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gooner2826

Rolex Re-brush /Satin Finish Guide

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gooner2826

So, I know 299583 topics across the internet exist for this, with many pushing scotchbrite - so thought I’d do a comparison. 

I bought a V1 hulk M2M which needed a big of loving, everywhere online is still pushing the green scotchbrite as the favourite method: 

79191234-1-F83-4100-B23-F-189-D8-A44-B19

from a distance it looks ok, but at wrist/eye level it looks rough. For the odd touch up it’ll be fine, but on a larger scale it’s a big much. 
 

The  second method consisted of hand polishing out the rougher scratches from the scotchbrite. Bergeron abrasive blocks were then used in a medium and fine (note: gerryflex is the exact same but their medium is 120 grit and fine is 240 grit whereas Bergeron fine seems to be a higher grit) 


F3356-C84-FEA5-4532-BF64-61-DDF0923082.p

This produced much better results, at eye level and in the wild it looked great, and for most would be enough. However, I’m very deep down the rabbit hole with this and couldn’t stop. Although it was good, it lacked the white finish as there was enough ‘brushes’ at the medium level (i.e I hadn’t hand finished for long enough). It looked almost too polished. 

Method three - I have a 300w bench grinder that I picked up for £40 from Screwfix, I then bought a speed controller transistor (I think it’s called this) for £20 off Amazon and then a £6 pro max tapered spindle, this then gave me a speed controlled jewellers wheel for virtually half the price I could find them on cousins etc. 
 

I dropped the voltage down to half (roughly 1300/1400 rpm) which was the sweet spot. At full whack (2800rpm) it burnt through the finish and acted as sandpaper, producing a over finished finish (if that makes sense). I used a 320 grit finishing wheel off cousins UK and used light pressure. The hand finish was on the left and the clasp and right bracelet have been machined finish. 
67119-F2-F-ABF8-4-A7-C-9-D7-E-D4-BCDFF5-

Machine finish: 


9092-AAE2-7-D19-4650-983-C-2583448-E5986

Hand finish 

CFCE198-F-F140-45-B7-B44-D-C2-DC22-F7389

Overall both the abrasive blocks and machine finish produced great results. If I gave it more effort the hand finish probably would of got there. As I used a low RPM on the abrasive wheel for the machine finish it really didn’t take much metal off. 

The ‘whiteness’ is there and I’ve got another boat load of higher quality abrasive wheels coming to really hone the finish in. Both finishes at eye level looked great (it wasn’t a full overhaul as I didn’t mind keeping the dings it was just to remove the scratches). 

just thought this might be helpful for those who find themselves reaching for their wifes kitchen scrubber....
 

Edited by gooner2826
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FudgyDocker
33 minutes ago, gooner2826 said:

reaching for their wifes kitchen scrubber

The wife IS a kitchen scrubber!

Nice work and well persevered!

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Dr Fun Socks

Looks good mate, great results! Where would i go about getting one of these voltage reducers... i got the variable speed bench grinder but the slowest mode still burns through the metal with a bergeon wheel. 

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gooner2826
18 hours ago, FudgyDocker said:

The wife IS a kitchen scrubber!

Nice work and well persevered!

I’ll have to remind her of this.......! 

26 minutes ago, Dr Fun Socks said:

Looks good mate, great results! Where would i go about getting one of these voltage reducers... i got the variable speed bench grinder but the slowest mode still burns through the metal with a bergeon wheel. 

Cheers pal - this is the one: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/your-orders/pop/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_pop?_encoding=UTF8&gen=canonical&lineItemId=jpmiqpioplsvooy&orderId=203-9880378-1919547&packageId=1&returnSummaryId=&returnUnitIndices=&returnUnitMappingId=&shipmentId=D1ZmTcW6n (comes on a UK plug so plug and play) 

Was able to take mine down by about 50% voltage which took it to about 1400 rpm which was a good sweet spot 

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MA123

@gooner2826 

Looks good!  
 

You could start charging for these services...!  

Sure they’d be a flood of reps turning up at your door if you did. I certainly have one in need of a polish..!

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gooner2826
39 minutes ago, MA123 said:

@gooner2826 

Looks good!  
 

You could start charging for these services...!  

Sure they’d be a flood of reps turning up at your door if you did. I certainly have one in need of a polish..!

Cheers mate. 

Spent more time today nailing down the hand finish. Laborious, but the outcome was worth it. This was with the gerryflex in 240 and the Bergeron in fine. Just a slow and steady hand. 

E9-D31-EF0-3-C99-478-F-A68-F-A6-D6-C8673

521-A35-B1-8469-4559-8-DFA-DCB21-D1-A711
 

Doesn’t take all the nicks out as would need to be properly polished first. But definitely the best of the middle ground where you get the finish without taking too much material! 

