drhydro

Hey! Good to hear from you! A very merry Solstice Season to you!

+1 for the Mac here. For one thing, I do not have to worry (for the most part) about malware, viruses, and the like- my Mac just ignores them. Sure, there are some dangers... but not nearly as much hassle. And alternatives to Billy Gates... OpenOffice, NeoOffice come to mind. Both are very good. One thing you might try- get a Mac, use it for your primary machine, then wipe your laptop and install Ubuntu. It's free, comes with neat stuff like Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, and it installs quickly and seamlessly on almost anything!

OK! Looks good so far.... let me test things here..... ok, hold on, checking......yep, here it comes.... WHO'S GOT THE BEST DRSD?? (Nanuq beat me to the "best sub" question.... I had to improvise..... )

OK, I'll weigh in here - I don't claim to know everything in da woild about watch oils, but I do know a little bit about oil in general. Silicones have some definite limitations when it comes to lubrication.... where they are so used, they tend to be used as carriers for other additives which do most of the lubricating.... and note- it's silicone. With an e. Taken from Dow Corning's tech notes area: (emphasis added) Because of their low methyl-to-methyl intermolecular interactions and high backbone flexibility, silicone materials have: A low glass transition temperature and remain liquid at room temperature, even at high molecular weight High boiling points, and their viscosity is less affected by temperature changes than organics However, the surface tension of silicone fluids is very low, and they tend to spread more than organics. Their high spreading and high compressibility limit the internal pressures (viscosity increases) that can build within silicone materials when they are used as lubricants. This limits their load-carrying capacity compared to organic lubricants with the same initial viscosity. Watch lubrication is tricky. Contact areas of pivots and jewels, esp. in the balance/escape area, are extremely small- the loads are extremely high, compared to almost any other lubricated mechanism. (PTFE, Moly, Graphite, you ask? Nanolubricants? Nope. They do not work in mechanisms this small- and especially not for essentially point contacts such as pivot cap jewels. What about the "graphite fix" for seconds-at-six 7750s, you ask? Subtle... but essentially, if the graphite does any good at all, it's because of its use on the flat surface of the gears.) True watch oils are, among other things, designed so they will resist spreading. You don't want the VERY tiny amount of oil you apply to the balance pivots to spread out over everything near- you lose the lubrication! Also, they are designed for these extreme point loads present in watch movements, and their viscosities are carefully controlled for the same reasons. Synthetics vs. "natural" or mineral oils? Simple- synthetics don't oxidize or otherwise degrade over time *nearly* as much as the other stuff. Watchmakers used to like the natural oils better because the watch would require cleaning more often- they resisted the adoption of good synthetics because it cut into the profit margin! You said: "Silicon lube does not gunk up, it is very thin (depends on the product!) and when it dries (the carrier evaporates- the stuff doesn't "dry" as such.) , leaves a fine layer of silicon which is a great lubricant (see above) and is about a million times better than graphite (not true- totally different). It displaces water, prevents corrosion (only insofar as it serves as a barrier to oxygen, and silicone is not a very good barrier/corrosion preventer.)etc" The stuff Lowe's sells- that liquid wrench product- I would NOT use that on a watch! No way, nohow. Heck, they won't give you any information about what's in the can- I know, I've tried to find out info beyond what's in the MSDS sheet on a lotta that stuff with no result, because they don't control what's in it well enough to tell ya! Well, I could write a bunch more... but we gotta go out of town tomorrow morning and I need a bit of sleep. And for those wondering where this comes from, I'm an engineer. Spent 30+ years in the hydraulics field- Sauer-Danfoss Company- working with hydraulic oils, cleanliness, lubrication, bearings, instrumentation. As I said, I am *no* expert on watch oils, but I know what I like.... cain't go wrong with Moebius.

Yay indeed! Stan's one of the best, certainly number one in customer service.... and he's the fastest gun in the west, ain't NObuddy can deliver a watchie faster...

Graphite does that, so does molybdenum disulfide, so does teflon, and a whole host of other materials which are added to oils or other carriers... so what's the material, and what makes it different from, say, moly or graphite? And, since different oils must be used in different places in a watch, what part of the movement would you target for a test?

Lani, you're absolutely right. I'm PROUD of my reps, and that includes the very fact that they ARE replicas! Not only that, but this hobby has led to my learning an incredible amount about a subject that I really appreciate, as a professional engineer. Surprisingly, (or maybe not so surprisingly!) these skills have also carried over into another area that I love- aviation history and antique aircraft restoration. I've found that I have greater confidence in my ability to work on restorations in that field- for example, I've restored two WW2 Norden bombsights to working condition, one of which is in the nose of a B-17 bomber at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Damned addicting, this!

dammit. more watches to buy- when will it ever end- There is a throbbing need for a new smiley, something like money floating away from a sobbing rep addict... But a friend suggested a halloween costume that I am already planning for. A trenchcoat lined with watches, Only thing is, I probably couldn't stand up or walk.

Overlord? Heck, that's overload!

