FxrAndy Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 As a follow on from Gio's refurbishing of a brushed bracelet i decide to do one with less than cared for bracelet, one my wife has been wearing, now before we start i should tell you that my wife has the most authentic looking SOSF because it looks like it has been industrial diving, ie big dings in the bezel and scratches so deep in the bracelet it looks like she has been going at it with a hack saw, about once every 6 months i sort this watch out and make it respectable again. So here is the test piece, a 3 year old ICHS cream dial EX2 from Silix, not a bad watch but not top drawer material, i must admin it did not get worn for a while since the GMT hand used to lose and hour a day but once i gave it a clean and a bit of D5 on the GMT drive pinion to provide a bit of stiction it work just fine. The other bracelet you can see is a brand new Ingy one still sat on the plastic i just took it out of. We will see how it compares at the end. I have a watch stand that I have glued a bit of leather on to so that I can get a bit of a bend in the bracelet while i do the brushing, it helps me I don't know how you would find it but it is better then brushing the side of your finger away. We are going to be using a dremill brushing pad, now these cost about €5 for 2 you get a fine one and a course one, this is the course as i wore my other one out doing a case and bracelet for VikkyRob. I am also using a small polishing tool powered by 4 AA batterys, I have a bench flex drive i could use but i want to show how you don't need special or expensive tools. The trick with the tools we are using here is not to try to go with the grain but to do the opposite, with the motor running and the pads spinning in direction with the grain I will go slowly from left to right slowly moving down link by link, trying to avoid slipping off the edge and you will see why later. If you try to go with the grain it will not be straight your brush lines will look curved. So after brushing a few links let us look at the difference against the test piece A second photo as I got it in a different light as I am photo mong but you may see the difference better Be careful these can remove a lot of metal if you want I have managed to remove deep engraving from the side of a case with this in very little time Once this has been brushed I use a scotchbrite pad and this time I go with the grain gently smoothing out the lines from the power tools, these pads are a little gentle, I also have the proper brown ones that you pay (how much for!!!!!!) but I left them at work so this will have to do. So I will now brush the rest and then we will look at the sides Remember when I said don't slip off the sides well I did, As this bracelet has polished sides and I slipped off and scratched them, but they were going to be polished any way, so now we change to tooling to polishing mob and some blue compound I like, I find the dremill stuff too waxy. What we are doing here is replacing big scratches in on direction with smaller ones in a different direction I polish first @ 90 degrees to the scratches and then @ 45 then @ 125 then with the scratches until I can no longer see them just a few seconds at a time, then I start all over again with the next link. you will note that I am holding the bracelet with a tool for pressing out pins in links and a bit of leather, again it works for me. Once I am happy with the sides Not bad for 10 min work It is out with the cape cod to give it a polish, now I like cape cod, I like its smell! And you can see here the dirt it is lifting out of the grain.. After a buff with a cloth and an inspection it is off to get all the rest of the dirt and any cape cod residue out, so it is in to the oven on gas mark 4 for 30 min (not really) or 3-4 runs of the ultra sound cleaner. So now lets look in comparison with the test piece I would say that is a big difference and once you have used the brushing tool all over the strap it will take off any shape edges and make it all silky smooth So now back on the watch that got a bit of a rub down while I was waiting. Gio mentioned that you need day light to see how this is in real life so I wore this one today for work, Sorry about the pics but I never was any good at that, all i have done to them is crop them and auto process them an in a few cases made them lighter so that you can see what we should be looking at. I hope this is helpful to you all, I would not say that you will get RSC results first time but given a bit of practice with a polisher you will get good results, please also bear in mind I have been playing with polishing mops since I got my Harley in 93 so I have a bit of experience. I Hope Rob has a look at this as he has a case and bracelet that was mirror polished and he wanted brushed, so he may be able to get some better images of how it looks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadtorrent Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Well it ok, but thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NORing Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Great tour, awsome result!! I need do rebrush some of my bracelets as well. The Dremel kicks [censored] for many of these jobs, probably need to get some new fittings for my dremel. When you're talking oven, what kind of temperatures are we talking as I'm not running on gas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 You will have to ask Nanuq about the right temp for a roly rep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkay Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Well done! I will try this with some of my beaters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Oh a quick warning with the dremill brushing tool you may need to think about safety glasses, you can get quite a bit of debris flying off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gioarmani Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 (edited) Excellent work. How did you get Richard Simmons' head on a stick? Edited September 1, 2009 by gioarmani Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted September 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 An Uncanny resembalence there!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HauteHippie Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Boo ya! Very well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikellem Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Andy...Your work is suberb... MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheaton26 Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 great review ... thanks for taking the time to do this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Great tutorial. I hate it when you slip... causes a lot of extra work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsa Posted September 27, 2009 Report Share Posted September 27, 2009 What a great tutorial. This is my next job! Andy, you are a star Sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymo Posted September 28, 2009 Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 What is the european equivelent to Scotch Brite? Can anyone tell me? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymo Posted September 28, 2009 Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 Excellent work. How did you get Richard Simmons' head on a stick? I feel quite ill ohhh myyyy Ghooooddddd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cats Posted September 28, 2009 Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 Great tutorial Andy. If i can find the patience i might give it a try myself. Carpe Diem Cats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted September 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 What is the european equivelent to Scotch Brite? Can anyone tell me? Thanks Well i call it Scotch brite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted September 28, 2009 Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 Are those false eyelashes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dluddy Posted September 28, 2009 Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 great tutorial Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted September 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2009 Are those false eyelashes? I just looked again and they do look a bit suspect, but then again the whole man looks a bit suspect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymo Posted September 29, 2009 Report Share Posted September 29, 2009 Are those false eyelashes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P_Diddy Posted May 15, 2010 Report Share Posted May 15, 2010 (edited) Is there much difference to the finish achieved with a 'finishing pad' compared to a Scotchbrite pad. Scotchbrite pads are ALOT cheaper than the finishing pads! Edited May 15, 2010 by P_Diddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted May 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2010 it is the same stuff really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisrep2010 Posted May 20, 2010 Report Share Posted May 20, 2010 Great work and thanks a lot for sharing your technique! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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