Official Lume Thread

[JohnG 41]

Here is a good basic turtorial for hands and dial with a sticks dial. Next I will post one on sandwich dials....

 

Thread posted by RC42 at RG, reprinted from Angelo the "relumer" - translated from Spanish by Babelfish, edited by JohnG to remove Babelfishisms...

 

Page from http://www.risingsunwatches.com/foru...ead.php?t=2096,

Written by 'Angelo' who has his own site here - http://www.the-relumer.com/about.htm

found by phalanx and shared with RG here http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=16454

 

 

These are the original linked pictures and the text has been converted one sentence at a time through the Altavista "Babel Fish Translation" website.

If any mods have better Spanish then please feel free to change and improve but the translation is good enough with such great pictures.

 

 

 

 

with this first tutorial I want to contribute something in this forum.

 

like applying luminova

 

 

 

1.the work area must of being clean and well illuminated to prepare all tools.

 

 

2. open watch with tools.

 

3. after removing movement, place it in a support I specify.

 

4.we already can begin with the delicate work but in order to protect the dial I place a plastic protector above the dial.

 

 

 

5. now with much well-taken care we disassembled the small hands.

 

 

 

 

 

6.the small hands must remain for 30 minutes in nail polish remover.

 

 

 

 

7.careful with the small hands, they are very delicate and scratch easily (very low quality, receives chromium plating and not steel like in quality watches).

 

Place the small hands on paper or fabric and to begin to clear all "lume" old with a very small screwdriver.

 

 

 

 

8. also from the dial we cleared "lume" with a very fine screwdriver, very carefully

.

 

 

 

9. in the end we cleaned everything with "the rodico" putty to remove tracks.

 

 

 

 

 

10. we already can begin to apply superlume, superluminova, noctiluminova, noctilumina, siluma,...

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. we began with the dial

 

 

 

 

 

12. and soon the small hands (always we applied "lume" by the back side of the small hands).

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. this is how it should appear; clean small hands and with "lume" applied well.

 

 

 

 

 

14. matte or brilliant can be applied "to lume"...

 

 

 

15. After 24 hours we can mount the small hands (do not apply too much pressure).

 

 

 

 

16. to verify that all this clean, clean again with the rodico putty.

 

 

 

 

16. reassemble watch

 

 

 

 

17. we verified all functions

 

 

18. all perfect... pressure check

 

 

 

 

reluming finalized with success... to enjoy at night!

 

[JohnG 41]

from NAVIGATER@ RG

 

I thought I will write a little how to and this is what came out

This is part 1

 

First of all we have to remove the Crown guard I think this needs no explanation at all. And also in this pictorial I am using a 183H so there is no CG.

When that is finished we have to open the case back

 

Then we see in the movement and the movement holders two of them in total one of them is at the 2 o’clock position the other one at the 7 o’clock position.

 

When we screwed them out we can start to release the stem

Just 1 1/2 turn and you can take out the stem

 

When this is done take out the movement.

Best would be to put some watch paper over the movement and turn it over with the whole watchcase so that the movement will sit on the watch paper and you can take of the case.

 

 

Next step get the stem back in at screw back the stem release screw.

 

Now we have to get off the hands.

Best would be to set the time to 12 and get them of with a hand remover.

Don’t forget to protect the dial!!!

 

 

Same with the second hand same way but I don’t have a pic for that sorry for now

 

Ok the hands are removed

 

 

Now we have to get the dial of.

 

Here you can see the little screw which are holding the dial to the movement.

Just a half turn to the left and we can get the dial of the movement.

When the dial is of you can see in 99% a dial washer don’t lose the otherwise it could be that the hour wheel will be wobbling up and down between you dial and the movement

 

 

 

How to apart a sandwich dial??

Here we go.

I always warm the dial up with some hot air from the back so that I am 100% sure the glue is not that strong anymore.

 

Then I just use a knife and work my whole way round the dial.

 

 

So that was done both plates are now for themselve

 

I removed the old lume from the dial because it was crap at all don’t say where it came from but it was so called superlumed mhhhh….

 

I made a white base coat on the dial and relumed it

 

 

After it was dry I checked for a first impression ok that is fine for me.

 

Now the hands also have to be relumed

 

First we have to remove the old lume.

I always use some dissolvent from the back applied with oiler ( don’t use to mucht otherwhise the paint of the hands will be gone) and then scratch the old lume from the hands.

 

When this is finished it has the look like this.

 

Front view

 

Back view

 

Second hand

 

 

Now we have to relume them

 

I relume them from the back like everybody else. I guess everybody has his own technique for this or his own application tools but I use a oiler for this

 

 

So the hands are relumed

 

Front view

 

Back view

 

 

So now we have to get everything back together the other way around maybe I will write up another pictorial in the weekend when I have some spare time.

 

Final result will look like this

 

 

I hope you like the little pictorial.

And any feedback is welcome

 

Greetings Navi;)

[Dr.Manhatten 0]

thank you JohnG, i was wondering if there were any walkthroughs we could put up reguarding the mixing of powder lume to make into the liquid form?

[JohnG 41]

One tutorial I read said 50-50 mix of binder and powder.... mix for one minute in bowl the tiny bowl...

 

Some have used clear nail polish as binder, others have used clear synthetic varnish (in an art supply store).

 

Speaking of lume, MINE ARRIVED!:

 

[greg_r 81]

Thanks, John - good tutes. Will be a useful reference if I ever actually get around to re-luming my watches =]

[pollux1 3]

Some great tutoriials there John, thanks for "porting" them to here.

[alphakazi 0]

just wanted to share some pics and info on MB-Microtec Trigalight lume - the coolest lume around - doesn't need light to recharge and can lasts 20 years

 

 

The lume is made up of small glass tubes manufactured in various shapes - as small as 0.5mm in diameter. The inside surface of the tube is coated by hand with a luminous substance (unsure what they use). Then it's filled with tritium gas (an isotope of hydrogen) and sealed with a laser.

