jmb

I have spent the day trying to create a credible looking Snowflake dial. I searched the web and found a fairly large and fairly straight shot so I pulled it into Autocad and started tracing and interpolating... I am, however, having some issues printing it, as the small print gets muddied and if I didn't know what it was supposed to say I probably couldn't get past "Tudor" and "SUBMARINER". The nest thing, though, is it finally caused me to get up off my a$$ and figure out how to print white with my Alps printer, but even set to 1200 DPI little stuff is fuzzy. I am going to re-draw this with the little stuff as one single line instead of traced and filled... Here's the first attempt and I think it will be the layout I will stick with.

It seems all of the Tudors have case backs like this - at least on all of my 31mm, 34mm, and Jumbo cases... I thought about making a case back once and it was the "Teeth" that put up the stop sign... I made one for an Ubi project once but I put shallow holes in the back for a "pin spanner"...

toomuch - Unfortunately I don't see any way to "fix" that issue. I have one Tudor Date-Day case (largest Tudor case I have) left and I'll try that back tomorrow but I doubt it will be large enough...

T, there seems to be a bit of a compatibility issue as it will not load into Autocad 2005 - says "invalid drawing", or something...

Here's my old trevor DRSD with a WO T19 on it... I bought a Clark as well but the compression ring just "fell" on. The compression actually fit snug over the WO crystal so it must have a larger OD. Sorry 'bout that...

I am going to try to work up a decal but it will take me some time...

Maybe a Snowflake might bring some relief to this string of 100 degree days we've been having...

I think next week I will mill the actual back for this case flat and engrave it. I miced the center of the back and it's about .117" thick so I should be able to mill it flat and have plenty of "meat" left.

Ubi, thanks but I think I may have a couple Clark "pearl-dots". I'll let you know if I can't find 'em...

How 'bout a change-up!

Highoey - I've got a few pieces of artwork done and have had some success with them on flat case backs. I've made CAD files for a PanAm logo, Prince Oysterdate/Sub, and later Tudor engraving. Nanuq - I can take one of the ugly fat rep crowns and machine off about half of it and make it look like a 702... I have bought a printer that is supposed to be able to print opaque white but I have not been able to find the time to become an expert graphics artist. I do my engraving artwork in Autocad so maybe I can do a dial that way. I had wondered about making a "proper" COMEX decal that could be applied to a regular non-COMEX dial. TeeJay - The lume is also fairly "flat" but on close inspection, and at the right angle, you can tell it's a bit "lumpy". This was my first lume job other than little DJ style dots...

I have drooled over the Snowflakes y'all have posted and vowed to build one. A while back TeeJay kindly, and graciously, laid his last Snowflake dial decal set on me. I set it aside until I was prepared and in the correct frame of mind to make the dial. I had ordered a rep "vintage style" case set from one of my parts suppliers a while back and was somewhat disappointed due to it's non-gen like construction but all-in-all it looked pretty good and to my delight I found I could still swap crystals around albeit with a bit more work than just pressing down a compression ring. Sly was nice enough to part with some leftover "axe hands" from his Tudor project and I always have a movement or two laying around so I finally had most of the ingredients to make it happen except motivation. After "conversing" with Ubi over the past few days he provided me a little spark of motivation so I got to work. Ubi is really good at motivating and inspiring and for this I thank him. The first step in the dial process was creating a dial "blank" the proper diameter so I cut a 28mm circle out of some .016" brass sheet and drilled a center hole. After de-burring and sanding the disc I then sprayed it gloss white in preparation for the decals and set the dial out in the 100 degree Texas sun to dry. Once the paint was thoroughly dry I applied the the first of two decals. The first decal was all black except for clear areas where the "printing" and other features would be on the finished dial. The reason for this was to help ensure that there was a good opaque coverage of black. After this decal dried I then applied the top decal which was all black except for clear wherever white was supposed to show through. This was then followed by two coats of Testors "Dullcote" to seal the surface and provide a nice flat no-gloss finish. This two decal method was the brainchild of member slartibartfast (spelling?) and really worked out nicely. I now had a base dial and after the Dullcote dried completely I applied Glow, Inc. V10 Watch Lume to the markers using an oiler. I did this under the microscope periodically turning off the lights to ensure I had fairly even coverage and luminosity - the results were gratifying. When I charge this for about 20 seconds with an LED flashlight the emitted light is almost bright enough to read by and although it dims within several minutes It is bright enough to read the entire night. I now had no further excuses so I prepped my case, machined down an old rep crystal of some kind, glued it in place with clear silicone, and assembled the remainder of the watch. This particular case has a groove milled in the top of the rehaut for the crystal to locate into and it is about .030" deep so the crystal (5513 size) fits fairly snugly into the groove after machining the inside edge to fit the groove. All that is left is to "flatten" the case back and apply the proper engraving and probably change the pearl. Here is the semi-finished product, hope you enjoy the pics as much as I did building it! Here is my first attempt at engraving a "curved" back. You can see that some of the characters are distorted on the inside edge due to the depth about 3 times that of tghe outer edge. This sort of reinforces my thinking that any engraving should be done on flat surfaces. I have seen pics of a lot of alleged gens that had flat case backs so I think I will mill them flat before engraving.

wOlf - They would be great for doing watch/case work and other small projects. I think the lathe is the "updated" version of mine and the color makes me think it might be a re-labeled Jet lathe so the QC is probably a notch above your typical Harbor Freight variety. The mill looks a lot like this HF model: http://www.harborfreight.com/two-speed-variable-bench-mill-drill-machine-44991.html

This is a vintage MBW and the case/case back markings are for a 5513. I'll have to look up some gen pics and see if anything can easily be done. Remember, I'm sort of a lazy $hit!

This piece is using the modified ETA 2836 movement with the adjustable GMT hand. Chi - Is this bezel really that bad? If the "scumbag's" bezel is for gen type construction then it's probably a no-go as this one attaches by way of the 8-sided paperclip spring...

I'm really starting to like this one...

This looks like it would be great fun, and would be a nice MC ride, but unfortunately I work weekends... +1 on woof's request for lotsa pix!!

Very, very, very nice!! :thumbsupsmileyanim: Pleaaaaaaaze promise to not throw it out in the driveway and run over it!!!!!!

Frugal little beggars... Was it an "economy" model or a AAA-Swiss grade rep?

I have the little HF 7x10 CNC conversion mounted on a one drawer service cart which provides a place to put the electronics, computer, etc. It's not massive enough, or fast jogging enough, to cause any instability. I can roll it around wherever I need to to get it out of the way when not in use. One could do something similar with the little mill and even share electronics and controller...

Rev 1 with crappy mangled insert...

I think I have the same problem with some of my vintage models. I really like the way they look but no "glow in the dark" kinda ruins it for me! I will often wear a vintage all day then swap to something with good lume before hitting the rack...

Hopefully LHOOQ will chime in as I consider him "all supreme" as far as DW knowledge goes.

The only data point I can offer is that the cases are available with and without engraving between the lugs. I have a non-engraved version...