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OK, here's the flip-side. I engraved this side about .001" deeper than the other and I think it's about right...

I loaded up a beat up case and tried "for real" on this test - I think we have a winner! Probably could have went about .001" deeper but all-in-all I'm pretty happy with it.

I finally got all the pieces parts and additional electronics scrounged to build and add a 4th axis to my engraver. This is something I've wanted to do for quite a while but never had the time to spend on it. Once all of the parts got here I had to replace the 3 axis interface in my controller and add a driver for the 4th axis motor. After I had that debugged I slapped together a simple rotary axis, hooked everything together, and surprisingly it actually worked! After some tweaking I gave it a try this morning and here is the results of my first test on a test piece of stainless stock. I have some more experimenting to do but I think I'm almost there. Further down in the thread are pics of the engraving on a case...

Coming along nicely!

Really a cool looking clasp...

Nice start, D, I think I will now refer to you as the "King of Bling!!!"

You wanna do another one?

kylus' mailbox must be full...

kb - Yeah... Scary, ain't it! sgt - I'll send a PM to kylus This is what it looks like:

I know absolutely nothing about this brand but I got a supposed gen black Franck Muller Conquistador no-date dial in with some gen Tudor dials I bought several years back. Being such an obscure (to me anyway) brand I have no idea whether people enjoy Frankening these or not. Trying to decide what to do with the dial as dressy rectangular watches are really not my style...

Congratulations T - you did a great job for your first build, I don't think anybody can fault your workmanship.

Slick! It's nice to see these when complete - excellent build...

The new one has no "soul", just sort of sits there pickin' it's nose and droolin'...

RJ, OK. That makes sense, I was just curious about the gap as all...

Nicely done! Not trying to pick-nits but just curious with this question. It looks like the case-back is sitting a bit proud of the case, is this a byproduct of removing the "lip" or is the back just not screwed down all the way? I'm more worried about any compromise in the waterproofness... It seems that the more these cases are tweaked closer to gen shape the more minute details are discovered/uncovered by the eagle-eyes around here!

M, case engraving is in the works and I'd be happy to work up a 1675 case-back program...

The stamped engraving has a definite "V" shape to my eye. I am going to order some 40deg and 45deg cutters to try and replicate the effect. Another thing I've noticed is depth differences on some samples, like the stamping die struck heavier on one side, this could also be replicated by not having the piece being engrave a couple thousandths "slanted" with respect to the engraving plane... As far as producing a stamp, knock yourself out! Anybody that has this type of machinery, and heat treating expertise, who is interested in making a stamp can PM me for the CAD file...

Cool!

This is the example I used:

Why, yes, yes it is! But, that's the way it was on the gen I copied. You would be surprised how crooked some stuff is once you import it into a CAD program and start putting down guidelines, etc.

Well, I wasn't gonna name names...

I scaled the previous program up just a little and put in a fresh .1mm x 30 deg cutter and tried another. The was engraved about .003" deep and from the close-ups I think this might work. Although the actual size of the engraving on this example is a little larger than that on a gen case-back I think it looks more "at home"...

Hmmm, I wonder if it is even a REAL imitation replica case!!?? Now, the sterile HR case-base looks to be a good candidate for inner engraving. Too bad they used laser engraving on their "signed" version...

I have no idea as to why some folks object to this alternate spelling but it seems to really inflame their spleen and spikes their blood-pressure! A quick question for everybody - Since the inside of the generic/rep case-backs do not have the angled "step" on the inside do the masses think it would be best to scale the engraving to the case-back size or keep it scaled proportionally to the gen size like this example?

Although it's never really mattered to me case-back inside engraving seems to get some folks worked up. Usually on my watches my motto is, "If ya can't see it who gives a $hit!" But, to accommodate these folks I ordered a batch of cases (and a few spare backs) with "sterile" case-backs. I searched around the web and found some good pics of the factory engraving and worked up a program. These case-backs don't have the "step" on the inside so they still don't look quite right but at least Switzerland is spelled correctly! I need to get some engraving bits that are a bit "finer" but this is only apparent in the close-up...