manodeoro

this is my le factory...if i do lugholes drilled i have to change the bracalet?


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I got from Tony @ RWI

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Ya I know it's not well known. But Noob, jf, bk... and the rest are not having 16610 any more. They focus on the newer modela 116610. That what i found so far...

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Its cons. That LE don't accept gen parts (as far as i know till now)

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Never heard of LE Factory.
Noob, BP, JF ... but never LE

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Definitely a "strange" early 16610 but whit some DIY mods it could be a nice daily beater.
Is your bracelet a 93250 ?
If YES you could drill the lugs and SELs so that they accept 2mm bars ... you can do that with a 1mm diamond file.

But the first thing I would do, if I where you, is to check if the bezel can be easily removed.
If YES you can easily rework the case and crownguards.

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It is "something else"
But, as I wrote in your thread, I'd really like to see better pics.

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Hi all i buy this le factory whit sa3135 movement but i don't like the crystal...i can't change whit a gen one because the case don't accept it...what i can do? Thanks
 
 
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Mine is also LE and i see a bluesh shade on the date cyclops... but i am living with it

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Strange watch ... some sort of mixed up :
- drilled lugs like an early 16610
- 93250 SELs bracelet late 16610
- stubby crown guards and maxi dial like a late 116610
Would you post some better pics of the dial and case ?

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Nicely done ... though "butchered" is almost an euphemism there.

I'll add just one comment :
"Next time you dive 2000ft down you'd better keep your watch INSIDE the u-boat"

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Sorry didn't mean to insult if you took it that way when i assumed you were Norwegian   Just assumed so as its quite hard to get into that sector of offshore. Its a great spot to be as im sure you know this from your son. The money is good but the schedule is the best you can get offshore. International Contracts are much higher paying, but you also dont get the same treatment as you would in the Norwegian sector. Ive been wanting to for years, but you would have to know Norwegian and mine isn't that great even after living there for a while.  I was there with National Oilwell Varco, Aker's rival lol 
I almost went down the instrumentation road a while ago before i went to university. its a great field and pays well, also with the way the industry is now on a low they continue to be in demand, so a good place to be. Im sure when things pick back up your younger son will have no problem hooking a big job with an oil and gas company. Once you are in the industry you can pretty much pick what you want to do and where you want to go when the markets are up. I remember back 5 or 6 years ago, you could literally quit and have a job somewhere else the next day, i miss those days lol and the money was just insane. I had mechanics on my rigs making over a quarter of a million USD. 
 
That dial looks great !! how did you do the comex on the dial ? screen print or transfer ? it looks really good ! looking forward to seeing the finished watch. and budget builds are nothing to look down on.. ive seen some builds that were pretty damn fine and cost very little to do. It sounds like you have a lot into this one and im sure it will be well appreciated by your son !  looking forward to seeing the photos ! 
 
Cheers !
C.

2 hours ago, altesporsche said:

 

Im a big fan of a vintage stuff as well ? I

am also in the process of building a COMEX, but the earlier 5514 version lol it's been a two year or more process because I'm anal about parts. 

I will look forward to following your thread on the Comex for your son, I always loved the 16800's 

you are damn close on the Subsea engineer ? And yes on the oil and gas. I worked as a tooling engineer for ROV's for a while then a subsea engineer for some years and now back into my field of fluid power working as a hydraulic engineer for the complete drilling package and subsea systems. I get to get my hands dirty a little more and it keeps the mind fresh lol 

You must be Norwegian ? Or your son won the lottery lol as Norway is the dreamland for offshore workers. Everyone wants to work there but it's nearly impossible. 

Id go there in a second even with a hefty pay cut lol but a lot of it is because I love the country and would use it as an excuse to move there. 

Cheers and thanks for reading ! 

I'll be looking out for that project. 

My 16800 build is a low budget (I'm not Norwegian and I dont work in oil & gas) so I'm trying not to be anal about details.