And I agreeeeee.... Prsist, if I'd'a found that I woulda posted it too. The person who wrote it really doesn't know much about manufacturing.... a production RATE of one every 17 minutes has nothing at all to do with LEAD TIME. I'm a manufacturing engineer, I deal with this kinda stuff daily. In my industry, we might produce hydraulic pumps on a line at a rate of one every five minutes... but the part with the longest lead time was started into production almost a year ago to wind up on that line today! That being said, I'm quite sure that Rolex is really a non-profit organization.

Looky here- this might help. http://www.bitboost.com/ref/international-...ss-formats.html

Just a couple of comments- One-dip is great stuff. I've found that I get better results if, after the one-dip soak (and I've lately been using a small beaker of one-dip in the ultrasonic), I carefully blow the gear dry with an aerosol duster can. That leaves it *perfectly* dry, ready for the 9010 oil... and they really mean just a little bit! The other comment has to do with brake cleaner. Freddy's right that tetrachloroethylene's chemically similar to trichloroethylene, but two caveats: it is less volatile, therefore dries much more slowly- AND "brake cleaner" isn't always tetrachlor, varies a GREAT deal in composition and purity- you can try various brands of the stuff, but spray it onto a clean glass pane and see how it evaporates and whether it leaves a residue before you use it on your watchies!

Ronin's right- heat causes expansion. Both the inside and outside diameter of something like a bezel ring will increase when heated. (And, conversely, decrease when cooled.) Diameter after heating = diameter before heating X (1 + (coefficient of expansion) X (change in temperature) X (diameter before heating)). Coefficient of expansion for stainless steel is about .000011 inch per inch per deg Celsius. If ya had a bezel with an ID of 38 mm, heating it 100 deg C would increase its diameter to about 38.04 mm. Not much, but maybe enough to make the difference. I wouldn't heat it much more than that- and you have to be quick! And wear gloves. Edit: Aluminum's coefficient is about twice that. And the exact numbers vary, depending on the alloy. So YMMV.

I can't help it- I have to brag. This on the left is a fairly recent acquisition, sort of my "graduation" present to myself... I just retired at the beginning of February, after 30 years of engineering slave labor.... I've had the Russian chronometer for several years, but the Hamilton is several orders of magnitude more wonderful. Better betcha I'm a-keepin' da doors locked and the attack cat *really* hungry....

There are several versions, the 214, 218, etc- earlier ones need careful "setting-up" to work with today's batteries. They are good movements. I prefer the later ESA 9160-9162 tuning fork movements, however- in Omega, Tissot, Longines, and others- look for Omega F300 for example. I have a bunch of Omegas, Accutrons, and like them all.

Speaking of Hunter......

Me too! I'd be interested in takin' a look under me microscope.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -Hunter S. Thompson

Really appreciate the links to the specs, Rick. I gotta look into this- need real titanium because of allergy issues, and these folks might be the ticket!

The coin came from here: designs computed homepage designs computed amero coin Creating a North American Union would be like herdin' cats or pushin' ropes. Ain't gonna happen, IMO.

Who has these available now? I'm ready!!!

And I'm registered over there as well; wasn't aware of the cloning, and it did puzzle me to see the by-tor and pugwash posts. That's clear now. Think I'll stick around over there, though, to see what happens. I don't have a problem with multiple forums, except for the difficulty in keeping things straight and trying to remember where the hell I saw a particular subject.... or, for that matter, in which forum I most lately laid a wisdom-wrapped egg. Intellectual property theft, though, is certainly another matter. We'll see whut hoppens.

I use PCs at work- it's the standard, unfortunately. It's why we have a very robust and well-staffed worldwide helpdesk thingie (it's needed.) My work mostly involves machine control, data acquisition, test and measurement and the like- LabView is one example. My life would be easier in many ways if I could use Macs at work, but it ain't gonna be.... actually, using PCs for these kinds of things is a sort of job security But- you haven't really *lived* until you've been involved in a runoff of a new automated industrial press (a one-of-a-kind bearing press, not a printing thing, designed and built by a German company which does production equipment for our European factories), and partway through the day, with the press banging away and production operators moving 500-pound parts in and out of it, you look over at the screen of the computer that's controlling it and see a box down in the corner that says Windows has an update available, and press OK to download and install it :bones: ....... we cleared people out of there and shut that damn thing down faster than you could damn Bill Gates. At home, it's a Mac. Multiple Macs. And one thing I can say with certainty is that if you're playing on the interweb with a Mac, you are much safer than with a PC. Never had any kinda virus here, not expecting any soon. And for my money, there ain't none better. After all, National Instruments' LabView was first written on a Mac. My vote: Mac. No crashes, no problems. Mine just sit there and work. The PC's I have at home? If I didn't need em to be able to be fully compatible with my work, you could have 'em.

I bought one of these- at least I think it was the same one- and thought it was pretty good. It does not fit without modification, though- have to carefully shave off a ridge on the bottom side, and installation does require glue.

Aw gee, Offshore, it wuzzn't nuthin, glad to help.... btw, though, the Hamilton model 21 marine chronometer you promised to send me hasn't arrived yet.... just kidding!