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sssurfer

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Posts posted by sssurfer

  1. Archibald---

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I know Archibald at least a little and if he says it happened, it happened. Period.

    I too had only good transactions with Andrew and he has always been more than helpful and responsive. But noone is perfect and errors may occur. I am confident that Andrew will rectify the issue now that it has been brought to his attention again.

  2. When Dealer Sends You The Wrong Watch...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi ryaku, sorry to hear about your trouble. Really, troubles always come in unexpected ways: as you know, my concerns were about the movement -- no thought about the dial.

    You may look for costs of shipping to China in the Poste Italiane website:

    http://www.poste.it/online/pacchi_estero/privati/index.php

    http://www.poste.it/postali/pacchi_estero/...nazionale.shtml

    It seems as cost can go from as low as about 30 EUR (via EMS to 1st group countries) up to as high as 63 EUR (pacco celere internazionale, 0.5 Kg weight, to Guangzhou).

    I was unable to find which EMS country groups is China.

    My best wishes.

  7. Two Electronic Tools To Distinguish Sapphire From Glass

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I recently purchased on ebay a tool set composed with two tools: the Diamond Selector II and the Moissanite/Diamond Tester.

    (WARNING: there are replicas of those tools around :lol: )

    They are primarily intended to distinguish diamond from synthetic diamond (moissanite) and other imitators, but the seller claimed they are able to tell sapphire from glass too, and they were priced about 1/3 - 1/4 of other similar professional tools, so I decided to give them a try.

    Well, they work. They told all my 4 sapphire crystals and 8 glass crystals.

    As I had to do some web searches and some trying to figure out how and why they work, here I am sharing my small experience with all members.

    First of all: to detect diamond from imitators they are to be used together, but to detect sapphire from glass each of them proved reliable on its own, so one can use them to confirm each other.

    Diamond Selector II:

    This tool works by measuring the thermal conductivity of material (that of sapphire is higher than that of glass).

    1 - Turn the instrument on by rotating the Off/On/Volume wheel.

    2 - Wait for the "lamp on ready ok" led lightens.

    3 - Rotate the Off/On/Volume wheel until the color scale shows all 4 green sectors lightened (this is not critical, less sectors or more sectors are also ok, but this way makes it easier reading the scale later).

    4 - Touch the crystal with the tool's tip placed vertically.

    Glass does not make any further sector lighten on the scale, or at most 1.

    Sapphire makes 3 or 4 further sectors lighten on the scale.

    Moissanite/Diamond Tester:

    This tool works by measuring the electrical conductivity of material (that of sapphire is lower than that of glass).

    The instrument emits a low current, that usually has to go through the examinator's body to re-enter into the tool. So, in theory, the examinator has to touch the object in test by his left hand in order to close the circuit. But in practice this is necessary only for small objects like gems; for bigger objects like watch crystals the object's mass is enough to dissipate the current even if the circuit is not closed. Anyway, if one wants to be sure not to get sapphire as a result when it is glass instead, he'd better follow the following instructions also in points 2 and 3.

    1 - Turn the instrument on by rotating the Off/On wheel (it does not matter how much you rotate it, once it is On it just affects the sound volume).

    2 - Hold the tool correctly, with your right forefinger on the button on the backside, so to also touch the metal plate around the button.

    3 - Hold the crystal with your left hand, or - if it is already on a watch - simply touch it. If you don't want to leave fingerprints on it, touch it with a metal object you hold in your hand, like a pair of metal pliers.

    4 - Touch the crystal with the tool's tip placed vertically and push the button.

    Glass makes the red leds lighten (possibly after a brief flash of the green leds) and sound a beep.

    Sapphire makes the green leds lighten (possibly after a brief flash of the red leds).

    In any case, after 2 seconds the measurement stops.

    -------

    For the curious, here are some physical values:

    Thermal conductivity (W/m/K):

    Diamond: 630-1000

    Sapphire: 32-35

    Glass: 0.8-0.93

    Electrical resistivity (Ohm/m):

    Diamond: 10^16 - 10^18

    Sapphire: 10^16

    Glass: 10^10 - 10^14

  19. ITALY WINS WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!

    in The looney bin

    Posted

    Zidane must have lost his mind. I suppose that such a great champion should be forgiven for his one-time madness.

    I also feel that soccer players should get a little training in martial arts at least (just a little elbow parry by Materazzi, and good old Ziddy would have spent his next days in a hospital room... :D)

    Thanks to the Frenchs for this great and honourable match.

    And to the Germans for their flawless organization (as well as the previous match, naturally).

    And to all other teams for having made this world event memorable.

    I know nothing about soccer, but on what I saw at least four teams deserved to win and they would have played head-to-head with the Blue Team -- like Germans and Frenchs did, too.

    But the ball is round and rules are that only one goes to the gold. It seems that, after 24 years, it had to be Italy's time again.

    Thanks all for this great time.

  20. How to relume Rolex markers correctly?

    in Watch Repair & Upgrade

    Posted

    I know very little about Polexes, but I suppose that reluming is not very different in different brands once the relumer knows about the needed nuances in different models and vintages. Then it all comes to hand precision and skill. And, as for that, I can add my witness that Finepics is second to noone (with all my respects to The Zigmeister), on the gorgeous job he made on my best watch.

  24. Pornographic avatars et al.

    in The looney bin

    Posted

    You see, you missed that thread before posts were edited and deleted. There was a post going on about his girl's [censored] and another claiming to be able to see her nipple and describing it. I wasn't the one one-handed browsing that thread.

    You don't know me, because if you did, you would know that my time spent working in the porn industry was an excellent and entertaining period of my life and didn't change my views on how I see porn. I love pretty ladies, especially when they're naked or scantily clad. I worked with a porn photographer and met quite a few porn stars and models and was impressed by how un-abused they seemed. I don't have any pretensions that porn was art, as it is produced purely for enjoyment, usually involving wanking.

    Masturbating web surfers paid my rent, and as such I do not judge them or fear them. I was grateful there were enough of them to subsidise my spending time in the company of porn stars.

    Is it clear enough yet? I have nothing against nudity, sex, porn, masturbation, etc. However, this is a [censored]ing watch forum and when I want porn, I'll look elsewhere.

    Honestly, when I said you don't know me, I wasn't kidding.

    Now I see why you think so many men are masturbators. Surely I was unaware about the grounds of your way of thinking, but it does not change that way.

    I too think that when one wants to masturbate then he goes to porn sites, not here. Exactly for that reason, differently from you, I think that noone browsed repaustria's thread, or is looking at the avatars, with one hand engaged the way you suggested. You seem to mistake the people here with your previous customers.

    But your fight not to let porno 'contaminate' this environment gets more under a personal light now (I wonder what circumstances made you leave that occupation out), and as a personal thing I'll leave it to you with my respect.

    @craytonic:

    I may agree with you, but my point is that freedom should be SELF-constrained, not by rules or moderators or other members, as long as everybody already own the power to switch avatars off if they wants to.

    @Chronus and Mahler: thanks for your help, mates. This topic is becoming larger than expected.

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