Got the Bergeron satin wheel in fine coming tomorrow so will see if I can nail it down more on the bench grinder - or if it becomes diminishing returns 

Edited by gooner2826
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gooner2826

Final update on the hand finish. Simply cannot recommend the Bergeon line enough. Gerryflex got me very close but missed that final 5%. After getting the technique down it’s just a case of being patient and letting the block do the work.   

59243283-95-D2-42-D2-B282-6-CBDED2-DCCCF

1-ECAF01-C-08-A7-4-EA4-9086-68-EC75-E34-

will update when the wheel comes in to compare against the hand finish 

Edited by gooner2826
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gooner2826

Bergeon Fine wheel came today 

The key is obtaining the correct speed for a brushed finish, keeping it slow (1000rpm ish) prevents inertia from being too big a factor where the wheel becomes ‘harder’. At high RPM it acts more as a sandpaper abrasive and becomes more ‘scratchy’

057-FB5-A0-0-D7-F-4-B85-BFA6-B3-FE5-FA9-

although at arms lengths it look ok, up close it was rough. 

Most bench grinders run at about 2,800 rpm and when you use an inverter to reduce voltage (and rpm) the motor struggles and stalls due to requiring inertia from the wheel to keep it going (which at high RPM is no issue). 
 
Essentially you need a more powerful motor as high torque is required to run it at low rpm to prevent stalling. My original bench grinder couldn’t go below 1500rpm so I had to buy a more expensive one with a speed controller built in and still use my voltage inverter to get to around 700rpm -1000rpm 

C2-C806-E4-D038-466-A-A9-CA-FD9-EA92373-

As can be seen, very different results at the low rpm compared to the high rpm. 

The final finish between the hand finished and machine is virtually identical. Machine on the left hand on the right 

3-EA7538-E-14-CD-4-BC2-AA8-D-E12-C05-B02

The machine brushing is completely linear, whereas the hand finish has the old mark which is slightly askew (can’t see it unless up close).  Hand finish took 20 mins longer to achieve as well. 

A final note - not all grits and abrasive methods are equal.  I saw a video of the JTOOL where a woman used a 240 grit 3m radial disc to do a submariner spot repair and harped on about how it was “exactly like the factory” after she ‘fixed it’ (or something along those lines) and then In the comments said how the Rolex service centres use those discs - I bought the same discs and I’ll let you decide if this is the same as Rolex use.......... can’t say I’d be too pleased 

9589-FD48-4-BD8-4918-A27-F-618-FEDC58-D5

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deju
9 minutes ago, gooner2826 said:

A final note - not all grits and abrasive methods are equal.  I saw a video of the JTOOL where a woman used a 240 grit 3m radial disc to do a submariner spot repair and harped on about how it was “exactly like the factory” after she ‘fixed it’ (or something along those lines) and then In the comments said how the Rolex service centres use those discs - I bought the same discs and I’ll let you decide if this is the same as Rolex use.......... can’t say I’d be too pleased 

9589-FD48-4-BD8-4918-A27-F-618-FEDC58-D5

I use Garryflex 240grit block on my Explorer2 when I want a quick fix. 

It’s more than expectable. 

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gooner2826
22 minutes ago, deju said:

I use Garryflex 240grit block on my Explorer2 when I want a quick fix. 

It’s more than expectable. 

The hand blocks in 240 are much better - the 3m radial disc in 240 is really rough just because of how many passes it makes as there’s so many little brushes. Just scratches the life out of it 

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gooner2826

Aware this is borderline necrophilia bringing this up again but after a good month of trying different things finally got this quite well dialled in 

1-D18-F43-D-9111-4-C18-9570-5-B15020-BFF

823-AB9-E8-2-F6-C-4-F2-B-9-D6-B-44-B43-B

Couple of things I learned along the way, 

Not all products are the same and there’s a lot of variance between each brand. For example Garryflex is a much softer rubber than Bergeon - so even though both are a 240 grit in fine in reality the Garryflex was a much less aggressive pad as it had a bit more give in it. Another example was using hand finishing pads from my local builders merchants (unbranded) compared to 3M. The 3m was a much thicker and softer pad so was less abrasive and gave a much better finish even though both were classed as fine. 

Less pressure isn’t always better - at the beginning I was trying to apply as little pressure as I could, but all this did was create a layer of micro hairline scratches and it looked terrible. Too much pressure however created marks that were too deep.  It’s all about learning the product and how you want it to work - for example a softer rubber block allows you to put more pressure on it to achieve less hairline scratches. 
 

Don’t use abrasive materials straight out the box - for refinishing it’s too much and too harsh. I learnt I had to ‘dress’ everything first by getting a scrap piece of metal and using the abrasive with a decent amount of pressure, this then resulted in a much better results. A good example was the garryflex rubber pad which is now more uniform and produces more consist results: 

 7-B9-B2-AA0-A749-4424-9-F35-B1883-A09532
 

Essentially, using it first makes it much better to use. I found that when you go in ‘fresh’ where you start and stop becomes very obvious as it creates a more heavy grain. 

Hopefully this is of some help to somebody 

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