel.....

Lol, did you get a sweat on?

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splke
24 minutes ago, TheFreckledTampon said:

That's my trouble; as I tighten one, the other side pops out. I'll try alternating with a quarter turn each side next time and just slowly-slowly crimp them tighter. It seems ridiculous that it's the part I find trickiest :facepalm: 

Probably the only thing I can do right I've fucked just about every movement I removed... On the 21j it's always the hands I cannot get the ticking hand on without breaking the pinion. Oh and don't even talk to me about dwos fucki g exploding bastards! Even smashed my favourite Swiss bk trying to put the stem back in bastard 

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GingerApple
3 minutes ago, splke said:

Probably the only thing I can do right I've fucked just about every movement I removed... On the 21j it's always the hands I cannot get the ticking hand on without breaking the pinion. Oh and don't even talk to me about dwos fucki g exploding bastards! Even smashed my favourite Swiss bk trying to put the stem back in bastard 

:rofl: You have a wonderful way with words!

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SCShrek
16 minutes ago, TheFreckledTampon said:

Lol, did you get a sweat on?

Certainly. I saw it hit the balance wheel and disappear. It's bad when you are looking around your work space hoping to find it because if you dont, it's lodged who knows where in the movement. It was on the floor. I learned to hold the tweezers with less force.

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GingerApple
On 20/09/2019 at 00:49, NCRich said:

The one on the DRSD is a replacement from Cousins that I lightly bleached and sanded.

If you get 5, I don't suppose you could provide a Cousin's link to one that fits could you? I'm considering changing mine. I hate the pearl. Or I could rip it out.

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NCRich

 

4 hours ago, TheFreckledTampon said:

If you get 5, I don't suppose you could provide a Cousin's link to one that fits could you? I'm considering changing mine. I hate the pearl. Or I could rip it out.

The pearl or the color?  I used the pearl that came on the DRSD, I changed the color and swapped it over.

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GingerApple
7 minutes ago, NCRich said:

 

The pearl or the color?  I used the pearl that came on the DRSD, I changed the color and swapped it over.

Now? I hate the pearl and the colour.

Originally I just hated the colour. I was going to bake the insert because that worked well on my Gingermariner pearl (but that also fucked up the black paint which I didn't want for this one) so this time I just set fire to the pearl instead. Literally set fire to it. It was on fire. A flame. Like a candle on a birthday cake, except it was my pearl. Which did fuck all to the colour, but turned it, as Splke so delicately put it, into a spunk bubble. Do now I hate they pearl itself and the colour :facepalm:

 

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BC1221
Praise from the master is true praise indeed! All thanks to your tutorials, I'd never have tried without them :thumbsup: 
It is the lume with the white binder. I tried pushing it back a bit as your described - exactly as you described actually - but I bottled it as I worried I'd make it worse. It's drying now, I think that ship has sailed.
Re the hands, that is the underneath. At least I think it is! Fuck! I hope it is. I certainly intended to lume from the underneath...



That white binder is crap. It’s like Elmer’s glue. It always gets all clumpy for me. I finally was able to track down noctiluminova and ordered some proper 3-T binder from Scott. Works great and gives you a decent amount it working time before it starts drying. The good thing about that white binder... no matter how long you let it dry, you can easily peel it off with a toothpick or the tip of a razor. It’s def good for practicing but it doesn’t compare to proper binder.

If you look at gens, most of them have pretty much flat lume on the markers. They just get a little “fluffy”. I do like the puffy look but i try to stay as flat as possible.

Another trick I use is to just find some rust around the house. Dry it up and grind it down to a fine powder and sprinkle a little bit on some parts of the hands while the lume is still wet. Gives it a nice look imo. Oh and just sprinkling or dry brush some dry lume powder on the markers gives it a better look too. Just make sure the rest of the dial is dry. Lol

Another trick I use is to mix rust and some dark coffee smear it all over the DWO in random spots so it doesn’t look brand new. Just be sure to either take the DWO off or just be very careful if you paint it on there. I get little specs on some dates. Some just show a tan background and some look like they’ve been spinning under some rust.. etc. looks much better than a vintage datewheel they looks brand new.

I recently got a 1680 from mary and I didn’t have any trouble bleaching that insert. I just had to get the varnish off of it first with some acetone. Do a little bit of sanding with 1000 grit sandpaper, just enough to make it look like it’s been used but not abused. Soaked it for a while in bleach and it just faded. Maybe the cartel 1680s used a different insert than the SD.

Now all I need is my atheya crown and tube (again). First set he sent, the tube just snapped off when I tried to take it off of the crown before I even installed it. He shipped me a new set and included a tritium pearl for my return shipping cost.

I was never a fan of the SD. Too thick for my skinny wrists.

I’m actually shocked that mary hasn’t run out of these special deals yet. I got a 1680 with a 2836 and plan on getting another. Haven’t decided which one tho.






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GingerApple

Wonderful tips @BC1221 thanks so much!

If I'm reading your advice about the pearl correctly, do you mean that you whip the old one out completely and replace it with a better/tritium one? If so, I didn't even realise you could do that :facepalm: Do the pearls come from TDs or elsewhere?

Thanks again for taking the time; I'm sure I'm not the only reader of your post who appreciates it!

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BC1221
Wonderful tips [mention=56435]BC1221[/mention] thanks so much!
If I'm reading your advice about the pearl correctly, do you mean that you whip the old one out completely and replace it with a better/tritium one? If so, I didn't even realise you could do that :facepalm: Do the pearls come from TDs or elsewhere?
Thanks again for taking the time; I'm sure I'm not the only reader of your post who appreciates it!


You can get them on eBay but they sell for like $30+ for generic versions. I get mine from Adrian (atheya). He makes his own and yucki sells them too I believe.

You can always make your own if you want to. It won’t be perfect but it’ll do. Just use some lume and put a drop of superglue where the hole on the insert is. Let that layer dry for a little bit. Put a few flecks of lume on there and then put a tiny drop of superglue on top of that. It won’t be as pretty as the ones you can buy but it won’t look too bad.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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BC1221

037566f500e6918af0e81207af093c26.jpg

 

There’s a little bit of rust on the hands and the added patina on the datewheel in case you were wondering what it looks like. smile.png.

 

I hate that the markers turned out more glossy than I planned but oh well. May need to do a little touch up again.

 

Oh and that’s not the tritium pearl. That hasn’t gotten here yet. Can’t wait to get that and my crown and tube from Adrian. Hate the cartel crown. It looks “decent” when shaved down to look like a 702 but atheya’s looks soo much better. I was so pissed when the tube broke off on the first shipment.

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GingerApple

I quite like those glossy markers! I like all of it in fact! Payment sent!

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