Neuuubeh

Bluing screws was originally done to offer some corrosion resistance actually. Has nothing to so with strength, as getting steel hot enough to get deep blue means its softer.

I guess for the last 100-110 years its just for decoration though

Regards

Nick

Ps. By softer I mean in comparison to directly after quenching in water or oil. The blue color itself is a thin oxide layer.

The more important question is, what field are you positioning yourself for? Suits might look like the most important thing on a person working/wanting to work as a lawyer, investment banker or similar (to be honest, what else do they have to show lol). Would not look all that well on a more technical field tho, and might earn you very weird looks and even (bad) critique.

Clothing is just another accessoire in our constant struggle with society - you still have to know what you can "get away" with before everyone starts making the wrong assumptions about you.

Sounds weird coming for a 25year old student right? Curiously, I have already been told by a colleague at work that I look "too well situated for a student". Interpret this as you wish, ever since then Ive been more careful choosing clothes, especially shoes... Having a nice looking polished pair of shoes clacking at your every step seems to be over the top :S.

On a side notice, I realized how hard it is to find decent rubber-sole shoes tho.. Is it worth it to have a shoemaker glue some of those thin rubber soles?

? I subscribe via paypal

Yeah, but paypal says I have to add a credit card to my account for some reason . Paypal is getting worse and worse imo..

Yeah I cant get this watch out of my head, it is really nice.. been looking at it for like half an year now :S.

Why cant I upgrade my membership without a credit card ffs . Wouldve posted in Want-to-Buy section... Anyone in EU wants to get rid of theirs?

Oh and re: gaming machines. Video cards dont matter a hoot. Unless you do video editing or motion graphics. Even then they dont matter much.

If shes using illustrator, indesign and photoshop, then money is better spent on ram.

Photoshop has had built-in redraw acceleration via the GPU since CS4. It makes a BIG difference in my opinion. It will make an even bigger difference if she decides to mess with any heavier graphics software, be it compositing or 3d graphics.

Good thing is, after the huge race the last years, nvidia and ati both pushed the bar so high, amazing cards cost close to nothing.

I'd go with Windows, but thats me I guess. Have lots of people around me work with Macs, I simply cannot get over them, in my opinion a person has to use a PC if they really need to work.. Mac is nice, shiny and all that stuff, but is limited, more expensive AND suboptimal hardware-wise . Anyone who wants to discuss this last aspect further, please explain how a "PRO" macbook happens to overheat after any serious work is done on it (after rendering ~30mins, the macbook was pretty high stats..). Last time we had to put it on 2 damn bricks so that enough air can circulate around it. Still got too hot. Thank god that wasnt mine

PS. I wish her plenty of fun with the Macbook .

You're an inspiration man! And no I'm not doing the Howard 10s

I've got something to show you in case you couldn't see the above link.

I would have put these in Fiddies if it weren't for my six and a half inch wrists.

Hehe I'm feeling flattered . Seriously tho, nice projects, you dont see many doing such conversions (which was always a mystery to me, but w/e). Its really nice wearing a watch like that isnt it. Both this Howard and the Illinois you have in your other thread were some of the more expensive and advanced ones from their period. Defo much better than another unitas

OK, so I'm carving my name on them 10sized Keystone howards . Always liked them, but kinda broke the first one I got, messed up the hairspring and couldnt straighten it.. Been afraid of them ever since .

I kinda like the fiddy cases, one gets used to them. 7" tho, so it doesnt look that bad (I hope). Am planing on putting a Burlington into one more

Hehe cool stuff . I first saw this over at the homage forum. Ill post the same anyhow

Movement is a Grade 527. Only 12,000 made. Illinois got bought by Hamilton after that and this was used as a basis for one of their movements, together with the Illini (grade 400 if I'm not wrong). Interesting stuff.

Guess I made the big brother of this one around an year ago

PS did you look your serial number? I guess it should be from around 1923. Mine seems to be a later production (later serial duh). What I never quite figured out is the different jewels on the 2, 3th and 4th wheels - yours are pressed in, mine are screwed down. Till now I assumed mine was an early model and they hadnt perfected the press-jewels process, so went with the more antiquated screw-down settings.. Now, I have no idea, as yours should be older than mine and has the more "advanced" jeweling

Oh this is way too creepy, I just logged on after like half an year ago and now I see this. I'm doing almost the same thing currently, actually just sprayed the dial! Same movement as well (well, mine has the white gold wheels, but doesnt change much ).

Nice watch, have fun with it! I'm not much of a fan of the dial tho its defo closer to the real thing than mine.

Got more projects planned? Hopefully NOT using one of the Keystone Howards in size 10 (hint hint )?

You guys are getting all weird and creepy..

I'm 18" Neck, 8 Inch wrist but 34 waist.

Same thing here . Was looking at tailored shirts but never decided on a tailor .

Best off the shelf I've had yet was a D&G, really nice fit, amazing fabric.. Rest is of the Hugo line of Boss, they are fairly slim as well...

Gotta throw a peak in that style forum and the links posted in here.. Then again, was thinking of trying to get into shape again, probably put some more kilos in the right places

My point was there is no shock protection. I know there are plenty of illinois movements around, most using interchangeable parts. However I'm not quite certain I can change a cap jewel on my own, and I'm fairly certain shipping to and from a watchmaker + his fee would cost more than what the movement cost me in the first place .

