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Wearing my Phase 1 '42 today

I sometimes chuckle when I read some of the "suggestions" concerning drilling holes in lugs so I thought I would present some of my observations. I have drilled a few and also being a machinist have a little knowledge about such things as drilling holes. I have read more than once people suggesting to run the drill at slow speed. This is absolutely wrong! If you run the drill too slow, especially with a small drill bit, your chance of snapping a bit skyrocket. When drilling lugs I run the spindle in my mill as fast as I can, which at 2500 RPM is actually still too slow. Case must be held rigidly. I use a mill but a cheap drill press will likely work in a pinch. A really cheap drill-press may have too much slop in the quill to allow a good precise clean "spot" with the center drill. Start the hole with a center-drill (#0 for DJ holes or #1 for the bigger ones). Use a drop or two of oil. This is more for "grab" prevention than cooling. To cool you would need a constant flood of cutting fluid. Don't feed too slow or too fast. Too fast and you might break a bit and too slow may "work harden" the material you are drilling. Use a sharp bit. Cobalt bits will last longer/drill more cases but are more expensive. Change bits just as soon as there is even a hint of it starting to dull. Failure to do this might result in a "wallered" hole or broken bit. If you do happen to break off a drill bit, and can't easily remove it, don't freak out! Don't make matters worse by trying to drill or dig it out. Mix a strong/concentrated citric acid solution and dump the case into it. After a week see if the remains of the bit will crumble, if not put it back in to soak for another week. After a couple of weeks the bit will have rusted enough where it will have pretty much dissolved. Once the remains of the bit are all gone put some oil in the hole and finish drilling. The citric acid will not harm the stainless steel used in our watch cases.

I wish these MBW case would have the right crown position, too low for what they cost

texture on the dial lume looks awesome! Good job! Any reason for the yuki hands vs the mbw? Hard to tell from the pics if they are any better.

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Nice looking dial

In daylight the Nescafe works well but the lume in the dark will be very grainy with dots. Like Dlf I´ve been using acrylic paint and it works best. Acrylic white and tiny bits of raw sienna and yellow ochre work well imho (burnt umber is more reddish). A kid´s set is cheap and has 12 or 24 colours. Nescafé lume (it has blotches if You look close up later covered this with another layer) acrylic lume, much more crispy (ok, I like lume even on vintage watches, it´s for reading the time) bright acrylic-mix on the Tudor darker acrylic after previous nescafe on the sub

looking good. A couple of comments: 1) probably should have used a 2846 so you didnt have to clip the feet. 2) what happened to the original bezel insert? (with the fat font) - they tend to look better though maybe you are after the serviced look.

Excellent read! Totally agree with those words. Thanks for sharing!

Just a few facts: - The dial markers and inner bezel are aligned as per what my friend swdivad said. - Even if they are not, they can be adjusted for the perfect alignment. - This is a rep, and sometimes, infinitesimal imperfects do exist... learn to cope with it, and improve them on your own, and you would be much happier. - You have to learn to assess your own watch via QC pics, and not rely on the forum for such purposes, OR preferably, learn to integrate yourself into the community in a meaningful manner. I say this because I have seen a lot of guys with 1 or 2 or 10 posts who come, post their QC pics, ask for opinions, and then disappear without a word of thanks to guys who have helped. They take from the forum but never give back and I consider that bad form. I hope you do not turn out to be one of those guys. OK all said, you've gotten a nice and well-aligned watch. Accept it and be happy. Happy 2016!

pics gone