I just bought a BP 16610 Sub and mod it myself to a "year 1984" 16800 COMEX :

1 - mod the dial to a COMEX one (remove the indexes, DIY decal, put the indexes back ... it turned to be an easy mod)

2 - drill the lugs for 2mm bars (most difficult part of the job ... almost ruined the case)

3 - drill a 93150 bracelet and 380 endlinks to accept 2mm bars

4 - rework the lugs to a thinner profile and redo the chamfers (work in progress)

5 - remove the engravings on the rehaut (just kept the serial number)

5 - engrave the caseback (diver's number will be 193 ... my son's size in centimeters)

6 - build a vintage service box

I'll add a vintage leather strap from cheapnatostraps (I already made some myself but I'm short in time so I jsut bought one) with a rolex buckle (brushed with a polish coronet), put everything in the DIY service box and give it to my son next sunday ... if everything goes well.

Here's a pic of the dial and one of the "service box)

I'm definitely NOT Norwegian ... just French.

My son studied instrument engineering in France (INSA) then oil & gas engineering in GB during 6 months.

He needed an internship for his 5th academic year so he sent a resume to Aker Solutions in Oslo and got a 6 months job as an engineering assistant ... and they never let him leave.

He lives there since 9 years now and since 2 years I have a Norwegian grandson 

BTW ... considering what he's earning there I'm not certain you would get a huge pay cut if you get a job in Norway.

Norway and oil & gas jobs make everybody dream ...

That's why my youngster son did quite the same studies and works as an instrument & control engineer for a small consultancy company.

He's based in France so he earns much less money than his elder brother but he does a lot of consultancy missions abroad (only 26 and he's already worked in Norway, Singapore and Russia) so he really enjoys his work ... and he still hopes to get a permanent job in big oil & gas company.

19 hours ago, altesporsche said:

Exactly @mrsoundman ! That was my point and the whole reason I posted this. 

 

Model paint for the most part is acrylic so you need to seal it and still it's just paint and will wear much easier than the chemical based paints used in a simple sharpie marker lol 

 

we use the gold version of this marker for marking stainless tooling that we send several thousand feet below the seabed to drill rock.. so it's a tad more durable than acrylic paint ?

 

im not crapping on what this guy is doing, but yea I inquired about getting one done for a watch I'm building my brother (don't want to buy a gen insert to give away lol) and when he came back with it having to be removed (which is expected and quite easy for someone who's done it before) but for the majority of people who feel better sending it out to be removed, it becomes a pain in the ass. Then ship to Singapore, turnaround on his end is 2 weeks for his 99.99% platinum (which is impossible for this application) as there are only a few ways you can plate or coat non metal ceramics and plastics, one is electroless plating which would involve submersing in an etching bath that would ruin the polished surface as well, then you have sputtering which is the process of applying plating in a vacuum chamber and quite costly equipment (not worth it for this application)  then you have electroplating which cannot be completed unless the electroless plating is performed as a means for the materials to adhere to in the plating process, then finally you have spraying which is taking a powder form of a metal and basically brazing the material (no go with Plastics) and I can't see this with ceramic due to the high melting temp of the 6 platinum group metals being between 1770deg C  and 3050deg C, it's actually unlikely that even Rolex uses pure platinum as a plating on ceramic. I can see if the service included an insert and then you send your old one back etc.. but $290 is steep for "plating" as only the GMT will need the cleaning up of the edges (again visible under 10X not the eye unless really really looking for it) anyways 

that's just my 2 cents worth from 10 years of experience with precious and noble metals and a Phd in mechanical engineering.

 

In my eyes with my gens next next to the "sharpies mod" lol  it's much more worth it than giving someone almost $300 usd or more after having someone else remove it etc.. in which you are half way or more to the cost of a LN insert , just to make it look the same as spending an hour with a $8 marker that is nothing like the "old school" model paint mods.. 

Very great thread @altesporsche ... thank you VERY MUCH 

Though I dont have any ceramic bezel (I'm stucked on vintage and "early modern" watches so only metal inserts) I really appreciate the informations you provide here. 