Do you have some tips on changing a cap jewel on a non-shock protected balance assembly? Is it just a matter of unscrewing the jewel setting and swapping out the broken one, or do I have to measure the endshake of the staff and so on? I have a 12s Illinois movement I could use to get a replacement and although the setting looks very different, the jewel might be the same.

None, it was made 1923 . I have a very similar movement (the broken one is more "high-end" tho, 19 jewels, adjusted to 5 positions and so on; the one in my avatar), I will probably drop that one instead, and look up how much it would cost me to have a cap jewel replaced by some watchmaker. I'm thinking with shipping to and from and his fee, it will probably cost more than I paid for the movement tho ;s

Well, unfortunately that is not the cause of this weirdness..

Upon inspecting the balance assembly today I noticed there is quite a bit of a play vertically - as far as I know balances with cap jewels on both side have 0 play, as there is no endshake. So, i quickly took away the dial and tadaaa.. The cause is a cracked cap jewel on the dial plate... Guess I didnt see that one when cleaning it, I assume it was cracked before I got it, as I've observed this behavior for quite some time and have always thought "WTF?". Wearing it probably increased the damage, the jewel really looks cracked and displaced at the moment..

I dont see what I can do about that, rejewelling is obviously way above my abilities and even tho a cap jewel should be a lot easier to replace, I am sure I cant .

Oh well, will think about it another day. Kinda depressing, was really enjoying the watch

Let's see what we've had in the past decades...

Liver tabs

Amino acid pills (bunch of [censored]. I don't even want to go there...)

Creatine (only supplement that actually gave some results but they were temporary and minimal)

Well I personally enjoyed (havent been in a gym for like 2 years, too friggin tired all the time to do anything..) all three -a lthough creatine did nothing to me for some reason, must be one of those 10%. One has to realize liver tabs and amino acid pills are simply food tho.. Noone expects the same results from 1kg of these compared with a few pills or a vial of Nandrolone, Dianabol, Testosterone or similar.

Depends on what ones goals are

I dont think applying Cotes-De-Geneve isnt that hard if you take some time to make a decent, stable rig for it... then experiment with abrasive size and so on

But damn this watch is really starting to grow on me

Thanks for the replies guys! I too thought it might be touching something, but it doesnt seem to be the case, there is quite some clearance around it.

It might be really some gummed up old oil, probably on the surface of the cap jewel, so that i couldnt clean it up properly..

Thanks a lot again, both of you! Was getting frustrated

Hey guys,

Ive been seeing some weird behavior from an Illinois movement.. it ticks fine, balance swinging very nicely when in dial-up position, however once I rotate it over to dial-down position, it seems to slow down dramatically - amplitude seems to drop down to like 45 degrees.. All other positions seem to be fine, crown up/down/left/right, amplitude seems to be fairly constant (dont have a means to measure it, purely visual observations..)

Do you guys have any idea what might be the cause? The jewels seem to be fine, no cracks or anything.. Balance staff also seems to be perfectly fine, no play on the wheel whatsoever. Hairspring looks "old" (some of the blue oxide has peeled off on a couple of spots), but still, timekeeping seems to be fairly well, as long as not in dial-down position. I will try to time it in all positions, but as I said, it seems to be ok..

Am I right to assume the issue is with the balance or possibly pallet fork jewels? Or could an issue with the drive train be the cause? Should I hope a cleaning would fix the issue?

I prefer the historic line myself .

For modern pieces I would prefer (in an ideal world) a nice independent piece, or something in the lines of A Lange, LeCoultre and similar. No, no patek either

Come ooon, you know we want to see everything . WHERE ARE THEM PICS?

A lot of dedication went into this I can see.

One tip, which I honestly don't know will work or not, next time try cutting the slot in the base metal before shaping the hands.

Ken

Was/still is a learning experience for sure . Currently more into making a set of straps for it tho .

I am thinking next time I wont be cutting a slot at all, when you think about it, I dont really need lume..

That thing is sick--wear it well

Thanks!

Looks great. Really nice work. This kind of thing is definitely on my project list.

Did you have to modify the size 12 much to get it to fit the case? Also, how did you secure the movement?

Impressive that you made the hands from scratch.

I didnt have to mod this particular movement. Only thing I made was a movement ring, I already had one that curiously fit just fine, I had to file out a section for the mainspring barrel and the stem, but other than that, it was really easy..

Hands werent that hard, up till the moment I had to make the slot on the minutes one :x.

Good Lord...you made your own hands , that's dedication. It looks stunning, congrats on a great project. Wear that thing with pride

Cheers

Thanks, I do enjoy it this far! Just made an ammo strap for it, but that rich brown-reddish color doesnt go with it - back to a totally black strap it is.

As for the hands, next up is a set of heat blued carbon steel, this time I'll allow myself more creative room

Cool stuff, but why is the spring on the micrometric regulator made out of brass :x

so hows bidding going?

I think T only sells sterile ones, he has pvd'ed as well.

Thank you for the kind words guys, really means a lot to me . Has been quite interesting and from time to time frustrating working on this .

looks interesting

angelus hands reworked for this?!

Thanks - no, no angelus hands, I made the hands myself from a brass piece. Unfortunately the minutes hand got bent a few times, the surface isnt that great ;x. Here a few pictures of making the hours hand:

It was going pretty well, until I started cutting the slot in the minutes hand (with a dremel :x). The metal was too thin and as I said, it got bent a bit ;x. Oh well, next time I will think of something else!