dbane883

I have a few hand held loupes that I use ranging from 7x to 15x. Cost of these have ranged from $10 up to $50. What bothers me most of all of them is the field of view. Because it's very difficult to get edge-to-edge sharpness, every loupe has distortion as you radiate out from the Centre. Some of my Bausch Lomb loupes are very good, but they are very small; roughly 1.5 cm at most.

Amateur photography is one of my other hobbies and I was staring at the macro filters on my desk the other day. So I decided to gang them up to see what would happen. To my surprise, it works great. I think the combination of 10x, 4x, 2x, and 1x works out to an equivalent of 15-20x mag factor (assume it's closer to 17x), and because these filters are 49mm wide, it's very easy to hold, has a wide field of view, and optically very good.

Here's a few pics:

I think my filters are of reasonable quality and total cost was about $100 but there are plenty of cheaper alternatives in the marketplace. For me, I don't have a use for these size filters anymore and they have now found a new purpose.

There is a loupe I considered last year called the "Loupe System", which is advertised to be bigger and better. But at $500-800 (!), WTF!

http://www.loupesystem.com/

But you can buy a similar kit like the one I put together here for roughly $10-20 from eBay. Not sure I'll ever buy a traditional loupe again.

@themannier, I hold a 10x triplet loupe firmly against the lens and zoom in about 30-40% for my macro shots. I have an olloclip as well but I'm usually too lazy to take off the case to attach it. The loupe method works just fine.

Going out for brunch. Then watching the US Open followed by the GSW/Cavs game.

This popcorn is delicious.

It's a service T19 profile. But tough to say it's gen. Seems about right if I had to guess from those 2 pics.

At the base of the crystal, you may be able to see the concentric rings under the right lighting. After market xtals tend to be more "solid".

Lol@imajedi.

To clarify, the camera is not 40MP but a mere 12 mp because I'm using my iPhone 6s+; unedited because I'm too lazy.

A few months ago I set out to build a PCG 5513 from '62-63 using a gen PCG mid case and cal 1530 movement:

http://rwg.cc/topic/183778-pcg-5513-project-v1#comment-1465646

I have been using an old set of 5513/12 hands until I could find the period-correct hands; hands that had the flat hour hand rather than the curved ones Rolex started using since the mid '60's.

To be frank, I've looked high and low and simply could not find them anywhere. Further, even if I did find them, I suspect they would have been extremely expensive.

Well, I looked in my parts bin the other week and realized I had a spare set of gen hands I acquired some time ago. Luck would have it that the hands were flat!!!!! WTF. I guess i did something good in another life. This saved me a lot of time and money! Swapped them in this afternoon.

Finally she is complete.

Specs:

Gen PCG 5513 midcase from 1963 ish

Gen cal 1530 movement

Gen 700 Twinlock crown/tube

Gen flat hands

Gen bezel assembly

Gen kissing 50 "long 5" insert

Gen T19 superdome

3,6,9 "silver gilt" dial by he-who-cannot-be-mentioned

Gen 7206 bracelet

My vote goes to@droptopman's gen 5513. But here's one of mine:

And another:

I've spent more money than is reasonable on a couple of builds. But I don't plan to sell it. But other than the re-dial and the midcase/caseback, my big crown is all gen otherwise.

A similar condition all gen 6538 would cost $100-300k (?). For me, that difference is worth it to have a "Franken" at a fraction of the cost.

However, if one builds a more common 16610 and spends $3k for a gen dial/hands/cal 3135/xtal in a TC case, that doesn't make sense to me when you could buy used (gen) sub for $4.5k.

However, most hobbies don't make economic sense. It's not about building and then flipping for a profit.

You didn't specify a budget. To me, a gen vintage case opener for subs at that price is cheap.

Rolex only made 6 does that, collectively, can open up every case Rolex has made. I am 99% certain you need a 29.5 mm case opener. I'm not sure any aftermarket sells just that one die separately along with the torque wrench.

Good luck in your search.

this will work.  

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Rolex-Oyster-Case-Back-Opener-28-3mm-29-5mm-/322135744979?hash=item4b00c961d3:g:0YcAAOSwLnBXUbco

 

But complete aftermarket sets with assorted dies will be cheaper.

 

There is very little pressure placed on top of the lugs. But one should use a little piece of tape to be safe. All the angular torque is applied to the inside of the lugs. As the caseback is torqued, the raised areas in between the lugs prevents the mid case from spinning.

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Lol. Not as much as the first one, but more than the second (which only has 1 die).

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Always wanted a vintage case opener. The 1001 set I bought is near complete but it has dies to open all submariner/gmt cases, which is really all I need.

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All opened up and buffed out. Not happy with the lug holes. They need some sweet loving camfer and its just not there. I refuse to even photograph them. Lol

Rolex never chamfered lugholes. The "chamfers" you see on gen cases are a result of poor over polishing.

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Put the fatty long 5 back on the PCG 5513

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Big Crown