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Hi everyone, I just went through tapping a Silix 6538 case to accept Athaya's 8mm Brevet crown. The cases needed to be drilled first and then needed to be tapped to accept the crown. Hope some of you find this useful Tools & Parts: - Silix 5510/6538 case - Rat tail file - Table Vise - Cordless Drill (>7.8volt) - Lubricant for metal cutting - Tap Wrench - 3.5mm Cobalt Drill Bit - M4x0.35mm Tap First step is to remove the existing tube (look how tiny that Silix tube looks!). I used a rat tail file to grip the inner tube. Once you've got a good grip, simply unscrew counter-clockwise. Voila! Next, you secure the case in the table vise. Lube the hole where the tube was and use the 3.5mm Cobalt drill bit with your cordless drill. I used my 7.8v first, but wasn't as effective so I used my 20v. Had to be patient but wasn't difficult at all. Drill all the way through. Be sure to clean off any burrs. You can use that same rat tail file from earlier. Now you need to put that M4 tap onto the tap wrench. Make sure you get the 0.35mm pitch! 0.7mm are more common, but they won't work! I've purchased mine from Merlintools on Ebay for $12 per. Get a couple while you're at it. I couldn't photograph since both my hands were occupied, but once the tap bites onto the case you do a 1 turn clock-wise and then 1/2 turn counter clock-wise. By going counter clock-wise you're removing the excess steel. Athaya tubes are pretty long so I went all the way through the case. Now you should be able to hand screw that new tube in most of the way. Towards the end I used that rat tail file again to tighten all the way down. NOTE: if you have a choice, use the triangular file. Cone shaped are very difficult to remove from the tube because it bites more area on the tube. And there we go BONUS: So we know 3.5mm Cobalt and an M4x0.35mm tap is needed for the 8mm Brevet Athaya crown and tube. For Rolex Explorer 1016s to accept the 6mm gen crown and tube, you'll need to drill out the case using 0.110" or #35 first and use the M3x0.35mm tap. If you aren't up for it, jmb is your go to TC 16610 to gen tube seems to have the same diameter so drilling doesn't seem necessary. It would use the same tap as the 1016, M3x0.35mm. See here: https://www.replica-watch.info/vb/sh...ll-this-myself Hope this was useful! Good luck!

Great writeup! One thing to watch for is keeping the drill parallel/flat to the axis of the case. I had a Silix case a couple years ago that the axis of the tube was angled down when viewed from the lug ends... so the stem was always stressed and bending as it turned. It was tough, but it was redrilled flat so the stem went straight in to the movement. Another thing... Silix used to make a divot in the case where the tube seats. That resulted in the crown screwing in too far when the tube was fully seated. You can correct that by filling the divot with JB Weld, grinding and polishing flat, then drilling and tapping.

6538

Road trip. In the middle of a 7 hour drive

It took me a while to get all the parts I wanted, but here it is, 5 months of work paid off! When you start a project like this, you ultimately end up buying more parts than you need, often as part of bundles or because you're getting a better deal on them that way. I have another 4-Liner that I finished today, will follow-up with photos of that one soon Big shoutout to nanuq, cc33, dbane and kime for helping me with advice throughout the process. Case+Bezel: Vietnam/Phong/dbane Crown: Gen Rolex Bevels+CaseWork: dbane Movement: Gen Rolex Cal 1030, winding mechanism serviced by me Dial: custom MQ Lume: custom MQ (plot at 6 is slightly whiter to mimic the radium plots usually found @6) Hands: Michael Young Crystal: Clarks T19, shaved down to reduce height Stem: Gen Rolex Assembly: me I have to point out the beautiful work dbane did on cutting the FAT bevels, because the bevels looked like absolute total [censored] when I got the case (I was sold a lemon). The early 6538's had these fat bevels and they they are really part of makes the watch unique. Getting a beautiful GILT dial was probably one of the hardest tasks. I had lots of back and forth with MQ and only thanks to the eagle eyes of nanuq, cc33 and dbane was I able to catch damage done to the initial dial I was offered. In the end, MQ made a completely new dial for, which really makes the watch. The next best thing would be an ivan dial, but his dials are twice as expensive at around $2k and I had to make choices so that the cost for this build wouldn't get completely out of hand! Anyway, here are the pictures:

I love that Carrera Seafoam, 38mm case? IMHO TAG Heuer's Carrera line is just about as timeless as a watch line gets these days, even if there are about 10 too many models available. Overall, as a brand, TAG Heuer could probably do without Formula 1 and Link; they already discontinued the Grand Carrera. The only reason for the Formula 1 line is to get customers in the door but man does it devalue the brand overall. All of this, of course, is in my opinion only.

Great tutorial. If you want to make it easier to tap, use a 3.6mm drill (I also had to use a 3.5mm since my dremel doesn't like the 3.6mm drill, but tapping was pretty hard and only works if you have a high quality tap, the cheaper taps may get damaged)

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to document and explain! Maybe threads like this should be linked in a "sticky" tutorial overview?

I agree.. In addition, anyone that notices it and points out that it's a rep, is probably worth nerding about watches with...

Very useful! Always wanted to know what folks used to install Athaya's crowns. Thanks for sharing!

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Send him a PM or contact Micky (SSTeel) AJ

Nice one. Great tutorial!

You're gonna let a little SNOW slow you down??

I still wear my Cal 1887 Carrera with the "Seiko" movement regularly and it is a fantastic watch. Hard to find a nicer pusher action in a mechanical Chronograph, let alone one in the sub $5000 price range. If you have never handled one I recommend it, I think anyone would be quite pleasantly surprised. It is a very clean chronograph design and the 41mm model is the perfect size for me. While the movement was developed by Seiko (a good thing where I stand) TAG Heuer purchased the rights to it and it is currently manufactured by TAG Heuer for use exclusively in their Carrera watches.