jmb

Maybe next time, if I remember, I'll shoot a video of the case on the lathe.

I finally got in some 2824 16200 cases, it was a really long wait as they have been unavailable since about Feb of this year! Dimensionally these appear to be the same although the machining tolerances were not as tight as older batches. Progress, right? I snapped some pics of the steps these go through to make 1016 cases although I forgot to take a pic of the rough machined case before drilling any holes. I start out with a plain "vintage" style 16200 case They then spend some time on a little CNC lathe I built and get the tops of the lugs machined to give them a thinner profile. You notice the burr left side of the lug top. All of these burrs have to be removed by hand with a file and sanding. After they come off the lathe they head to the mill where the lug get "ventilated. I set up on the right, drill hole, rotate case 180 degrees and drill another hole. When they are all done I set up on the left and repeat the process for the remainder of the holes. When this is finished I finish de-burring the case, brush the lug tops, and it's ready for either a polished or aged finish. Here is a comparison between the original and re-shaped cases. I hope this sheds a little light on the process.

Re-machining is underway and going fairly smoothly. These cases seem to be identical to the older cases except that tolerances on these cases doesn't seem to be as good as in the past but nothing that can't be fixed with a little filing. Dial opening will accept the larger 29mm range dials. If anybody is interested just PM me. The cases can be "customized" with gen-spec 6020 case tube and/or engraving between the lugs with your choice of year or serial number. The "nonsense" lug engraving from the factory is lightly laser-etched so you can remove it without too much difficulty.

Got my batch of cases in today and started re-machining them. I hope to have a few case-sets finished by this weekend!

I'll post here when I get them and we can maybe start bringing more Explorers to life!

Tracking shows they are working their way through the system, hope all goes smoothly...

I don't know if I am going to do any "V1" cases since they are not really correct for anything except a fantasy model. I normally re-machine all of them to 1016 lug profile.

Hopefully will be able to start re-machining these into 1016 cases in a couple of weeks. They have been shipped via EMS so they should be here soon! I really had decided that these were gone for good, and I don't even have a 1016 right now! I thought that somewhat ironic...

While I was waiting for my invoice for the 2836 cases I got an e-mail from my case supplier and he said he had 2824 cases for me!!! I have ordered a bunch of them...

I have ordered 3 2836 36mm 16200 cases. I'm thinking I will machine a close tolerance plug and silver-solder it into the case then re-drill the hole in a higher position for 2824 movement. If I make the plug small enough I'm betting that the crown will hide any evidence of the modification.

I think I'm going to order a couple 2836 cases, plug the tube hole, re-drill in the 2824 position and see what happens...

Yes, PM me...

Check your e-mail...

Is your e-mail address still the same?

I have a PDF of "Rolex Daytona a Legend is Born" is this what you are looking for?

Yeah but you're sorta, well, different...

I hear ya, some people nit-pick stuff to the point where the hobby's not fun anymore. And if I've learned anything over the past years is that Rolex is not a paragon of consistency! To me if it "resembles" the model I'm interested in (without glaring errors) and keep good time I'll wear it!

Too many people got 20x loupes for Christmas and started reading too much...

You can also cut little thin "shims" from paper or thin plastic and insert them between ring and case to get a good snug fit.

It's looking like if I want to make any more of these I'll have to use a 2836 case. The profile would be the same but the crown position would be visibly too low, not sure I want to do that...

Unfortunately I have not been able to get any of the 2824 16200 cases I modify into 1016 cases for almost 6 months. I might have to think about using 2836 cases - after machining they would still have the same lug profile but the crown position will be lower. I'm not real wild about that idea but the impression I am getting from my supplier is that the factories have bigger fish to fry than making 2824 36mm vintage style DJ cases! He said he had a standing order for a batch but they wouldn't build any unless they ran out of other stuff to do.

If you want a good budget Tudor bracelet riyi002 is very reliable and offers decent quality at a low price. Of course, he may get them from the same maker as raffles does.

Ya know, I had a feeling that in some convoluted way this was all going to wind up being my fault!

The Felsa 4000 can be used can be used in an Explorer if the dial is glued directly to the movement. If using the date movement, i.e. 4004, then the date guts need to be removed.

From the parts he's combining it sounds like a low-beat 2824 movement.