Sharing experience is a great and very honorable behaviour.

So it seems you work in subsea engineering ... oil & gas or else ?

If YES you could be interested by the 16800 COMEX I'm building for my elder son (oil & gas instrument engineer in Norway) ... I'll create of thread about that build as soon it's finished, possibly next week.

15 hours ago, Dlf said:

Dial turned out nice, bit of aging in the right places and a relume.

Thanks for the pics and the feedback.

I feared the design could be too crispy for a vintage dial so I'm really glad the dial turned out that nice.

Look forward to see how it will look when a little aged. 

6 hours ago, Sogeha said:

The way I look at watches like this is you can either build a franken or buy at the top end from a very reputable seller. If you do the former, you have a convincing watch you can wear, the later is a watch I doubt many would be comfortable wearing and buying anywhere else in the market is likely to be paying well over the odds for a franken anyway.

 

Same goes for COMEX subs

+100 ... dont even need to build a real franken

Here's a 76K$ 16800 COMEX sub ... not sure anyone would feel comfortable wearing such a watch

and here is what you can get with 16610 dial and some skills ... just put it in a modded 16610 case with drilled lugs and 93150 bracelet ... enjoy

Now you HAVE to post pictures !!!

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I'm also really confused on the dial seat. It seams that it is exactly the same size as the dial. So the dial would just fall trough if I let it go. Shouldn't it be slightly smaller so the dial rests on it or is that what the movement would do?

 
 
 
Yeah hopefully you're design will come out as planned
thats my lathe in the first pic, waiting on a outside chuck so I can finish my the bezel and hopefully make it fully functional .

OMG ... I'm definitely following your thread. Hope you'll take pictures while welding the bars.
What is the tool (machine?) on your first pic ?

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15 hours ago, SSTEEL said:

 

I do plan on doing just that as well as documenting some jobs that I carry out for customers, the trouble is, finding the time to do this, as I am very very busy, I have a blog which I struggle to find time to post on, but I must make time to share more for sure.

12 minutes ago, manodeoro said:

At least could you just tell me :
1 - have you drilled lugs (non predrilled) with a Dremel ?.. YES/NO
2 - if "yes" then did it worked well ?.. YES/NO
Those YES and/or NO wont be much time consuming but very much helpfull for me cause I'm in the process of picking the "right" tools to mod my watches (now I do most of the job with files, sandpaper and my hands).

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Here is what I would buy, if it proves to be possible to drill lugs with  Dremel :

- Dremel 3000 : 70$ (pic) or a "Rep" one (50$)

- 43 mm adapter for Dremel : 15$ (pic)

- 43 mm precision drillpress : 70$ (pic)

- 43 mm stand : 15$ (pic)

- drill bits and accessories : 30/80 $

So for about 180/250 $ I could get tools good enough to do all the work on my own builds (I will not mod for other members ... just my own watches).

What do you think about that ???

DREMEL

[url=http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=589536i608935.jpg][/url]

43 mm ADAPTER

[url=http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=235120mbI9KX1oFqVCtbNZLxpAm7w.jpg][/url]

PRECISION DRILLPRESS

[url=http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=6982085027000FS15.jpg][/url]

43 mm STAND

[url=http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=9134111supportdemachines4800000L1561844914141.jpg][/url]

 
I do plan on doing just that as well as documenting some jobs that I carry out for customers, the trouble is, finding the time to do this, as I am very very busy, I have a blog which I struggle to find time to post on, but I must make time to share more for sure.

Dremel I started out with

Ah thanks dude... good to know it's not worth exploring the dremmel route. I know a guy who drills Seiko in UK and i have never asked if he could do others... I'm guessing he could probably do so? May drop him a line.

Lume shot.


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Update:

The build is currently done for now until more parts are sourced. Until this. I present to you my ultra rare beteeen references. Rolex 6575 GMT Master.









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This is a great post[mention=77791]Manodeoro[/mention] - thank you.

I wonder... has anybody opened out holes using a dremmel hacked into some kind of press?