 

 

Trigalight is comparable to a conventional television tube. A very thin coating of luminous substance is applied to a glass surface. The coating is bombarded with electrons emitted by the tritium gas (H3), which cause the layer to light up. (Conversion of the electric charge to light) Whilst in a television tube, the electrons are generated electronically through the use of a cathode, with a trigalight, the necessary electrons are created through the radioactive disintegration of tritium (an isotope of hydrogen) The disintegration electrons of the tritium have a range of just 1-3 mm in air and can’t even penetrate the human skin. The energy of (at most) 18 keV is not sufficient for this. Thus the disintegration electrons (beta radiation) do not have the power to penetrate or leave the sealed glass vessel of a trigalight.

 

the half life of Tritium is 12.3 years - you could always have it "relumed" after 10 years or so but I think it would be more than usable even after 20 years considering how bright it is

 

 

You don't have to worry about fading as the lume is constantly being charged

 

 

a few vids featuring Trigalight

 

 

this gay dude is boring but has some additional info

 

 

no lume shots here but worth a look

[JohnG 41]

Luminox uses those, nice stuff, wonder it you can buy the tubes on hands made for a 6497?

[alphakazi 0]

Luminox uses those, nice stuff, wonder it you can buy the tubes on hands made for a 6497?

 

the tech is relatively new and I can see them eventually making all kinds of shapes - flat and shallow, circles, whatever shape you can form glass into

[JohnG 41]

Luminox uses those, nice stuff, wonder it you can buy the tubes on hands made for a 6497?

 

the tech is relatively new and I can see them eventually making all kinds of shapes - flat and shallow, circles, whatever shape you can form glass into

Unless these are different than the tritium tubes used in Luminox, they have been around for a while - at least twenty years. I remember when they were kind of new and they were calling the Luminox the watch used by the Seals. Now everyone says that. :ninja:

[alphakazi 0]

Luminox uses those, nice stuff, wonder it you can buy the tubes on hands made for a 6497?

 

the tech is relatively new and I can see them eventually making all kinds of shapes - flat and shallow, circles, whatever shape you can form glass into

Unless these are different than the tritium tubes used in Luminox, they have been around for a while - at least twenty years. I remember when they were kind of new and they were calling the Luminox the watch used by the Seals. Now everyone says that. :ninja:

 

the seals must have quite a collection of watches I didn't know it was used in watches for so long

 

now this is interesting...

 

A patent application was filed by the US Patent Office in 2007 for sand-grain-sized tritium containers or glass or polymer "microspheres" that can be applied in self-powered lighting paint.[1]

 

sand grain size? that'd be cool to have it in a paint form.

[trailboss99 994]

Yeah, not that new. The principle is the same as that used in traditional Tritium lume but the gas tube is safer even tho the level of radition is higher. This is because any radiation you cop from a watch is from leakege of the powder from the case rather than direct radition. You can buy big versions of these tubes by purchasing surplus army mching gun and morter range markers which you can pick up for about 20 bucks each. You can see 'em for miles on a dark night. They make great driveway markers.

 

Further reading on tritium lume:

Radioluminescent paint,

 

And lume in general:

Luminiosity in watches

 

I have posted them before but some may have missed them.

 

 

 

Col.

[Member X 91]

Sand grain size tritium powder? Tritium driveway markers??

 

These are good things I need to look into :ninja:

 

I'd love to measure up some of the hands on the 44mm PAM homages (or even the Rolex DateJust hands) and mount some tubes in them! Would be awesome although I'm not sure if they'd be too heavy to move lol

 

I believe that Ball watches also use tritium tubes

[trailboss99 994]

I doubt you can buy sand grain sized tritium any more but you can buy sand grain sized lume from Glow inc. It's great stuff for signs etc. Just use a router to engrave the sign, paint letters white and coat with lume. A coat of non UV stabilised clear (preferably, UV stabilised will work just takes a bit longer to charge) and away you go!

 

 

Col.

[Member X 91]

I was referring to the quote in Alpha's post which would be ubercool!

[trailboss99 994]

Ahh, that ain't powder that's little gas tubes. Yep, THAT would be very cool. Wouldn't that make a great sign, road marking or any number of other stuff?

Let's hope somthing actualy comes of the idea. Peeps patent good stuff all the time and thenm do nothing but refuse to licence/sell the idea they have no hope of bringing to fruition.

 

Col.

[trailboss99 994]

BTW, here are some triyium products. Sorry, export to USA ist verboten but I'm shure the same style of product can be bought over there.

They got those marker pegs that make great drivway lights as well as kit markers, zip pulls and even a map reading light!

 

KITBAG.COM.AU

 

 

THESE are oke to ship however and look like a handy jigger.

 

 

Col.

[JohnG 41]

KITBAG.COM.AU

 

 

Col.

COOL SITE - Those zip markers would make AWESOME keychains!

[trailboss99 994]

They do. I have several on keys and other gear.

All their stuff is of the highest quality. Want a good kit bag? Cheack out the ones on special for 20 bucks. Thats about 18USD. They are the toughest bag I'v ever had.

 

Col.

[alphakazi 0]

cool stuff - lume bright enough to read maps - I love it

[TAGster 5]

Great thread!!!

 

I learned a lot of lume and how to apply it to watches.

 

In fact after reading this I am temped to super lume/re-lume some of my watches. I have a couple of reps or not expensive gens that I can start experimenting with, he he.

 

Anyways, in the mean time I want to ask a question: does anybody know where or who can do super lume here in the US?. I want to super-lume a PAM 112 that I just get this weekend.